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  1. #1
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    Kalmado's Comcastic Adventure

    Not nine hours into the new month and I have used almost 10 gigs of data. I'm still trying to learn about wireless equipment and what not so bear with me. My router says one of my phones has a constant TX/RX Rate going. Chromecast has a constant TX Rate of 300-350 Mbps. From what I gathered that's downloading. The Chromecast is in the bedroom and at this very minute I can't unplug it (wife is sleeping). Fricking data usage and data caps.

  2. #2
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    TX is transmit/send, RX is receive, and since you're viewing the router side, you're correct that the chromecast is constantly downloading. Maybe someone started a video stream but forgot to stop it before turning off the TV or something like that.
    And that a phone shows constant traffic should also be normal. Most apps (social media, mail, weather etc) keep running in the background and check for new stuff to display/report every once in a while. Though that shouldn't cause much traffic.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Niya View Post
    TX is transmit/send, RX is receive, and since you're viewing the router side, you're correct that the chromecast is constantly downloading. Maybe someone started a video stream but forgot to stop it before turning off the TV or something like that.
    And that a phone shows constant traffic should also be normal. Most apps (social media, mail, weather etc) keep running in the background and check for new stuff to display/report every once in a while. Though that shouldn't cause much traffic.
    I rarely use my phone for anything. Being literal there. I read up that Google Play can cause a bit of constant downloading so I went in and turned off auto updating as well as some other things. Although, I did use my phone a few days ago to stream Neflix to the TV with the Chromecast. I was reading there are some settings I can change with Chromecast and I need to double check how I'm even powering it (it gets used maybe twice a month).

    I'm trying to really watch what's using my data after using so much last month. I really want to stream on Twitch and try to do Youtube stuff as well so I need to watch what I'm doing.

  4. #4

    Quote Originally Posted by Kalmado View Post
    I rarely use my phone for anything. Being literal there. I read up that Google Play can cause a bit of constant downloading so I went in and turned off auto updating as well as some other things. Although, I did use my phone a few days ago to stream Neflix to the TV with the Chromecast. I was reading there are some settings I can change with Chromecast and I need to double check how I'm even powering it (it gets used maybe twice a month).

    I'm trying to really watch what's using my data after using so much last month. I really want to stream on Twitch and try to do Youtube stuff as well so I need to watch what I'm doing.
    This is most likely was what causing the chromecast to suck data. Like Niya said, chromecast was streaming something because it was never stopped. This can/will happen if you start a stream from your phone to the chromecast. Just because you close the app on the phone, doesn't mean chromecast stops. Your phone just sends the command to start a stream, it never tells it to stop unless you tell the app. Meaning you could start a stream, close the app on your phone, and the chromecast is just going to keep playing because there is nothing to stop it from doing so. Normally Netflix has a user checker for this reason, but sometimes it doesn't always work.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Niya View Post
    TX is transmit/send, RX is receive.
    Now I know what the T stands for on the top right of the FFXI UI !!!!!!
    I knew R was receive though... just never knew of the T lol

  6. #6
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    Something I feel is still up with our data usage because this is just nuts to me. Not even 48 hours into a new month and we've used 22 GB of data per Concast. The only thing of significance we've done is I downloaded a movie that was 1.9 GB. Chromecast is now being powered by the TV and not an outlet. This was changed roughly 24 hours ago. Firmware on main router and main repeater have been updated. Second repeater was turned off this morning. Wondering if I should just unplug it to be safe.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    So about two hours has passed between what I typed above and now. After resetting both routers and doing some chores I come back and look at the network and there is a device I do not recognize called Vizio Inc. It's on my 5GHz network and pulling 800+on TX. Added the device to the Wireless - Wireless MAC Filter and it's not showing now. I wonder why it wasn't showing up before. I'm hoping blocking that will help. I suppose it's a good time to reset all passwords for all channels.

    Going thru my prior usage I was floating somewhere around 400-500 GB of data per month. Downloading games, movies, wife watches a lot of Youtube, etc I could stomach that I suppose. For sure will be watching data usage very closely moving forward so this doesn't happen again.

  7. #7

    Do you by chance have a Samsung phone? I only ask because I ran into an issue a few months ago where Samsung Cloud, out of nowhere, started using 300-400GBs of my 1TB monthly data. Not even sure on what. I don't even have that much in photos/videos, so I don't know if it was just backing up the same shit over and over. I had to go in and disable all that crap in the settings.

  8. #8
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    We're using currently a Moto G6 and a LG V10.

  9. #9

    Ahh ok. Well, either way, if you haven't already, look at how much data your phones are using by going through the wifi settings of the phones. Not sure if it's the same for non-Samsung phones, but I can go look at data usage and then specifically wifi related stuff and then it gives me a breakdown of how much data each app used for whichever month I select.

