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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

Still not able to attend to this much, due to full blown baseball season as well as some family stuff (nothing bad, just extremely busy) but for the sake of maintaining documentation and stats, here are the current data stats.  

 

I have to note that the initial very steep drop is, in part, due to a video I was uploading from my phone to FB, while using the wifi connection.  Not something I normally do, but it was a video of my son's first flying lesson and mobile data wasn't having it.  Come to find out, Wifi wasn't having it either and it chewed up a good bit of data.  He took his flight on May 9th, and I attempted to upload the video on the 9th and 10th. Though on the 10th, it was using Bonus data.  

 

Regardless, even if we take that approx 1 GB into consideration, HN...these repeated data graphs, showing these significant drop offs from the first or second week to the rest of the month, are ridiculous.  There is CLEARLY a problem here.  Month after month after month.  I'm down to 2.3 GB of Anytime data with almost half of May left to go.  

 

Combined data usage, so far, according to HN, is nearly 11.5 GB.  GW shows 6.3 for the month of May.  Factor in the GB from my phone's video.  And maybe another 1-2 GB for tablet use for the kids' Prodigy game and uploading a couple of e-books.  

 

When baseball season ends, and following a visit from family in early July, I hope to sit down and fully address this again.  In the meantime, I will keep stats updated.  

 

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bonniemartin
New Poster

Thank you so much for your descriptive details as this is exactly what we do in my household.  I am having the same issues with data usage depleting RAPIDLY during the first 10-15 days of my new billing cycle and by mid-cycle, I am down to a snails crawl doing anything.  I looked at my USAGE for this month AND last month and by mid-month I had used my data limit.  I never had this problem UNTIL I was advised BY HUGHESNET that I needed to upgrade from Gen4 to the new GEN5 when I placed a service call due to my internet being down. (let me explain this as well as I think it is a SCAM or they have installed SMART MODEMS in the GEN5 update with SMART ROUTERS.  Those of you understand the invasion of privacy with these "SMART DEVICES".  I knew my modem was working fine by knowing what the lights indicate that are on.  I tried to explain to Customer Support at Hughesnet that it was not my modem or I wouldn't have the light BRIGHTLY LIT indicating it was working.  When the tech came for the service call, he found that there was water in the SATELLITE plus the original installer of my HUGHES NET SYSTEM years ago had used a WOOD SCREW to attach a part which allowed water to enter the unit outside.  When he corrected the problem my modem reset and was working.  I HAD INTERNET with my Gen4 modem that used my personal ROUTER.  Then he installed the new GEN5 modem with the HUGHESNET ROUTER and this is when my problems started with my DATA USAGE LOSS!!  Now I am locked into a NEW 2 yr contract with HughesNet and if I COULD find another ISP provider here in the DEEP BACKWOODS I couldn't change without paying fines/penalties for breaking the new contract with HughesNet.  So I believe this is a SCAM to make more money because people usually UPGRADE their packages or BUY TOKENS like I have to do to get internet speed that isn't like slow dial-up.  The issue with the BONUS TIME is a SCAM as I have been using this time for receiving updates and watching YouTube Videos that are long but it never reflects on my BONUS TIME USAGE after I've PEAKED OUT on my DATA PACKAGE ALLOWANCE but THEIR SYSTEM uses my TOKEN DATA LIMITS instead.  EXPLAIN THIS!!  I have used MORE DATA USAGE this morning (off of BONUS TIME & on TOKEN DATA USAGE just to try to figure out WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING WRONG to use all my package data the first 10-15 days of my billing cycle.  ANYONE HAVE ANY ANSWERS as to what we can do as it seems to be a problem ALL OVER with people besides me since upgrading to GEN5.  Thanks in advance!

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@bonniemartin

 

Because this thread is trying to help a specific person with an issue they are having, and to keep your issue separate, it would be best for you to start a new post regarding your issue.  

