Forum Discussion

BillandCarole's avatar
BillandCarole
Explorer
Oct 23, 2014

Windows 8 Data Usage

This is a heads-up on the data usage by windows 8/8.1 computers. To put it mildly, windows 8.1 gulps data seriously. At times the operating system and the apps that come with a new computer can consume up to 80% of your bandwidth and eat up your data very quickly, especially if you have small (less than 5 gigs)of monthly data. And this happens even if you are not specifically using the apps. Most apps come enabled by default. If you stream more than a little, you can really burn through the data. We went though almost 10 gigs in a little over 2 weeks. A major inconvenience and a financial shock when ATT data costs $15 a gig over your plan limit. Also, with 4G connections ATT boosts the resolution of video. It other words you consume more data to see the same thing as in 3G.

Learned the hard way
Bill
  • camperforlife's avatar
    camperforlife
    Explorer
    Oct 23, 2014
    All you have to do is right click on any live tile then click "turn live tile off". You can also set all updates to be done on WiFi only. Take a little time to learn your new system and it will only use data when you want it to.
  • Clay_L's avatar
    Clay_L
    Explorer
    Oct 23, 2014
    I had turned off all the apps I could by going to the start screen, right clicking the apps and clicking "Turn Live Tile Off".
    We were still using over 5 GB per month each while in the past with we had used less than 2 GB or so each per month (two laptops). I could not find out what was causing the much higher data usage.
    We were grandfathered with an unlimited data 3G Verizon data plan so it didn't cost anymore but I was concerned about switching to 4G and losing the unlimited data plan.

    Since we stopped full timing and snow birding, settled down in a house we bought in CO and will be selling the rig, we had the option of dropping the Verizon data plan and going with a cable internet connection which we did. Unlimited data at 30 Mbps for $39 per month.
  • BillandCarole's avatar
    BillandCarole
    Explorer
    Oct 23, 2014
    Yep, we did all those and more. The "more" gets pretty technical and is probably extreme. But we wanted to really lock things down. Initially were concerned that we had been "hacked" and were spamming. An extensive virus check and everything came up clean. Our data usage is now way down, only a gig for the last 8 days. Were still closely monitoring things and using wifi whenever possible. We were just shocked at how quickly usage mushroomed.
    Bill
  • monkey44's avatar
    monkey44
    Nomad II
    Oct 23, 2014
    Join the crowd -- we had the same thing happen, and "were shocked" at our first bill -- among that issue, and others, we eventually spent about a grand to take all three laptops back to Wdw7 OS ...

    When/If I ever have to buy another laptop, if the MS OS remains as it is, I'll switch to MAC instantly. Been thinking about that for awhile anyway, so MS shot itself in the foot IMO with the Win8 OS versions.
  • wintersun's avatar
    wintersun
    Explorer II
    Oct 24, 2014
    The operating system has nothing to do with it. Streaming video or using Facebook or similar apps are the likely culprits. Facebook continues to suck data in the background as it monitors where you go even after you have left their website.

    40 minutes of video at low res (480) will take 250-300MB of data. At 720 resolution (as with Amazon content) that goes up to 1GB in an hour.

    The ISP's know that this is occurring and that is why they sell people on 4G and have stopped rolling out DSL or anything else that would compete with their premium priced 4G service.

    We fixed the problem by going to a T-1 land line that is half the speed of 4G but still fast enough for 720p content and where we have no monthly cap. The 4G was costing us $180 a month and the T-1 circuit costs us $252 a month.
  • Vacay_Wheels's avatar
    Vacay_Wheels
    Explorer
    Oct 24, 2014
    camperforlife wrote:
    Here are a couple links that will help you change settings to cut your data useage link 1, link 2.


    Yup, good advice. The most important thing is to learn how to manage Metered Internet connections, as described in camperforlife's first link.

    Disabling BITS and fiddling with the QoS Packet Scheduler, as described in the second link, shouldn't be needed very often. And BTW, the 2nd link is wrong. It says that QoS reserves 80% of your bandwidth for itself, leaving you with 20%. That's backwards. It reserves 20%, and then ONLY when you're doing certain network-intensive tasks like VOIP, or also Windows Update. But since the system doesn't download most updates on a metered connection, you're rarely in a QoS situation anyway. This article does a bit better job explaining that.
  • cpaulsen's avatar
    cpaulsen
    Explorer
    Oct 24, 2014
    One other thing to do....go to your computer in your start menu and follow the prompts to turn off "automatic updates.

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