Good morning Yorkytime,
"As I said above.....the mysterious data drain just stopped. No idea why"
Still makes me suspect Windows update activity (and perhaps other Windows "behavior") as the most likely culprit but that still needs to be proven.
It used to be that most Windows updates followed a reliable pattern of "Patch Tuesday" (the second Tuesday of the month) being the date to watch out for with just an occasional "out of band" emergency update being released but the landscape has changed.
Depending on what updates have already been installed (or even re-installed) it is possible for a Win7 OS (or 8/8.1 for that matter) to have some of the behaviors of Win10 back ported into what were previously stable operating systems.
I do understand that as a legacy subscriber that uploads don't count against your data allowance however out of the ordinary upload activity is an indicator of certain things such as your OS sharing "Telemetry".
So, the question: During these periods of data loss was there any unusual upload activity ?
Moving onto some Glasswire things you mentioned:
" I am still using the free version so cannot set the usage alerts yet nor the network devices."
" I am trying to solve this issues before purchase of the glasswire program as I will need the $99 one for three computers."
There really is no compelling reason to purchase the paid version.
There isn't any real "syncing" that is going to occur between the three installations.
You can install the free version on each of the three computers and it will monitor the usage on THAT computer. You will then need to add them together to determine total usage against your allowance.
If "total usage per device" is your goal I would much rather see you put the $99 towards and Asus Router running the Merlin firmware and read total usage/usage per device right on the Routers interface.
There is no "time limits" on running the free version of Glasswire. It is the FREE version, not "trialware".
As to "Network Alerts" in Glasswire ..... the useful parts do work ... it alerts you to changes in programs and processes that access the network on THAT computer:
Having done that, it has served it purpose ... it told you that something on that computer that has access to the Internet has changed. That allows you to ask yourself: "is this reasonable ?".
The other "missing part" in the free version is the "Network" tab and it is going to show you what is connected to your "Network":
The above from Glasswire "free" is telling me that I have two devices currently connected to my Network.
There is always more than one way to get information.
What is at the heart of my "Network" ... my Router. Without it there is no Network.
So if the question is .... who/what is connected to my network, who better to ask than the Router itself:
Open the Routers GUI and under the heading of "Attached Devices" are the two things that Glasswire said were connected but wanted $99 to tell me.
One is my laptop and the other is my wireless printer. They are identifiable by their unique MAC addresses.
I got my answer, I saved $99.
Moving on:
"I cannot set the sliders to cross over the date into the next morning at 2am. I guess I could just not count the 2 hours after midnight."
For other Community members reading this it is important to note that Yorkytime is on a Spaceway3 9000 legacy system with a daily refill so the "rules" apply differently than the monthly plans.
There are no settings within Glasswire to exclude a time period other than using the "sliders" to narrow the "usage view" within a "period".
There are THREE different broad "views" that are selected at the upper right:
DAY:
WEEK:
MONTH:
How sensitive the sliders are is dependent on the period you are trying to define or zoom in on and if you have selected DAY, WEEK or MONTH.
It will be easier to get fine adjustments on the sliders when in the DAY view.
I would move the left slider that defines the START of the period first followed by the right hand END of period slider:
At issue here is that Glasswire defines a current DAY as 12:00 AM to .... either the present time OR 12:00 am to 12:00am if zooming in on a previous day.
Yorky, your issue really isn't that much different from other users:
LEGACY:
Daily Allowance 7:00am to 2am (This defines your "Hughesnet DAY")
UnMetered Free Zone (2am to 7am)
Monthly Plans:
Anytime data bucket (8am to 2am)
Bonus Bytes data bucket (2am to 8am)
The time are different but the principal is close enough: Usage during THIS time is charged to THIS data source, Usage during THAT time is not charged OR is charged to THAT data source.
It is easier to set or define a specific period while in the DAY or WEEK view and then take a screen shot and save it. That will show USAGE and USERS that period so it can either be ignored if on a legacy plan or deducted from Anytime or BonusBytes as the case may be for monthly users:
Example:
I wanted to see what and who used data between 8am and 9am today:
The above would have been charged to my Anytime Bytes data bucket.
If I wanted to check my recent usage from 2am to 7am I would set up like this:
Set the left slider first while checking the start time at top center of screen, then set the right slider while watching the end time at top center of display.
In my case (Gen4 monthly) this usage would have been charged against my Bonus Bytes data bucket.
In Yorkytime's case the usage could have been ignored as it occurred during her un-metered period.
If I wanted to look at a period of a day further back, I would have selected the WEEK or MONTH view from the upper right of screen but it would have been harder to set the sliders to an exact period ... not impossible, just touchier.
Yorkytime, you are going to have to "set" each period with the sliders.
I view Glasswire as a diagnostic tool. I would rather you spent $100 towards a Router that would track network activity across the board and list by device MAC address.
As to usage, (everyone's really) with the changes by Microsoft, potentially to all OS' from Win7 forward, the landscape has changed.
As to software ... you really can't actually trust it to do as its told. I see a connection by my GPS updater and it used a few Kb's in one of my snips. Problem is, that program had been first instructed to only download during the Bonus Byte period ... then it was told not to connect at all, or even start up for that matter.
You cannot trust software too do as its told.
Still looking for a better router. You mention ASUS. Not sure which model.
Asus Router running the Merlin firmware and read total usage/usage per device right on the Routers interface.
There are a number of Routers available that with the inclusion of third party firmware will allow a user to track usage by device within the Routers interface.
That would include these Asus Routers:
Can you post a screenshot of the GlassWire output that shows the top users for the period ?
