So much data, so little time...

[debbie.jean.bro]

I guess I'm lucky I'm a nerd (or am I a geek? I don't know the difference). I don't play video games, and I don't have Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon Fire stick. I rarely watch TV, and my TV isn't connected in any way to HughesNet. I do watch ~2 hours of YouTube per week, mostly documentaries. Low resolution, naturally.

ANYWHO... I ran a 24 hour experiment. It went from ~12:30 AM Friday to ~12:30AM today (Saturday). Here's my data usage at. 12:30 AM Friday:


What did I do, Internet-wise, all day Friday? I'm glad you asked, haha! My laptop was on, and connected to the Internet, from ~1:30 PM to ~11:59 PM. From 1:30-5:30, I did a little shopping on Amazon, downloaded a book to my laptop and iPhone, read some news on the NBC web site, went on Blackboard, a platform many colleges use for students to upload assignments and discuss readings, etc.

Then I took a dinner break from 5:30-8:30. I FORGOT to turn my laptop off, so I was on the net during this time, with open tabs on NBS news, Blackboard, Amazon, and Gonzaga university. Oh, I should mention my iPhone was on and had an Internet connection the entire 24 hours.

So I ate dinner and taught my houseguests' kids how to play Clue, lol! It was Miss Scarlet in the lounge with the candlestick!
🙂

Came back to my room at 8:30 PM and cursed myself out for leaving the laptop on, haha! Spent the evening doing some research on the laptop, downloaded an episode of "Hoarders," which I haven't watched yet, uploaded ~5 photos, filled out and submitted some forms for Gonzaga, checked my email and replied to three, composed and sent one email, checked my bank account and transferred some money, and designed a flyer in Word for a community project.

Whew! I was busy. I didn't try to use more or less data than normal during this experiment. I did everything I wanted to do. So here's my data usage 24 hours later:


Not bad, eh? 🙂 I should also mention my internet speed was really good (I should have run mytest at the same time, but didn't think of it), and I had no glitches, crashes, or delays.

[HughesNetCorpor]

okay..I gotta ask because I'm sitting here scratching my head on this..

Are you saying, after 24 full hours, based on the activities that you DID do, (Facebook, school stuff, U-Tube, message boards..etc) you only used 8MB of anytime data and ZERO bonus data?

I looked at your first screen shot taken at 12:07AM..and your data is showing as the following..
anytime data ~15951MB
bonus data ~ 48767MB

Some 24 hours later, at 12.31AM (according to your screen shot) your data is showing...
anytime data ~15943MB (- 8MB)
bonus data ~ 48767MB (same)

Are you sure these two screen shots are 24 hours apart..or could it be that 24 MINUTES apart?
I think you may of made a mistake..or uploaded the wrong screen shot perhaps.

that, or I need to more coffee and a better calculator, hahaha 😛

[HughesNetCorpor]

Looking at your screen shots closer...if you look underneath the 'circles', they BOTH have the same "There are 6 days left in your Data Allowance Cycle" which would suggest that these two screen shots, going by the time stamp at the top of each one, are actually 24 minutes apart, and not 24 hours....which would certainly be a more realistic analysis for 8MB.

Did you upload the wrong screen shot? 
I uploaded the wrong picture on here the other day on one of my own conversations...both were 'untitled' but I didn't see the (1) and the (2) so I just clicked on the first one I seen. lol

[debbie.jean.bro]

xoxo, I did indeed upload the wrong screenshot. Good catch! However, I was neither on Facebook, nor any message boards, nor on YouTube. I'm not sure where you got all that from. You must have gotten me mixed up in you head with another post you read.

Here are the correct pics:

Friday 12:30 AM:


Saturday 12:30 AM


Pretty awesome! 🙂 Thanks for catching that!

[GabeU]

Not bad.  197MB is pretty good for 24hrs.  Definitely within the safe range.  LOL.  Like Amanda would tell me when I had a bunch of data left near the end of the month...you should have a Netflix fest.  LOL. 

[BirdDog]

We stream Netflix on weekends at low definition and my wife does YouTube/Netflix during the week on her tablet in bed before going to sleep. We could manage fairly easily on a 20/50 plan.




PS: I do a lot of other browsing and some small video watching like news clips besides Netflix during the week. Sure like having HughesNet for our weekend video binge fests though.

