http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/ar...FY9O4Qoduyp9cw


This is free download monitor....tell it your monthly allowance and it will monitor all activivty and tell you how much is left, just need to register, which is free also.

might come in handy mate??....lots of these things out there for nothing,.

 

Was looking in the wrong place

On 12.37GB recent data usage which I assume is just this month.
It does say above the monitor that as an Unlimited customer I would not be charged for additional usage (probably just throttled)

 

Another 5GB usage yesterday, pretty good going for a bit of light surfing, no xbox or anything else, perhaps two hours between us, not sure how on a 0.2 - 1 mb connection we could download that much ?

Dont know what else I can do, "upgraded" to avoid the usage thing and get the cap lifted, was told it would come off straight away, then last night told will be there until the third of March.

How does this company get away with it ?

 

5gb from just surfing? sound slike you may have a trojan or if you have wireless maybe someones hacked into it.

i'm with virgin, 50mbs and no cap (bar p2p), downloaded about 10gb last night in about 20 mins

 

why don't you start from basics

disconnect everything from your connection, even the router, then check the usage on your account for a day

then just connect the router and check you usage etc etc

 

Can you get your past usage stats from your last provider? It may help show BT your typical download amount. I know it's no proof that you aren't downloading more now, but it may give you a bit of ammunition in your case.

 

Turn off your wifi for starters... then you know the only usage is from the pc that's in the LAN port.

barring that, last thing at night, take the traffic usage figure, then turn off the router till the morning, and then re-check the figures again..

Something's using your connection in the night hours... maybe a trojan..or your connection has been id hacked?.. with usage at night to hide the bandwidth

 

Can you tell if you have people using your network via bfton?

 

I once had a BT mobile, never ever again, they were terrible.

got rid of BT home phone yrs ago and went to virgin. no issues whatsoever, ever.

can't say anything good about my BT experiences.

 

Btfon is not enabled according to the router.

all devices are switched off at night.

Wireless is WPA-PSK, doubt its been hacked as I know all the neighbours and set up their wireless connections, they are affluent enough to afford their own and not technical enough to steal mine, I checked the stats on the main pc, I agrees with the router, plus a bit for other devices like the Xbox and ammount to about 1/2 gig since Saturday.

I doubt anything could download the number of GB they are saying we have used through a connection that is ranging between timing out and 2 mb/sec, typically under 1, no self respecting bandwidth leech would bother with it, its crap !

Progress is that after now being on first name terms with Beverly in BT billing who is the nearest to an intelligent lifeform as I have encountered at BT (actually very helpful but hands tied) is going to raise it with her manager and call back and also one of the mods on the BT Customer Care site requested an email with some detail so he can pursue it.

Not holiding my breath but its more positive than it was, they have at least acknowledge me and the fact I will ring every day until its sorted, surely they realise most people dont ring BT due to having an empty life, most people are not dying to speak daily to "Robert" in India, however helpful and loyal to his script he is. This is the email I sent them,



I have tried extensively to raise this issue with billing and tech support but have so far drawn a blank, have gone round in circles so took to ranting on the forum to try and get some action, thank you for your interest !

My Infinity broadband usage is incrementing 5 – 10 GB a day, even when hardly used, I work in IT and have done the usual checks and all the ones the support line recommend, there is no actual problem as far as I can see apart from I am now throttled down to 2mb, this is despite upgrading to option 2 and being told the throttled would be removed immediately.

My usage says I have used 115 gb so far this month but the router is saying we have used about 500 meg (combined up and down) Since Saturday last week when it was reset, the Usage monitor on the BT website is saying I have used 20 odd gig in this period, every day it increments between 5 and 10 Gb, even when nothing is switched on.

There is a lot of talk on the forums regarding this, not just the BT forum but all over the place, most people don’t check and I was surprised when we went over 40 GB usage but assumed it must be correct and was told I had to upgrade or get £50 excess charges every month so at the time it seemed the only option, looking into it afterwards it became apparent that there was no way we had used this and that I was not the only person in this situation.

The tech support guy said I am now throttled due to the Fair Usage Policy kicking in and will be until the third of March, even though I was told the upgrade would remove the throttle and up the download limit pretty much instantly, this has not happened, the MY BT page says option 2 under Services but the usage monitor is still on option 1 and showing I am over the 40 GB, also the upload has remained below 2mb/sec as well so the account has either not been upgraded or that’s the throttling again.


I would like someone who deals with the backend systems to investigate and identify the cause, this isn’t just a high user moaning about not wanting to pay, quite happy to pay if I felt I had used it but it feels like I am being charged for the entire cabinet, or something is continually poling from the hub or modem back to the exchange.

My expectation, hope, dream  is to get a refund for the excess charges, my service restored to the correct speeds, put back onto the actually appropriate option 1 and some form of explanation as to why this has happened.

 

Thats what I thought......

All the best, its a nice concept and works well when it works but BT are terrible to deal with, frustrating so if it screws up, dig in for a battle, it is like having a big complicated car and then having to try and diagnose faults yourself as the dealer wont help.

