[cheryl j (OP)]

Some time around mid December my family started exceeding our data allotment very quickly. We have a turbo hub. My daughter and I both use it. We know not to use Youtube, watch video, stream music, interactive games, etc. as that eats a lot.

Then I started exceeding my phone data limit once I started checking The Naked Science forum on it just to see if there were any posts to certain threads. In one day I burned through my monthly allotment of .3 G and The Naked Science Forum was the only internet usage. In eight minutes at 2:00 yesterday according to Bell technical support I used 240 MB. Does that sound right? I suppose another app like email or Facebook alerts could have contributed although I never connected to them but they send automatic alerts that I have a message, which I have since disabled.

Anyway, any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. The tech guy said it's usually sites that stream - like radio for example that eats data. Does the Naked Science website stream even if I am just reading things on the forum, not listening to something? Has anything changed on this site in the last few months. I haven't really changed my Internet behavior in the last few months and my daughter says she hasn't either. And since it is happening with the phone as well, it has to be me, and seems to be related to this site.

[dlorde]

I don't know for sure, but a forum like this should use very little bandwidth, just refreshing page text while browsing and uploading when you make a comment.

[RD]

... Then I started exceeding my phone data limit once I started checking The Naked Science forum on it just to see if there were any posts to certain threads. In one day I burned through my monthly allotment of .3 G and The Naked Science Forum was the only internet usage. In eight minutes at 2:00 yesterday according to Bell technical support I used 240 MB. Does that sound right? ...

Anyway, any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. The tech guy said it's usually sites that stream - like radio for example that eats data. Does the Naked Science website stream even if I am just reading things on the forum, not listening to something?

Streaming a typical audio podcast uses about 1MB per minute.
So you'd have to listen to four hours of podcasts to use up 240MB.
[ The podcasts aren't streamed or downloaded to you unless you choose to listen to one ]. 

Is your phone network capable of transmitting 240Mb of data in 8 minutes ?
I think 240Mb in 8 minutes equates to a bit-rate of four-thousand kbit/s,
a typical "3G" network mobile phone can only transmit data at a less than four-hundred kbit/s.

You are right to question this, something definitely doesn't add up, but I think the problem lies with your internet provider rather than with this website , particularly if they are billing you for a quantity of data which would be impossible to deliver in 8 minutes.

[evan_au]

As a text-mostly site (with an occasional picture), Naked Scientist forums use very little bandwidth. "A picture is worth a thousand words", as the saying goes - only these days with high-resolution cameras, a picture can be 10,000 or 1,000,000 words.

One subtle trap for internet usage is Peer-to-peer applications like BitTorrent.
You may use it only once, but it stays active on your computer. Even though you may not be downloading anything, it can keep uploading data.
Make sure your computer has a virus scanner active - maybe someone is trying to read your entire file system?

For a smartphone, ensure it is only doing backups over a wired connection, or your home WiFi network, not over a public mobile system.
Also check that you have not turned on some "cloud" application (running as a background task), which assumes that you have lots of cheap bandwidth.

But those data rates sound excessive for a 3G mobile plan - but quite feasible if you have a broadband service like VDSL2 or an Optical connection.

[RD]

In the case of the home computer , rather than phone, then there are programs which you can install which will monitor the amount of data transmitted and received and some even tell you what programs are accessing the internet ...

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/monitor-internet-usage/

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-gb/app/data-usage/0be42741-6059-40ab-ae68-c5899b818363


If the 240Mb in 8 min was via your computer, rather than via phone, then that download rate is possible. If your computer "hub" has Wi-Fi then it is possible for someone nearby, (within 100 meters), to use your internet connection at your expense if you haven't configured your Wi-Fi to require your own passphrase, (rather than use the default passphrase which can be guessable , like "password").   

http://support.bell.ca/Mobility/Smartphones_and_mobile_internet/NETGEAR_MVBR_1210C_Turbo_Hub.how_to_configure_my_4g_netgear_mvbr1210c_turbo [see step #11]

[CliffordK]

It takes me about 1/2 hour to download a 240 MB file using DSL on my computer if I can get full bandwidth.  With a slow download, it could take over an hour, or a few hours.