 

You can start a new topic in the Tech Support section here...  https://community.hughesnet.com/t5/forums/postpage/board-id/TechSupport

Current data status.  Three of the four played on Prodigy Math today, so that's a bit of a data drain.  It'll be interesting to see how the history graph looks tomorrow.  If you look close, it appears that the slide may have begun the day before yesterday.  (Not really sure though, as I wasn't on too much)  

 

image.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.png

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Well, it definitely shows that you're computer itself, as of the last picture, used about 67MB so far, with Chrome being about 47MB of that.  

 

So far, overall, you're not doing bad.  2.5GB of data in 22 days?  Not bad at all.  I've used 9.1GB in 17 days, and it's only me!  LOL.  

 

I'm not sure what those five cloudfront entries are related to.  Perhaps more Facebook stuff.  

Gabe, I really haven't been on much this month.  And the kids have been off from school (because Momma needed an extra week to gather her head, lol), so they haven't been using their online math game, etc.  

 

Plus, it's usually the last 1-2 weeks of the month where the data just tanks.  

 

Current status...

 

image.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.png

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Sweetpea3829

 

A few things...

 

If you know how, and if you haven't already deleted them from your computer, could you please take a look at the sizes of a couple of the screenshots that you have uploaded, or a couple that you are going to upload?  If you don't know how, please right click on a given screenshot that is saved on your computer, then left click on properties.  You should be able to see the size, in KBs, of the particular screenshot.  The reason I'm asking for this is because there is a good little chunk of data being uploaded to this site (most likely the screenshots, no doubt), and I want to compare your screenshot sizes to mine.  

 

The second thing is that it would be helpful to know what extensions you have installed in Chrome, as there is a good bit of data being uploaded through Chrome, overall, and I want to see if some of it may be related to extensions.  If you don't know how to look this info up, click on the three dots on the upper right while within Chrome, hover over More Tools, and then click Extensions on the little box that slides out.   

 

 

Lastly, are you editing the screenshots before you upload them, or are you uploading them directly from where they are saved on your computer without having altered them in any way?  This question is only concerning the data sizes of your screenshots, not what the screenshots actually show.   

 

As of right now, and like you mentioned, it doesn't look like a whole lot of data is being used.  A little bit more on one day from what the usage graph is showing, but it was only a little slide, which could be due to things that you mentioned.  Whatever the case, if a general slide is seen, we'll figure it out.  🙂 

 

----------------

 

Please ignore the following screenshot.  I'm posting it because I want to check the size of it when I download it from this site as compared to the size of it on my computer when I uploaded it.  If the two sizes are the same, then I know that if I download one of your screenshots and look at the size, it is the same size as when you uploaded it, which will help with figuring out your data being uploaded to this site.  

 

Screenshot (91).png

Interesting question, Gabe.  So I haven't actually saved any of those screenshots, lol.  I've been capturing the images right from the browser with ctl+print scrn and then pasting them into the photos tool here!  Nifty trick I learned when sending tractor images to the Mennonite neighbor's email/fax.  

 

I have no idea how large they are.  If you can tell me how to save one, I'll be happy to check out it's size.  

 

Current stats...So, I wasn't really on yesterday at all.  But I did have one kiddo playing Prodigy for about 20 minutes.  We're having a Super Bowl party (because GO PATRIOTS!!!!!!) and I'll likely be on tonight doing some Pinterest for that, lol.  

 

Side note...in looking up the extensions, I see that I have something called "Disable Youtube Videos".  Now, I haven't been able to play youtube videos through Chrome for months.  Several months ago, annoyed that certain webpages would have embedded videos that would just play (contributing to data drain) whether I wanted them to or not, I looked for a way to nix autoplay on embedded videos.  Right after that is when I started having problems with ALL youtube videos.  And embedded videos on certain websites would still autoplay.  So annoying.  Anyways, I couldn't remember what I had done within Chrome.  Is that extension the problem?  Should I turn that off?  

 

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Hmm...I didn't have anybody playing on Prodigy today, and I haven't been on since this AM, but have lost a bit of data.  Things should get interesting for awhile, as I'm sitting down to do some Pinterest, lol.  Time is 7:10, and this is what I'm starting with.  

 

 

image.pngimage.pngimage.pngdata.  

Using the sliders to differentiate between 8AM and 6PMish, which should show no data usage.  image.png

Lots of hits to 1e100.net, which is basically Google.

