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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


@GabeU wrote:

@Sweetpea3829

 

Sorry about your MIL.  I know that's going to be rough, especially for your husband and kids.  😞  


Thanks for that @GabeU.  My husband's sister was diagnosed with cancer last summer and only had 7 weeks before we lost her, so this on top of that has made it rather difficult.  Mostly for him.  We live 7 hours away from both of our families and our kids barely know any of them.  

 

Life is never promised to be fair or easy.  But the hardships we face make us stronger.  (Except for not having cap-free broadband...THAT hardship is just almost too unbearable).  

Just keeping stats updated!  And what a Super Bowl last night!  I'm displeased with the results, especially given those two non-TDs of the Eagles...but it was a great offensive game, and the Eagles played well.  

 

I wasn't on a lot yesterday.  Spent most of the day in swimming championships for my boys...and then of course the Super Bowl.  I do need to get on here though...I need to start planning out our science.

 

image.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.png

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Sweetpea3829

 

I'm glad the Eagles won, though not with those calls.  I'm used to having one of my teams lose a Championship on a bad call, though.  Years ago the Sabres lost the Stanley Cup on Bret Hull's triple overtime illegal goal.  

Ahhhh hockey.  You know, I never really got into hockey much.  I liked to play it back in my teens.  But aside from a few short years when I had a HUGE crush on Patrick Roy, I never really watched much hockey.  

Well Gents, I'm thinking the data slide might have started a bit early this month.  Kind of hard to tell.  But today was the first time I've peeked at the data usage in the past two weeks and I was a bit surprised to see it was down in the 70s.  We were in MA for my MIL funeral from 2/10 to 2/13 and most of the tablets/devices came with us.  The laptop was left behind of course.  

 

Looking at the data consumption over that period, there's one day where a bit of data was used...I'm assuming that's some update or another on the laptop.  

 

image.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.png

Might be coincidence, but there was a massive Office update Wednesday morning. Was at least 2GB for the Mac version for me.

Edit: Microsoft seems to like to release everything at the same time (Apple does the same annoying thing), so it's possible you could be getting OS updates rolling out as well.


* 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.

Could have been a Microsoft update...if I remember correctly, the laptop reset itself one night last week...shortly after we returned home.  Updates are supposed to be approved but...that doesn't always happen I guess?

 

Current stats...I'm going to include the month and week view from GW, as I haven't been posting daily...

 

image.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.png

Ok, so obviously, the data slide began a bit earlier this month.  I WAS on quite a bit yesterday.  

 

But, I was on quite a bit in the days before we left for my mother in law's funeral and the data depletion was nowhere near as significant as it is now.  

 

You guys have all been so helpful in trying to help me figure this out.  And we've all agreed that we can't really come to a consensus on what exactly is going on.  

 

But where's Hughesnet?  And why are they not able to address this?  

At this rate, we will be out of data before the month ends.  Again.  And this is a short month, and we were not here four FOUR FULL DAYS.  Also, one of my boys is on Prodigy on his Galaxy tablet today.  So GW won't reflect that.  But otherwise, the devices have not been on.  

 

image.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.png

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Sweetpea3829

 

It's clear that you used 536MB of Anytime Data and 237MB of Bonus Data  between the times you took the HughesNet data page pics yesterday and today, though it's not really possible to tell what used it with the Glasswire pics being from the previous day.  

 

Ideally, the best way to be able to tell what used your data from Glasswire is to post a pic from the time you posted the HughesNet data pic yesterday and today.  What I mean is what you see in the following.  If my Glasswire were yours and corresponded with your HughesNet data pics, the start and finish dates and times, going by your HughesNet data pics, would be 2/19 at 12:36PM to 2/20 at 1:40PM.  Now, when using the custom setting and choosing between dates, click on the first date, which would be the 19th, then the second date, which would be the 20th.  Then, move the sliders to the correct time for each date.  You often won't be able to get the exact times, but you can get close.  I was lucky enough to get within one minute of the time of each of your HughesNet data pics for each date.  

 

Doing this, you'd be able to see exactly what used the data between those two HughesNet data page pics. 

 

Again, below is MY Glasswire pic, so obviously the data is different than yours, but you'll get the idea of what I'm showing you as it's set to the times of your HughesNet data page pics from yesterday and today.  We want the Glasswire data shown to correspond to that time span.  And this is an "All" pic, as I want to see what used the most data, both in Apps and hosts. I couldn't get the sliders on the exact times, but I got within a minute of each, as you can see in the red box at the top of the pic. 