  10. #10
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    Does comcast in your area have a cap?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Melena View Post
    Does comcast in your area have a cap?
    Yes 1TB per month. Three hours shy of three days into the month and I've used 36GB. I caught a culprit earlier today. Forgot again about Steam and auto updating any/everything. That did 6GB today alone. There are some things I haven't considered such as keeping Deluge up. One that is confusing is Plex used almost as much as Deluge, yet I use Plex locally. W10 does have a tool to tell what app has used what in the last 30 days. I think I'm going to reset everything on our computers and we'll see what usage looks like over the next few days.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kalmado View Post
    Yes 1TB per month. Three hours shy of three days into the month and I've used 36GB. I caught a culprit earlier today. Forgot again about Steam and auto updating any/everything. That did 6GB today alone. There are some things I haven't considered such as keeping Deluge up. One that is confusing is Plex used almost as much as Deluge, yet I use Plex locally. W10 does have a tool to tell what app has used what in the last 30 days. I think I'm going to reset everything on our computers and we'll see what usage looks like over the next few days.
    I haven't had time to troubleshoot yet, but even locally my Plex was using their relay (stream going out to their server, then back in) for no good reason I could find quickly. There's a chance that might have happened with you, too.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jamison View Post
    I haven't had time to troubleshoot yet, but even locally my Plex was using their relay (stream going out to their server, then back in) for no good reason I could find quickly. There's a chance that might have happened with you, too.
    I'm going to cut Plex for the time being just to save data. It just never occurred to me Plex could be a culprit because I'm just using it on my home network. This type of PC stuff I'm very much learning as I go.

    While doing some reading last night I came across some articles where Comcast confirmed their software for measuring data usage was reporting back double usage in (I believe it was) November and December of last year. Comcast reported 2000 users went over data and thus were overcharged. Of course Comcast is going to say they fixed it but it doesn't mean it can't happen again. Thursday night I'm going to unplug the modem and wait until at least 7 AM to plug it back in. I'm going to call Comcast Friday and ask what my data usage was and go from there.

  14. #14
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    Even tho I turned off the modem for nine hours I ended up not bothering with the call. After reading more regarding unusually high data usage, Comcast reps are telling those asking about their data usage basically they have no answers because readings are not accurate due to data used in the last 24 hours not being displayed. People as of this week are stating their data usage has spiked considerably. I understand there is going to be room for error and for those of us that think we are doing everything we can to control our data usage, we're still not plugging up all of the holes.

    Tonight before I ran to the store I reset my data on just my PC. I restarted my PC and only opened Chrome, leaving 15 tabs (no video) open. Steam, Xbox Pass, and Logitech Gaming Software (for my mouse) were the only programs I could see in the lower right corner that were running. When I got home data usage was telling me I had consumed 22 MB of data sitting idle for one hour and thirteen minutes. If my math checks out, if sitting idle like that all day for 28 days that's 12,152 MB / 12.152 GB of data used for literally doing nothing but keeping your PC on and Chrome tabs open.

    After doing the math I jumped around websites for about 25 minutes and my data was up to 46 MB. This is interesting to me because my good friend who would be on his cell phone basically all day outside of work watching youtube, sports, other streaming services/sites, TONS of memes/gifs, etc etc would use roughly 8 GB of data on Sprint's network per month. My PC theoretically would use more doing nothing. I don't understand that.

    I am not a conspiracy theorist and have never owned a tin foil hat. I'm a believer that there needs to be smoke in order to say there is fire, so to speak. People tried to tell Comcast about the smoke (high data back in September) and they ignored it until they couldn't anymore. I'm wondering if it's happening again. Maybe I should try using Firefox for awhile instead to see if there is a difference. I'm waiting on a friend who lives in a different county to report what his data usage looks like. He has the Triple Play package I believe. For sure TV and internet.

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    I might have missed it, but I assume your router doesn't have any reporting functions? Are you using their router or your own?

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    Your assumption that those 22MB/hour will constantly happen is flawed. Pretty much all programs that have an included self-update function contact their servers once per start and check if there's something new. Same goes for Windows. And unless you had websites open that contain dynamically updating elements (like a news ticker), those also only cause traffic once on first load.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jamison View Post
    I might have missed it, but I assume your router doesn't have any reporting functions? Are you using their router or your own?
    I've been on my own equipment for about six years. I'm using a Motorola SB6121 modem and an Asus AC66U router currently for main and an Asus RT-N12 repeater upstairs which is possibly dying. It keeps dropping the connection to the host. Wouldn't be a surprise because I got that shortly after I started using my own equipment. The router has a traffic monitor section, but from what I can tell it just shows the amount of data in real time as a whole, not app by app or what device is using it. In about 40 minutes of browsing using Firefox, I've used 86 MB. I don't think Chrome is an issue at this point.

    I'd be OK with looking at a new router for more advanced data monitoring since the N12 is dying and old and we can reuse the AC66U as a repeater too. I'll start keeping an eye out for some deals. We do not need gigabit performance or really anything special. Ironic anyways that ISPs want to sell you on the fastest internet because you game/stream/whatever but you really are just getting to your cap faster that way.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Niya View Post
    Your assumption that those 22MB/hour will constantly happen is flawed. Pretty much all programs that have an included self-update function contact their servers once per start and check if there's something new. Same goes for Windows. And unless you had websites open that contain dynamically updating elements (like a news ticker), those also only cause traffic once on first load.
    Oh, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks! The subject of data usage and how it happens is very new to me so I'm for sure learning as I go and appreciate info like this.

    My friend who uses Comcast TV & Internet for only streaming and the only other device he has is a Fire stick said his February usage was 144 GB. He isn't on his phone/PC much at all once home from work. He's sort of a "shutdown" person once at home besides watching TV shows and sports. I'm not really surprised by his usage. I was more so curious if he would reply with 500+ because to me that would be a red flag.