[leinanik]

A few days ago I got an email from Comcast saying we have used 90% of our 1024 GB allotted usage of the month. I have no idea how that's even possible. I'm still baffled because it's just 2 of us and we were even out of town the first 2 days of the month. How do we use 950 GB of data in 2 weeks?! I just don't think it's possible. I called Comcast and they were no help. So my wife went down to Comcast today and the guy at the store told her that the culprit could be because we have an old modem (5 years old). He told her that older modems suck more data than newer ones. It sounds like a load of crap to me, but I'm wondering if there might be any truth to this at all. The only thing I've heard about needing to update your modem is for better speed. This overage has happened to us before in February for whatever reason. I changed our router password and haven't had the problem since. I really don't think anyone has hacked into our wifi. I just don't understand how we could use that much data in only 2 weeks. I am at a loss right now and am not sure what to do. I could use any and all help right now!

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Hi leinanik and welcome to our forums.

 

if you are not using your connection for business purposes then yes its a lot of activity for two folks in a private household with virus free machines, ( Films/Movies and music together with file sharing (P2P) and backup/imaging software are often culprits in this respect, and only you know whether you use that sort of thing)

 

Older modems are unlikely to have that much effect on your usage, but it would always be worth trying a known good one to see if there is any reduction, especially as changing your password(s) seemed to provide a solution a few months ago.

 

I would be inclined to switch out your modem/ gateway/ router/ wireless access point for known good ones, and use really strong passwords (nothing that is any dictionary in any language in the world,) and do use upper and lower case characters, numbers and, very important, symbols ( if allowed) aim for at least 12 characters .

 

Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) will be able to tell you details of your usage, if you ask nicely, but if for any reason they are uncooperative then you could always consider switching service provider, if alternatives exist in your location.

 

Otherwise software can be used to see what or who has been using all your allocation.... your modem/router should be able to show you what machines are listed as connecting to your particular network, but if you have difficultly with this then take a look at Glasswire as this software has the ability to drill down and see exactly what has been going on. 

 

Here's a link to information on it.

 

http://www.pcworld.c...rk-traffic.html

 

Let us know how you get on after following these suggestions

Regards

paws

[paws]

Hi leinanik and welcome to our forums.

 

if you are not using your connection for business purposes then yes its a lot of activity for two folks in a private household with virus free machines, ( Films/Movies and music together with file sharing (P2P) and backup/imaging software are often culprits in this respect, and only you know whether you use that sort of thing)

 

Older modems are unlikely to have that much effect on your usage, but it would always be worth trying a known good one to see if there is any reduction, especially as changing your password(s) seemed to provide a solution a few months ago.

 

I would be inclined to switch out your modem/ gateway/ router/ wireless access point for known good ones, and use really strong passwords (nothing that is any dictionary in any language in the world,) and do use upper and lower case characters, numbers and, very important, symbols ( if allowed) aim for at least 12 characters .

 

Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) will be able to tell you details of your usage, if you ask nicely, but if for any reason they are uncooperative then you could always consider switching service provider, if alternatives exist in your location.

 

Otherwise software can be used to see what or who has been using all your allocation.... your modem/router should be able to show you what machines are listed as connecting to your particular network, but if you have difficultly with this then take a look at Glasswire as this software has the ability to drill down and see exactly what has been going on. 

 

Here's a link to information on it.

 

http://www.pcworld.c...rk-traffic.html

 

Let us know how you get on after following these suggestions

Regards

paws