So much data used

[Joshua756]

I have had Huges Net Gen 5  for a few months now and for the life of me can't figure out where all the data goes, I used for 2 netflix nights watching movies for 2 hours each night used close to 14 gigs of  data, now my plan is 50 gigs however I have netflix set to auto to use the least amount of data, and I do gaming/downloads in the off peak hours and don't know where it's all going my pc is set to not auto update so I would really appreciate any help I can get on this topic.

Thank you.

[Gwalk900]

The short version is, if you are to accurately identify where all your data is being spent you must install a router that will track data by device.

On a single Windows based computer you should install the free version of Glasswire.

I suggest you read the the following topic:

https://community.hughesnet.com/t5/Tech-Support/Understanding-data-usage-data-loss-and-connection-pa...

[Joshua756]

Can I just unlpug the  roter for a few hours insted of disabling the Radio and earthnet plugs? 

[Joshua756]

May I ask is it normal to see a little bit of data go? I let my pc and everything plugged in for an hour and saw a loss of 5 mb this is normal? If so then i'll just watch better the video and such settings.

[Gwalk900]

It's all about monitoring  all connection paths.

If you have the Hughes HT2000W WiFi modem disconnecting  the Ethernet cable  still leaves the 2.4  and 5.0  Ghz guest accounts active as well as the regular 2.4 and 5.0  Ghz channels active.

Disconnecting the cable  will prevent wired devices from using data during the period of disconnection. 

It does nothing in identifying  what devices are active and what background  processes  are using data.

[Joshua756]

After reading your post to me I see why data is being used, in the backround I never really looked to see what progams are running in the backround since I came from cable internet, however I have a gup progam running, razer synapse and one other progam, I fixed the settings on huges net for playback and hope it will help thank you for the help. 

[C0RR0SIVE]

@Gwalk900
The guest accounts aren't enabled by default if memory serves correct.

[Joshua756]

I have one other question though, on netflix it's set on auto playback for the quality should it be on low?

[C0RR0SIVE]

To conserve as much data, it should be set to low/Standard Definition on Netflix, and your Video Data Saver option on your account should be enabled... Sometimes Netflix will start playing 720P if it senses there's enough speed to do so, which will consume much more data.

[Joshua756]

That would do it, I had it on auto thinking it was lower then low. But it's my bad it should use much less data now, because I noticed in the off  peek hurs when I was gaming and using youtube it used only 2 gb's for 6 hours, so yeah that would explaine netflix was using all of my data I set it to low now and will check again tonight how it does. I thank you very much. 

[MarkJFine]

Understand using something to measure throughput will give you what is actually being downloaded (and uploaded) - this actually may be very accurate.

What concerns me is that the compression scheme may be expanding things (like images) a lot larger than they were before they were sent. When you deal with tons of little avitar images on social media (not to mention the amount of image attachments), this can really add up a lot faster than you're used to.

I actually have worked out a high level procedure to test this theory, but just not had the time to work out the details of avoiding things like browser caches and content delivery networks that would make it unaccurate... plus, did I mention the time to do it... lol.

Theory may be all washed up and I might go down in flames, but at least I'll be able to finally put some of this data issue to bed.

Anticipating doing something some time next week... this one's already shot.

[MarkJFine]

Incidentally, and just to be perfectly clear on this... this is just a gut feeling about usage on my part, based on certain experiences I've had using the devices I have.

It's by no means meant to be an authoritative statement that there is in fact a compression issue with images. I'm just doing this in an unofficial capacity to satisfy my own intellectual curiosity.

[Aedan]

Hello Mark,
Please let us know how the experiment goes. Thanks so much in advance.

[MarkJFine]

Will do.

[MarkJFine]

Unofficial, unscientific streaming test:

Just used Spotify on my iPhone outside to play a regular ~55 minute album at standard quality (I think they use 128kHz faac for that) which used ~70MB. That seems about right.

This isn't the ultimate test I was planning using images, just a quick measurement from a target of opportunity while other house members weren't bogarting bandwidth. Really didn't think streaming audio was an issue, tbh, and this provides some confirmation of that.