[HughesNetCorpor]

Chewgirl,
     I figured you had thrown up the wrong screen shot 😛 I know I do that all the time and end up having to edit my post.
I stand corrected about Facebook and utube....I have no clue where I got that..ROFL!
I could of sworn I read that in your original post...
I need more coffee, hahahaha

Like GabeU said..even 198 MB is still quite impressive for all that you did do.
Well done!

[debbie.jean.bro]

Thanks, all! My point in posting those numbers was to show that even with a data cap it is possible to use one's devices for many hours a day and stay within one's "data budget." Kind of like a financial budget. If you go and charge up a bunch of credit card debt, buy a car with a high monthly payment, have a huge mortgage on your home, etc., you'll run out of money a few days or even a couple of weeks before your next paycheck. But if you sit down at the beginning of the month and write out a budget and then stick to it, your money will get you through the month with a bit to spare. No, you won't drive as nice a car as the neighbors, and you can't eat at expensive restaurants every other day, and you might need to put off remodeling the kitchen for a couple of years, but you still have a roof over your head, food to eat, and a car that reliably gets you from point A to point B.

Of course, you three aren't the ones who need to hear that, lol! I'm preaching to the choir .

GabeU, haha! Yeah, I might go crazy and watch some PBS shows and documentaries with anytime data, lol! Maybe even stream a whole movie from Amazon! 🙂

BirdDog, I too watch everything in low definition. I find that I can pretty much watch everything I want; I just don't want to watch as much video as the average American, I guess. 20/50 really is more than I need. I may go down to 15/50.

I think it's really cool that you and your wife can enjoy watching Netflix together. There's really no reason a whole family can't get by on a 50/50 plan. They just need to, a) get their network to its maximum potential and stop unintended data leaking, b) use bonus bytes to download movies, large files, etc., and c) exercise some parental oversight on how much time the kids get for video games, YouTube, and social media (and some self-control on their own use of those things!).

Humankind somehow managed to survive the last 10,000 years or so without posting pics of everything they did on Instagram, playing Farmville on Facebook, heading up an army on WoW, or watching every Taylor Swift video ten times a day, so I don't see what's so horrible about setting reasonable limits on the kids' data use, haha. It goes back to the budget: you don't buy your 15 year old $300 shoes because "it's not fair " that her best friend gets them and she doesn't. If your budget allows for $75 shoes, she gets $75 shoes. If her best friend has Comcast and you have satellite, then she has limits on data usage. That's called responsible parenting and a life lesson.

OK, I'm now stepping down from my soapbox, Hahahaha! 🙂

[Liz]

Good morning Chewagirl,

Thanks for sharing your experience, it's like a "day in the life" of a HughesNet customer. I love it! Glad you're enjoying your HughesNet service.

-Liz

[GabeU]

Humankind somehow managed to survive the last 10,000 years or so without posting pics of everything they did on Instagram, playing Farmville on Facebook, heading up an army on WoW, or watching every Taylor Swift video ten times a day, so I don't see what's so horrible about setting reasonable limits on the kids' data use, haha. It goes back to the budget: you don't buy your 15 year old $300 shoes because "it's not fair " that her best friend gets them and she doesn't. If your budget allows for $75 shoes, she gets $75 shoes. If her best friend has Comcast and you have satellite, then she has limits on data usage. That's called responsible parenting and a life lesson. 

Very well said, and so true. 

[ericdanielle]

I just wanted to add my two cents.  I was going to post something just like this.  My wife and I have the Ultra plane, 50/50.  Last month, using youtube, and a couple of Hulu TV shows, using the internet like crazy.  Downloading PS4 updates (900mb-5GB in size), we have still managed to have around 63GB total remaining! 

We manage our network well, no data leaks, shut devices off when not in use, and make big downloads after checking our data.  I also downloaded the biggest update when our data was about to restart for the next month.

OUR INTERNET IS FAST!  shhhhh.. don't tell anyone but we still average over the up to advertised speed of 15Mbps.  We get a little slow down during peak time 7-10pm, but the slow down is still faster than the Frontier DSL we used to have at 0.50Mbps.

VERY PLEASED WITH HUGHESNET!!!

Eric