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Rapid data drain during second half of data cycle

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Sweetpea3829
Tutor

Rapid data drain during second half of data cycle

Ok, I posted about this on a similar thread, just a couple of days ago, and that thread has been deleted.  

 

Every data cycle, we start off doing just fine.  Our data depletes by about 2-3 GB during the first half of the cycle.  Then, during the second half of the cycle, the data just DRAINS.  Nothing changes in our usage from the first half of the cycle to the second half.  

 

This has been going on for several months.  

 

To answer some questions I've seen asked of others...

 

1) Wifi is never left on on any of the devices that we own that use it.  (This would be a number of tablets...all of which have their wifi turned off unless I, specifically, turn it on...only mom knows the password).  

 

2) Our phones' wifi is turned off (occasionally they are turned on, within range of our Hughesnet modem, but they are never left on, and we do not update under our own Wifi...that's what the YMCA wifi is for).  

 

3) We are not experiencing data stealing.  Our neighbors are old order Mennonite.  They do not have devices that use wifi.  Plus, we are password protected.  

 

4) My laptop is not automatically updating.  It only updates when I tell it to, and that's only during the 2AM-8AM time frame.

 

5) Our satellite TV is NOT connected to the internet.  I can connect it, but have only connected it during the 2AM to 8AM time frame.  

 

Again, during the first half of the month, I can check FB, email, news stories and watch the occasional short youtube clip and the data depletes at an expected rate.

 

During the second half...just leaving the modem turned on, and with no actual browsing, is a guaranteed half GB loss each day.  Yesterday evening, I had 2.7 GB left.  This morning I had 2.1  

 

I have today and tomorrow left in this data cycle and I'm almost guaranteed to run out of data at some point tomorrow, unless I turn off the router and browse only on my phone's data.  

 

Why is this happening?  And why has this been happening off and on for months?  

319 REPLIES 319

Yep. The tablets have password protected WiFi and it's rarely on. Furthermore, the updates are permission only, so when I DO turn wifi on, they won't update on their own.

Our phones are also turned off for wifi.

Come to think of it, our phones each have 10gb of data. We use our phones for Internet faaaar more than the Hughes.

Never run out of data though.

Today, I burned through 100mb of data on my phone. Been off and on all day.

On the Hughes...I burned through that much data in five minutes of FB and a Google search.

yeah, seems like something's not quite right. Have you looked at the phone to see what processes were running in the background when you were on FB and Google? And, since you have most things tidied up, I'll assume you already have autoplay turned off on FB.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Yes, FB autoplay is off. But, annoyingly, I have yet to figure out how to disable autoplay on embedded videos in news articles, etc.

Usually I pause the video at the beginning.

Still though, I'm not seeing more embedded videos during the second half of the cycle than during the first, kwim?

The only thing I can suggest is to use Glasswire on computers that you can use it on to monitor your usage, and to use each mobile devices data tracking software that's typically built in to monitor usage.

BTW, when using Cellular Data, most websites will see that you are accessing from such a connection, and will actually disable some data intensive features.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Sweetpea3829 wrote:

Yes, the DirecTV is not plugged in for Wifi access.  I have it unplugged precisely because it's such a data suck.  I plugged it in once, after the 2AM cut off, to download a movie.  I'm constantly getting reminders from DirecTV to plug the internet in so it can update, etc.  


Yep, and it's annoying as could be, as well as the way it changes searches.  I connected my DirecTV Genie late at night one time just to try On Demand, not knowing that it changed so much.  Once Hughesnet was disconnected from the Genie it started giving me constant reminders to reconnect, and it would try looking online when I did a search, even though I was no longer connected.  The only way to stop this is to perform a factory reset, which will not only put everything back onto the default settings, but erase your DVR, as well.  Still, losing what I had saved on the DVR and having to reset my preferences was well worth getting rid of those reconnection reminders and search issues.  

 

Until the day I have unllimited interenet I will NEVER reconnect my Genie, not only for the data it can eat, but the changes doing so causes.  


@GabeU wrote:

@Sweetpea3829 wrote:

Yes, the DirecTV is not plugged in for Wifi access.  I have it unplugged precisely because it's such a data suck.  I plugged it in once, after the 2AM cut off, to download a movie.  I'm constantly getting reminders from DirecTV to plug the internet in so it can update, etc.  


 

 

Until the day I have unllimited interenet I will NEVER reconnect my Genie, not only for the data it can eat, but the changes doing so causes.  

 

Yes, totally agree.  And it crawls up my craw that we DON'T have unlimited internet.  There's like a small bubble around our house...about a half mile...and we're the only ones that don't have hard-wired internet.  


Which would you prefer? Unlimited data with 1Mbps speeds TOPS, or, upto 25Mbps with a data cap?

People cry for the unrealistic when it comes to a limited system.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@C0RR0SIVE wrote:

Which would you prefer? Unlimited data with 1Mbps speeds TOPS, or, upto 25Mbps with a data cap?

People cry for the unrealistic when it comes to a limited system.


I don't think anyone is "crying".  Just stating a preference.  When it comes to something like a DirecTV receiver very few would find it amenable to a non-unlimited high speed system.  It's not set up for a capped high speed system nor a non capped 1Mbps system.  Either way it's not worth connecting it. 

 

BTW, you know as well as I do that most with Gen5 experience BOTH of what you mentioned.   

Why is it unrealistic to expect unlimited access with fast speeds?

Other (non satellite) providers offer it.

Granted, it's been nearly 7 years since we moved from suburbia to the country. But before we left, we had Verizon, with unlimited data, and the speed was plenty fast.

And, they hadn't even rolled out FiOS yet! That was on the way, but we moved before it was available.