 

So, when you next take a snapshot of your HughesNet data page, set your Glasswire to "All", then set the first slider to 2/20 at 1:42PM, which is when you took your last HughesNet data page pic (Tuesday's)(not the graph slide page), and the end time to whatever the date and time is of the new HughesNet data page pic.  Remember, set the options on the right to custom, and click the 20th for the first date, and whatever the date is for your next HughesNet data page pic.  If it's tomorrow, click the 21st.  This will cause those two dates to be the span of time.  Then, move the sliders to the times of the two pics, or as close as you can get them, then take a snapshot of the Glasswire page.  This way, we can not only see what data HughesNet is saying you used between those two HughesNet data page pics, but also what Glasswire is saying used that data during that time period.   

 

Again, just to be clear, as an example, if your HughesNet data page pic was taken yesterday at 1:00PM, and your HughesNet data page pic from today was taken at 3:30PM, your Glasswire span should be set to 1:00PM on 2/19 to 3:30PM on 2/20.  This is just an arbitrary example, and not your actual times, though the pic below was set to as close to your actual HughesNet data page pic time as possible on those two dates.    

 

GW.JPG 

 

So, when you do this, your post should have at least the present day's HughesNet data page pic (the ending pic) and the Glasswire pic.  The starting HughesNet data page pic will be in a previous post, and we can just scroll back to take a look at that to figure out the data usage between the two pics, like I did in figuring out what you used between yesterday and today.  

 

I hope I didn't confuse you.  

@GabeU  Ok, let me see if I got this straight...

 

image.pngimage.pngThis shouldn't be too far off anyways...I'm on pretty much the same time today as yesterday.

 

Also...we have not been home today...all four kids were up at the orthodonist in Webster.  

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Perfect.

 

So, your HughesNet data shows that, between the times of the two data page pics, you used a total of 736MB (627MB Anytime and 109MB Bonus), and for pretty much the same time span Glasswire shows roughly 227MB being used, so there's a discrepancy of 512MB, which means that something other than your laptop used 512MB during that time span.

 

Though this only narrows the search of what's using the data to your laptop or something other than your laptop, it may still help, as if/when you see an increase in data you can narrow it to one of those two places (laptop vs other than laptop), and though the latter can still be multiple devices, it will still help to know where to look, and this can help you in the long run of seeing where the 2nd half increase may be taking place, if the increase is a legitimate increase in data usage.  I still think it's legitimate data usage, but figuring out why is the trick.  With that said, though, anything's possible.    

 

I'm also tracking my own HughesNet data usage with my router so that I can see if there is a discrepancy during the latter half of my own data cycle.  I didn't see anything odd in January 5th - Feb 4th, but I just entered my second half of my present cycle (2/5 - 3/4), so we'll see.  

@GabeU, I think I can account for that data...remember, I mentioned one of my boys was using a tablet to play Prodigy Math.  Ultimately, two of them were playing (and then I think the third boy played for awhile as well...my daughter did not, because she is still working on her history essay, lol).  

 

Now, would that have used over 500 MB of data?  Possibly.  

 

The thing is, they would be able to play the game for the same amount of time at the beginning of the data cycle, and not have used that much data.  Which is what doesn't make sense to me.  

 

I can't figure out why, things seem to deplete so much faster during the second half over the first.  

 

Now, my Fantastic Four are actually on school break this week, aside from some catch up work we're doing to account for the two days we missed for my MILs funeral.  They are expecting to play Prodigy for awhile tomorrow.  So we can maybe monitor...I can check the data just before and just after, assuming I remember to do so, lol.  

Guys, I am SO sorry to be MIA...I have not had much time to get on and deal with the internets, lol.  I'm planning science curriculum, preparing for a sleepover the boys are hosting (OMG, what have I agreed to?!) and just general life.  

 

I ran out of data yesterday I think.  We're running out the door, and I don't have time to post but here's a quick pic...image.pngimage.pngimage.pngimage.png

 

There will be SOME data discrepancy because the kids played Prodigy on their tablets.  But they didn't play for long.  I think, as soon as the new month starts, I'd like to set up a control and see how much data is used when they play, vs how much data is used when they play during the end of the month.  

 

Peace out guys!  Off to the doctor for the hubs!  

Ok, final stats for February...

 

GW shows 7.7 GB used for the entire month, with 5.9 of that coming from Chrome.  The 1.8 difference is probably just Windows processes, etc.   Plus, Windows had an update.  Hughesnet showed all 10GB used, plus a little extra.  Of course, their history tool is down right now, and I can't get a picture of it, but the previous one I posted is pretty much the same thing.  

