Forum Discussion
Why do I have less data on the first of the month than what I pay for each month?
March 1: 6.3GB Feb 1: 5GB on my usage chart instead of 10 that I pay for.
Might be something chewing up data (smart home, DirecTV on demand, something along those lines that can eat data very quickly) -- I'm sure the Hughesnet staff on the site can check out your site remoitely and see what may be going on. I hope you get this resolved soon!
Thanks, even if I do have those things, the meter should start at 10 GB that I pay for and not anything less. See photos. I couldn't get my new laptop to take screen shots, sorry. As you can tell, my cycle is the 1st of every month as there is no data available on the last day of February. And Yes, by day 3 of every month, I have used 10 GB of data...
This might sound counter-intuitive, but the graph will show what was left at the end of the day, not what it starts with.
Therefore, looking at March, it looks like 10-6.3GB (or 3.7GB) was used in the first day. Judging from the slope of the curve, that usage seems consistent and would definitely run out by the third day.
I would seriously look for what might be draining that fast, which is typically something like movies or TV shows that are recording on-demand rather than live. Doing a lot of 'cloud' operations such as Google Docs (et. al.) will also use a lot of data, and might contribute to that.
Hi Mike,
No Google Docs or cloud using here and my DirectTv is not set up for internet access. I'll try one of the programs that Liz suggested and hopefully it will shed some light. It's the same every month.
Hi Kelley,
Thanks for posting screenshots, these help. What maratsade and MarkJFine suggested are good tips to follow first. Since you're using a HT1100 modem, I'm unable to see what's currently connected to it. Major culprits of massive data depletion are set top boxes like DiSH Hoppers and DirecTV devices. When connected to the internet, they are constantly communicating/updating, using data. We suggest disconnecting them when not in use.
If you don't have one of those devices, you may want to look into using a third-party data monitoring program to help you pinpoint the programs on your PC that use the most data. Community members have suggested and used GlassWire, so feel free to ask them for tips on using it: https://www.glasswire.com
Additional tips on data management and understanding data leaks can be found here:
Hi Liz,
Thank you for the information. I do not have my DirectTv accessing the internet because I knew it would use my data. The only thing connected is the wifi router. I have (1) laptop/printer set up that is connected via WiFi. After school, there are a total of (3) cell phones connected to wifi. We do not stream from the laptops. My son watches YouTube videos from his phone and my daughter may watch Netflix from her phone. Would that deplete the data in 3 days?
HD videos can use 3 GB per hour. Make sure your Netflix playback settings are set to standard (SD) or low definition to conserve data.