So yes, I would prefer both. Give me decent speeds, and get rid of the data cap.

Because the MOMENT, we have DSL or some other wired Internet available to us...see ya! I don't mind losing a bit of speed if it means I also lose a ridiculously slim data cap.

Back to the issue at hand...

 

Just to put this in perspective...I've had my modem and router on all day today.  Today is the first day of the new data cycle.  I even left FB up while I took my kids to their homeschool Co-Op.  

 

All day.  

 

And here's my data screen as of 10:30pm.  

 

image.png

Here's the more specific usage meter that I found within my account profile.  

 

Nobody can help me understand why this is my general data usage for the first two weeks of a cycle, but everything ramps way up during the second two weeks?  

 

image.png

Here is a picture that shows last month's usage over the month.  Notice the gradual decline of data until Nov. 18th.  Then, it drops.  

 

image.png

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Sweetpea3829,

 

Though I could be wrong on this, until you use more than 99MB of your data after a reset, it will still appear to be full.  With everything on and just being connected to facebook, but not doing much, it probably didn't use much.

 

With this said, to see your precise usage, you should sign in to the myAccount site (you can see it at the top of the Community Page).  

 

Edit:  I see you found it while I was typing this reply.  😛 

 

And, though monotonous, you may want to look at each device at the end of the day to see what it's usage has been, so you can see if something is using more during the latter half of the month, and maybe figure out why.  Glasswire for Windows,  Activity Monitor for Apple devices (resets when you turn it off, though) and other apps for Android devices (you can search for data usage appls for them).  


@GabeU wrote:

Sweetpea3829,

 

Though I could be wrong on this, until you use more than 99MB of your data after a reset, it will still appear to be full.  With everything on and just being connected to facebook, but not doing much, it probably didn't use much.

 

With this said, to see your precise usage, you should sign in to the myAccount site (you can see it at the top of the Community Page).  

 

Edit:  I see you found it while I was typing this reply.  😛 

 

And, though monotonous, you may want to look at each device at the end of the day to see what it's usage has been, so you can see if something is using more during the latter half of the month, and maybe figure out why.  Glasswire for Windows,  Activity Monitor for Apple devices (resets when you turn it off, though) and other apps for Android devices (you can search for data usage appls for them).  


 

Yeah, I didn't know there were more precise monitoring tools within the Hughesnet interface.  I wish I could go back and look at more than just last month.  

 

I'm almost positive it's not our devices (all Android).  They are rarely on wifi.  I mean, anything is possible but...in this case, I can't see how the devices would be sucking data during the latter half of the cycle, when they're still mostly offline.  

 

Don't get me wrong...the wifi DOES get turned on from time to time.  But it's not often.  

@Sweetpea3829

 

Tracking data usage/loss issues is one of the more difficult tasks when a user has a data capped service.

 

>You have to start with the premise that all devices are guilty until proven innocent.<

 

>You have to be aware of how the modem tallies usage and then reports that usage so that the usage and history meters are updated.<

 

>You have to be aware of the "tools" at your disposal.<

    Hughes offers five "meters", three of which are near real-time usage meters  and the remaining two being history meters.

 

>You have to be aware of changes in the way web pages display data<

    Auto refresh of open tabs

    Ads (which can be blocked with browser extensions)

    Auto-start video playback

    HTML5 media

    And the big one, HTML5 video "pre-fetch" (requires install of a browser extension)

 

> You have to be aware of the changes that Microsoft has made in the way it delivers updates<

   Updates now come as "roll-ups" that may or may not subscribe to the "patch Tuesday" schedule. This may in part explain the heaver        

   usage in the later part of your data cycle.

 

   Windows settings can get a little slippery when it comes to update installs versus when the update is actually downloaded.

   It appears you are running Win7 from your screenshots but be aware that depending upon which updates that have been installed,      Win7 can emulate Win10 in regards to sending "telemetry" to Microsoft.

 

> Devices truly "off"?< (I can think on at least three states of "off".)

 

>Software does not always do as its told<

  I have a software program installed for my Garmin map updater. Despite settings to not open, to not check for updates automatically, it still does so. Never trust software.

 

If you are willing to explore these areas I am certainly willing to help. Most users however are looking for an "easy button" and there isn't one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


@Gwalk900 wrote:

@Sweetpea3829

 

 

If you are willing to explore these areas I am certainly willing to help. Most users however are looking for an "easy button" and there isn't one.

 

My apologies for not getting back sooner (busy family) but...I'm game if you're willing!  I would much prefer the Easy Button...lol.  But I do need to get to the bottom of this.  

 

Here is the latest screen shot.  I have been on a fair bit, including downloading two pdf files on Saturday for my boys' swim meet heat and lane assignments.  Not huge files, mind you...but still.  

 

image.png

Just keeping this updated, because I still don't have a solution.  

 

Here we are, 12 days into the data cycle and...I've used 8/10 of a GB.  Mind you, I've been a pretty consistent user, but again...not much in the way of videos, downloads, etc.  Aside from swim team stuff.  Last month at this point, I had used 1.1 GB.  Within a few days, the data usage would dramatically ramp up.  We shall see if the same happens this month.  

 

image.pngimage.png

If I might ask where you located?

We are in the Finger Lakes region of NY.
Reggie
Teaching Assistant


@Sweetpea3829 wrote:
We are in the Finger Lakes region of NY.

What Beam & Gateway are you  on?

I'm on Beam 25 & gateway 3.

I'm located in the Southern Tier  NY.

 

I have noticed that my data usage being used more after day 15 of the cycle.

I'm not blaming HN.Hard to tell where data is used. I try to save my data until the end of the cycle.

How do I find out the Beam and Gateway?