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2.5 gig vanished in one hour!

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Gary4
New Member

2.5 gig vanished in one hour!

Every once in a while a huge chunk of bandwidth just vanishes from my account. I have gone through all the "testing" hoops that customer support asks me to multiple times and nothing ever comes from any of it. Our network is secure. We have no viruses. We keep close track of our bandwidth use and average about 50-100 meg an hour tops. We have no neighbors for over a 1/4 mile. yet, last night when nothing else was on but one computer, the router and the modem and the use was light to normal for us, suddenly 2.5 gig vanished. When I say suddenly, I mean as best as Hughenest will let me see at http://customercare.myhughesnet.com/actUsage.cfm because it only shows the total use per hour.

So, what is going on? We can't even get 2.5 gig to download in an hour if we tried! But no matter how much I explain that to customer service they still insist it is not on their end... Any ideas? It would be helpful to find somebody who can actually get into the minute-by-minute usage data log  and see if it is an instant thing or looks more like some sort of data drain... it's no fun waking up the next morning and seeing you've lost 30% of your allowable bandwidth for the month in one single hour of light use the night before. Especially when our average use for an hour is less than 100mb!
26 REPLIES 26
BirdDog
Assistant Professor

I would suggest unplugging the LAN cable from the back of the modem at night and see if it still happens.

BirdDog
Assistant Professor

And even at 1/4 mile it is possible to get into someones wireless connection. Are the neighbors in a straight line of site?
El Dorado Netwo
Advanced Tutor

Check your current amount of data left, disconnect your router, and leave your modem on as long as you can without needing to use it, say afternoon and overnight.

The next day, connect one laptop directly to the computer and check your data again. If you haven't lost data then the data loss is probably due to something with the router, or other gear connected to it.
El Dorado Networks |Diamond Springs, CA | eldoradonetworks.com
Pawnee County
New Member

Hey Gary another Gary Here

Say if I understand your data disappeared during a time period when you were using your PC correct.  If so did you see or did you view any Flash Video during those times?  It is very possible to use 2.5gb in an hour I have downloaded 1.5gb files in less than 20 minutes many times.  I also did download a 3gb studio OS in less than 30 minutes.  Gen4 is faster than you think at times.  Now the questions What OS are you using, is Auto Updates turned on, is Flash enabled, how about AV Spyware tracking blockers and gobs of other things that can use up Bandwidth?

I do remember having data gobbled up a couple times after I set the browsers to ask before using flash video I have not had any problem.  There are many websites that run Flash automatic and in HD this will eat up Bandwidth in a hurry.  Sometimes it is hidden way at the bottom of the screen in the title bar, or off to the side.
Gary4
New Member

My network is secure with authentication using a key. I have run all the tests mentioned above. This happens so infrequently, that it is nearly impossible to catch. Last time was 7 months ago (right after a day spent on the phone with customer service coincidentally enough). Prior to that it was about once every other month or so.

The only computer on last night was a mac which doesn't do flash. It was only being used for light browsing while working on a project, no videos.

We've never seen better than 1.5 gig up here in an hour downloading a few movies duyring the bonus hours... so 2.5-3 during prime time is pretty much impossible to achieve in one hour for us. Customer service acknowledged that last we talked.
Gary4
New Member

It doesn't seem like "real" bandwidth to me. It seems more like their logs are incorrect or are being affected by something other than just my account use. I really need to see the minute-by-minute usage records to be able to rule that out.
Gary4
New Member

I've run all these test many times and can't seem to catch it.
Gary4
New Member

My router requires authentication with a key to access the network. We're the only ones that have it. None of my neighbors are in lines of site anyway.
Gary4
New Member

Cool name!

We have never gotten  more than 1.5 gig up here... just can't see how it can be anything on my end when my modem has never performed at those speeds...
CharlesMcCool
New Poster

Also keep in mind that Apple has updated SW for IOS devices which will be done without you actually starting it. 2.5-3 GB could be an IOS update for 1 single device like an Iphone
Gary4
New Member

We don't have an iphone and no ipads were connected to the mac at the time. Would it download to the mac so it's available for an ipad later when it is connected to syn and update?
CharlesMcCool
New Poster

Does you wireless router track data usage? some newer ones do and also track data usage per device
Gary4
New Member

As far as I can tell, my mac has always prompted me when updates are available and asks when I want to download them.
CharlesMcCool
New Poster

possible thats it but not likely if you are normaly prompted. how about kids?
Gary4
New Member

I'm thinking of getting a new one that does. Mine is at least 5 years old.
Gary4
New Member

Nope, all accounted for. All were doing offline stuff. none of them have their own devices anyway, so nothing happening under the radar.
CharlesMcCool
New Poster

Mine does but its expensive, Im using an Asus RT-AC68R and Im running Merlin DD-WRT firmware that allows tracking of all data to the internet per device and keeps logs of current, daily, weekly, and monthly usage for each device and the latest firmware has a built-in bandwidth monitor for seeing real time throughput speed
Gwalk900
Honorary Alumnus

Gary,

" I really need to see the minute-by-minute usage records to be able to rule that out.":

There is no minute by minute but there is the traditional Hourly History Report.

Go here, select your modem type, enter your SAN .. remember to capitalize the letters DSS, and select a date:

http://customercare.myhughesnet.com/select_modem.html


The only issues with this display are :

It is written from the perspective of Eastern Time Zone so if you are in another corrections must be made.

It is a HISTORY REPORT  and as such is not "real time" but has a usual 1 to 3 hour delay.

These are "gross" usage numbers and not all indicated usage is actually charged against your allowance.

That report looks like this:




Additionally, others have suggested seeing the Download Status Meter utility not showing usage drain .. and then suddenly "catch up" with a big drop all at once.

Of the three methods to track you usage (SCC, Download Status Meter, "At A Glance" Meter), the At A Glance Meter is the most accurate and dependable.

It can be found here, after logging in:

http://my.hughesnet.com/

Usage can be tracked at the MB level:



Gwalk900
Honorary Alumnus

Gary,

Just to show how "slippery" things can be I have noticed in the last two evenings that my ratio of upload to download is out of wack.

Now it just HAS to be an "authorized" device accessing my wireless network.

It can only be one of two possible devices, an HP wireless printer that is set not to access the web or my Nook HD+ that, as much as is possible with those types of devices is set not to "auto-date" or "sync".

Yet something on my network uploaded 2.2MB between midnight and 1am eastern.

All other devices were "hard off".

I know that is a far cry from 2.5GB, but the principal is the same ... unidentified and unexpected network activity.


Gary4
New Member

Thanks for all your input. I go the above mentioned hourly totals page often. The main reason I want minute-by-minute is to see if there is a 2 gig surge in soemthing like a very short maybe, 60 second time period... then I'd know it's a data error and not real bandwidth. I work with data for a living and would love to rule out the possibility that it's a calculation error. I don't like jumping through all these hoops when I can't see exactly when the bandwidth spiked. Obviously if it happened in a very short time period (like one minute) then it would be impossible to be on my end... but I'll never know for sure unless I catch something on my end... which I am still looking into.

About the logs: I know it says it's based on Eastern time and many people seem to think that as well, but I shut my modem off every night and the times are perfectly in sync with my Pacific Time zone for on and off times. So although they say it's EST, my times are not 3 hours off they are the same as PST. If I shut the model off at 7:45 in the evening, the next day the logs will show activity for the 7-8 pm time frame and nothing afterwards... so they really aren't on the Eastern time zone... at least not for me. just thought I'd mention that. Oh, and my bonus time is from 2am -8am PST.