 

Well in 6 days I have used 22 gigabytes, no downloads, no xbox live just light surfing and checking emails . 19th jan- 19th feb 15gb over my limit yet again and a £48 bill I wonder how much it would cost to buy out of this contract.

 

Probably it's been discussed elsewhere on this thread but just wanted to check you are all using bits and bytes properly? Most ISP's quote line speeds in Mega bits per second, but files sizes and download limits seem to be quoted in Mega bytes per second. Not sure what the BT web site says and what your routers say, but could there be a confusion between say 22Gb (giga bits) and 22GB (giga bytes)?

 

i reckon you have downloaded something else by accident thats uplaoding or downloading data, our xbox is used to heat the house, and together with sally on facebook, we never gone over our limit

 

Well I use ubuntu now so I don't think I have any nasties downloading in the background, the difference between what my router says I have downloaded and what bt say I have downloded is 21.7 gb. I'm tempted to switch my router off when my limit resets and use my 3 mifi connection for a week.

 

I jogged BT on last year and went back with Sky for phone/broadband/tv. They kept over charging me each month and also charging me quarterly so i was basically paying my bill twice! I also found it frustrating that the call centre in New Delhi could not rectify the problem so i cancelled the direct debit and switched back....

They have called me twice since Xmas and offered me a much better package than before, and even under cut sky by nearly £20 a month on the top package!

 

I'd be very tempted to switch the router off for a day or week (whatever is the smallest time period you can monitor on the BT side) and then see what BT says. Like to see them explain usage when the router is switched off.

Then again if it's the Indian call centre you wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting the point across anyway.

 

I finally got some progress by ranting on the BT forums, still expecting a refund for the mad usage which has now calmed down to what I would expect, nothing changed on our side so I reckon they ave quietly changed something as my package now reflects the option 2 I have upgraded to, my speed has gone back up but still not getting the 10 mb/sec upload speed, still seems to be capped at 2 but the upload was nearer 40 as I would expect, late thirties.

Don't trust the results from a Speed Test unless you are connected directly to the router as homeplugs and wireless seem to top out at about 20 mb/sec, need a wired connection to te router to get the full speed, might have to put an ethernet cable to the main pc to feel the benefit but it is pretty rapid when it is working,

Still not happy as don't think the usage is right, the aforementioned upload speed and the fact I feel like I have been duped into an upgrade I probably didn't need,

 

I am kind of sorted, apparently downloaded 189 GB last month and based on this upgraded so dont need to worry about it, think I will bin it and go with another provider at the end of the term as they are a pita to deal with, I was helped by the mods on their customer care forum, still not sure about the usage but as I have 300 GB to go at I dont really care but will monitor it.

Have to say, once they sorted it out, the performance if what I expected, I am getting late thirties download and 8/9 mb up as well, problem is, that is only if I have an ethernet cable plugged into the router, if I use wireless or the homeplugs it drops to about 22 down, so need to get some Ethernet cabling done to feel the benefit fully, sayign that 22 mb/sec allows pretty mcuh anything to run full screen in pretty high quality, downloads are rapid and normal surfing in reality is a few k up and down with latency from the server at the other end so the actual transmission of that few k isnt much different whether you have 10, 20 or 100, its only on sustained movement of data like streaming video and the like where you really notice.

 

Gosh just read all this. What a ballache. I'm with Virgin media now and have been for last 18 months. After a shakey start (with a few calls to what sounded like the local taxi firm) it's all good.
Sounds like you have it sorted but I would want some form of compensation if I were you.

 

That's an insane amount of data to just disappear randomly into a void. Daily print-outs or screen-dumps of your router logs, ditto the BT usage calculator thing, and send the lot off to these people:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/

 

Says we have used 3.78 GB in a day on the new tariff, funny how the display goes to half of the bar even though only at 1 percent of the total, wonder if that is contrived to make it look worse as 3 gb would barely register on a display with a correct scale of 1 to 300, reckon its to visially persuade you to upgrade....


Still, 3.78 in a day for ligth surfing, still doenst add up .

 

That's the understatement of a lifetime. Divide that figure by 10, and you'd be looking at one day's medium to heavy surfing, with a few hours streaming audio and a good handful of normal resolution Youtube vids throw in. Something is very, very wrong with their usage-stats collector, and they need to be pulled up on it. Look at it this way - if you don't know where the hell all that data's gone or come from, you never know what kind of nasties they might try and pin on you next (copyright this or that, kiddie pr0n t'other, you get the picture). Start collecting your own stats meticulously, and confront them with the evidence. If no joy, go to industry regulator, or whoever.

 

I did try with the router stats but I dotn think they are to be trusted, said 30 odd mb and a I know for a fact that I did a download for a GT5 update that was 300 mb in that window and it didnt capature that, next time we are away I am going to note it down and then switch the lot off for a week and see whether it increments.


A lot of other people are seeing similar usage on Infinity.