239.255.255.250 is a multicast address, likely a result of a UPnP device using your laptop as an internet source, based on the amount: 824.6KB.


* 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.


@MarkJFine wrote:

Lots of hits to 1e100.net, which is basically Google.

239.255.255.250 is a multicast address, likely a result of a UPnP device using your laptop as an internet source, based on the amount: 824.6KB.


What is that?  Would that be my printer, for example?  I didn't do any printing today, though.  


@Sweetpea3829 wrote:


What is that?  Would that be my printer, for example?  I didn't do any printing today, though.  


Could be a phone (Windows phone), tablet, or game console (XBox) too. Basically anything that supports UPnP and has that feature turned on.

 

You only need it for sharing a printer (basically tunnelling it) through multiple connected routers. For example, I had my downstairs DirecTV box going thru an old game adapter, up to a Cisco router that was hard-wired into the HT2000w. But I was also using the wifi on the HT2000w for everything else including the printer. UPnP allowed anyone using the Cisco router to also see the printer.

 

I have since disabled the Cisco router, so UPnP is no longer needed.

 

Other items may use UPnP for various things, such as streaming media if you have a centralized media server enabled on your computer or game console.


* 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.

I should also add, since you mentioned it... Pinterest is a tremendous data hog. My wife does a lot on Pinterest and I've noticed it uses an absolute ton of data.

Anything with a lot of images and autoplay (including Facebook) seems to use a lot of data. I actually have automatic display of images turned off on Twitter and TweetDeck for that reason.

There are options in Facebook (and I think Pinterest as well) to turn off autoplaying videos, yet they seems to get re-enabled by themselves so you need to check the setting every so often.


* 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.


@MarkJFine wrote:

@Sweetpea3829 wrote:


What is that?  Would that be my printer, for example?  I didn't do any printing today, though.  


Could be a phone (Windows phone), tablet, or game console (XBox) too. Basically anything that supports UPnP and has that feature turned on.

 

You only need it for sharing a printer (basically tunnelling it) through multiple connected routers. For example, I had my downstairs DirecTV box going thru an old game adapter, up to a Cisco router that was hard-wired into the HT2000w. But I was also using the wifi on the HT2000w for everything else including the printer. UPnP allowed anyone using the Cisco router to also see the printer.

 

I have since disabled the Cisco router, so UPnP is no longer needed.

 

Other items may use UPnP for various things, such as streaming media if you have a centralized media server enabled on your computer or game console.


Hmm.  I'm not sure what would have UPnP enabled.  Hubs and I have android phones, but his is not setup to access wifi in our home, and I only connect mine when necessary.  (To clarify, we use Straighttalk, and for some reason my phone went into 1x mode randomly in the house, where it use to receive LTE signal.  I would need to switch on Wifi from time to time when using my phone.  BUT!  Not really this month...because it switched back to LTE and has been fine).  

 

We do have a Wii, but it was never setup for wifi, and it's rarely used.  And when I say rarely, I'm talking a handful of times a year.  I hold a tight grip on screen time privileges around here.  

 

The DirecTv thing is unplugged from the internet, on purpose.  Because data hog.  

 

And the tablets (all android) are setup for Wifi, but only when I allow them to be turned on.  And I'm not sure if they use UPnP or not.  

 

As for Pinterest...yeah it totally slows down the laptop.  Usually I'll run through Pinterest, pull up a number of pages I want to view (bypassing the actual pins...you can click on each pin in a way to go right to the page), and then close the Pinterest tab while I'm viewing each page individually.  Pinterest has been known to crash my laptop.  

 

I do have autoplay turned off on Facebook.  Haven't had much issue with it turning itself back on.  But I DO still have an issue with embedded videos in webpages that automatically play.  I hate those.  

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Sweetpea3829

 

I do see that you've had 55.9MB of Windows Host Processes today, which is a good bit more than normal.  This is probably telemetry related.  I also see 8.2MB of Microsoft Seaport Search Enhancement Broker, which is related to the Windows Live Suite.  

 

With regard to the Disable Youtube extension and the problem you've had with Youtube videos, it may be causing the issues, but the only way to know for sure is to uncheck it and try some videos.   