 

So there's a 2.3GB discrepancy.  Part of that can be accounted for with the kids using Prodigy Math on their tablets.  But, I highly doubt they played 2.3 GB worth of the game, because they only played a short time.  I'd have to go back and review my February notes and see how often I mentioned they were using data from a device not connected to GW.  I still definitely feel like Hughes is depleting data at a faster rate for the same webpages, during the latter part of the cycle.  But how?  And why?  

 

@GabeU, what did you find during your cycle observations on your end?  Your data cycle hasn't ended yet though, has it?  image.pngimage.png

 

 

Also, @GabeU and anyone else in the path of tomorrow's Nor'Easter...stay safe, go sledding, and stretch before you shovel!  My husband works for our county Highway Department so I'll be a snow widow much of this weekend!  😉  

2:47PM, I just put a kid on Prodigy on a tablet.  

 

Hughes shows 20MB used up until this point.  GW shows 180.9  

 

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You have to consider start and end times ad well as times monitored.

 

A hughesnet day  starts at midnight  drawing from your Anytime data ..... until 2 am and thenot from bonus data.

You have to set the Glasswire sliders to define a period  of usage.

 

Browsers  handle data in different  ways , browser  settings, installed  extention  and their settings  and the type of website  itself.

This why I suggested  you install FF  along with AdBlock extentions  but more importantly  the two HTML5  media and PREFETCH  blockers.

Then, stop using Chrome for one of your website activities  and use FF  with extensions  on  and check performance  and usage amounts from with in  glasswire.

 

Of course...naturally I forgot to jot down when my son came OFF of Prodigy, but it was around 4:00pm.  Hughes shows only 6MB of data was used during that time.  

 

I shut down the internet connection on my laptop so it would not be able to connect while my son was using his tablet.  So the data from Hughes should ONLY be that tablet during that stretch.  

 

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@Gwalk900,

 

I remember that you suggested I install FF.  I completely forgot about it.  TBH, I'm not sure my laptop can handle a third browser.  I have Explorer on here, too, but rarely use it.  

 

All of the things you mentioned about how browsers interact with the data differently...I totally get that.  But shouldn't that interaction be consistent from beginning of the cycle to the end?  

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Sweetpea3829

 

It looks like most of what was done on the computer (189MB) was done during the Bonus Zone period, though it appears at least some of that 20MB was from computer usage, as well, due to Glasswire showing usage around noon (and a small amount a little earlier).  

 

So far, I'm not seeing anything unusual with my own data usage.  

 

And are you absolutely sure that nothing other than the computer is connecting without you knowing?  Total Bonus Zone usage is 209MB, but Glasswire isn't showing that much, so it appears something else, besides the computer, is connecting and using data during the Bonus Zone time period.

 

Edit:  I completely missed your further posts and Gwalk's, and I was going off of the Glasswire and Hughes shots in your post from 2:50PM, which wasn't the latest.  I have to pay better attention.

 

This snow is driving me nuts.  Sloppy.  Having to clean off my DTV dish every 20 minutes.  Ugh.  I imagine you're getting hit with snow, too.  I wish it was either colder or warmer, but not right at 30 degrees.  Nasty, sloppy stuff.  


@GabeUwrote:

@Sweetpea3829

 

It looks like most of what was done on the computer (189MB) was done during the Bonus Zone period, though it appears at least some of that 20MB was from computer usage, as well, due to Glasswire showing usage around noon (and a small amount a little earlier).  

 

So far, I'm not seeing anything unusual with my own data usage.  

 

And are you absolutely sure that nothing other than the computer is connecting without you knowing?  Total Bonus Zone usage is 209MB, but Glasswire isn't showing that much, so it appears something else, besides the computer, is connecting and using data during the Bonus Zone time period.

 

Edit:  I completely missed your further posts and Gwalk's, and I was going off of the Glasswire and Hughes shots in your post from 2:50PM, which wasn't the latest.  I have to pay better attention.

 

This snow is driving me nuts.  Sloppy.  Having to clean off my DTV dish every 20 minutes.  Ugh.  I imagine you're getting hit with snow, too.  I wish it was either colder or warmer, but not right at 30 degrees.  Nasty, sloppy stuff.  


Sorry Gabe...there's been a ton of posts on this thread, lol.  

 

The snow started much earlier than they had forecasted here.  So far I have not had any connectivity issues.  We don't usually.  The snow buildup doesn't seem to cause much trouble...but, that said...the satellites both face SE, and the wind whips off the fields from the east...usually blows everything off the driveway and the dish.