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Sweetpea3829 wrote:

Interesting question, Gabe.  So I haven't actually saved any of those screenshots, lol.  I've been capturing the images right from the browser with ctl+print scrn and then pasting them into the photos tool here!  Nifty trick I learned when sending tractor images to the Mennonite neighbor's email/fax.   

 


Just out of curiosity, how do you do that?  I'm trying to figure it out and I haven't been able to.

 

I tried control+print screen, then tried pasting whatever was saved into here, but when I click paste nothing pastes.  I can't find anything in the photo tool on here other than a tool (Choose Files) to search for saved photos, which is how I've been posting mine.

 

So you put whatever it is on the screen you want, like Glasswire, press control and print screen at the same time, then right click on an open space in the body of your reply on here and click paste?  


@GabeU wrote:

@Sweetpea3829 wrote:

Interesting question, Gabe.  So I haven't actually saved any of those screenshots, lol.  I've been capturing the images right from the browser with ctl+print scrn and then pasting them into the photos tool here!  Nifty trick I learned when sending tractor images to the Mennonite neighbor's email/fax.   

 


Just out of curiosity, how do you do that?  I'm trying to figure it out and I haven't been able to.

 

I tried control+print screen, then tried pasting whatever was saved into here, but when I click paste nothing pastes.  I can't find anything in the photo tool on here other than a tool (Choose Files) to search for saved photos, which is how I've been posting mine.

 

So you put whatever it is on the screen you want, like Glasswire, press control and print screen at the same time, then right click on an open space in the body of your reply on here and click paste?  


Not quite.  I press and hold ctl, then press prnt scrn.  That grabs the screenshot.  Then, in the reply box, I click on the "Photos" thing, which pulls up the place where you upload pics.  I click anywhere in the box and hit ctl+v to paste.  

Current stats...I did some Googling/Pinterest for nearly an hour, ran out to grab the kids, and have been Googling and Pinterest(ing) for another hour...hour and a half.  (There are some really awesome Snackadiums out there, people!)  No videos, aside from one page and one of those annoying automatic play videos.  

 

Data seems to be depleting at a quicker rate than before.  It's going to be hard to say for sure this month because I wasn't on much at the beginning.  But yeah...I think I could have gotten a couple of hours of surfing done at the beginning of the month, and not had so much data used.  

 

image.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.png

 

 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

First, thank for the info about posting the pics.  I tried it and it worked.  That may come in handy in the future. 

 

Regarding your usage, are you sure you don't have anything else connected and using data?  Your HughesNet difference between 7:09PM and 10:23PM is higher than your Glasswire difference, and to the tune of about 140MB.

 

Also, for now, can you post the following four pics when you update?  

 

1:  The HN Data pic.

2.  The HN Usage graph.

3:  The Glasswire pic set on the date and on the All setting.  

4:  The Glasswire pic set on the date and on the Apps setting, with Chrome highlighted 

 

The four pics needed.... (The following are just used as examples of what's needed)

 

HughesNet data...

image.png

 

HughesNet Usage graph...

image.png

 

Glasswire on All...  (a pic of mine to show what's needed (the current day's date and on ALL))

image.png

 

Glasswire on the current day's date, on Apps, with Chrome highlighted

image.png


@GabeU wrote:

First, thank for the info about posting the pics.  I tried it and it worked.  That may come in handy in the future. 

 

Regarding your usage, are you sure you don't have anything else connected and using data?  Your HughesNet difference between 7:09PM and 10:23PM is higher than your Glasswire difference, and to the tune of about 140MB.

 

 

Positive.  I checked all of the tablets in the morning and WiFi was not turned on for any of them all day/evening.  The kids were dropped off for AWANA club at 6pm and picked up at 8:30.  Hubs and I were at baseball signups from 6:15 to around 7pm (it's pretty much a mini reunion, lol) and came home just after, when I hopped on and started planning for our Super Bowl party.  

 

Remember how, at the beginning of the month, GW would show MORE data being used than HN showed?  I wonder if the same thing is happening, only now it's in reverse.