I did some testing on TNS and came up with a few KB per page, although perhaps some pages with lots of hyperlinked pictures can be larger.  I'll try to get some more accurate data analysis soon.

There are some users on TNS that link to YouTube videos, but you must specifically open the hyperlinks.  You wouldn't get them from just browsing the pages.

For your home computer, consider:

• Stuff you're viewing and downloading.  YouTube and streaming video, other sites with video.  Installing freeware software.
• Windows updates.  Did you change windows versions?  Try turning off automatic updates.  McAfee and other antivirus programs may also pull down a few MB a day of updates.
• As RD mentioned, a hacked WIFI connection may be possible too.   Watch the LEDS on your router after you turn off your computer.  You can also log into your router and view log information.
• What about photos?  If you have a 10MP camera, then you may get photos of 5MB or so.  I normally like to shrink my photos to under 100KB, but some users are lazy.  Upload or transmit too many of these via mail and it adds up.

Your phone could have some of the same issues. 

• It could have quite a few updates that could stack up until you had a good network connection.  Are these automatic?  My phone wanted to install programs for additional functions over the net.
• One of my cell phones can create a "mobile hot-spot".  Unfortunately T-Mobile seems to have blocked that functionality.  But one has to specifically enable the feature.  I think it locked out other functions on the phone.
• Sharing or receiving photos on your phone via e-mail can add up.

The last thing is that it is easy enough to confuse KB, MB, GB, or TB.  Could it have been 240 KB rather than MB?

There is a text only version of TNS.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?wap2

Put ";wap2" or "?wap2" at the end of most of the address lines.

Functionality is reduced for the text interface, but it may be handy for a mobile app interface.

[David Cooper]

This site is very light on the amount of data it uses, so I'd be looking at other causes such as apps (including ones you've never used and have no wish to use) updating themselves in the background. Have you set your phone to ask for permission before updating anything. Alternatively, a program might simply have a bug in it - on my computer Kaspersky once downloaded 2GB of nothing in a few hours without me noticing.

[syhprum]

If I see the LED's flickering on my modem I am always suspicious but it is usually only updates being uploaded from windows

[cheryl j (OP)]

Thanks very much for the help. I will try to figure it out.

Which program to track usage on my lap top do you think would be the most helpful and user friendly?

I also saw these when I was googling.

NetWorx.

BitMeter OS for Windows.

I want to track my own usage, on my internet provider (but not if I am in a coffee shop or somewhere else.) I want a monthly or weekly summary, but ideally I'd like to see what I am currently using. And if possible what's using it.

But since I'm not very computer savvy, I could run into problems if the settings are too complicated. 

[dlorde]

Which program to track usage on my lap top do you think would be the most helpful and user friendly?

I also saw these when I was googling.

NetWorx.

BitMeter OS for Windows.

The ThinkBroadband bandwidth meter (tbbMeter) is good. I've used both Networx and tbbMeter. The only tricky part is that if you want internet-only usage, you need to get them to talk to the broadband router for the internet traffic rather than measuring general network traffic (assuming you access the router via a wifi network). Older modems don't always support reporting usage back to a network device. Then there's the operating system version... Networkx worked fine for me under Windows 7 and Windows 8, but doesn't work under Windows 8.1. I can only get tbbbMeter to give me overall network traffic to my PC under Windows 8.1...

You just have to try it and see how it works for you.

[CliffordK]

If you bring up your task manager.
Ctrl-Alt-Delete, Task Manager.
The last tab should be network usage, and should show you your current net usage. 

I think the second tab (processes) allows you to select the columns desired, and one may be for network usage.  It should give you cumulative process usage for each active process.  Click on column headers to sort.  I don't remember much about net usage with the processes...  perhaps it wasn't there.  I tended to look at memory and Hard Drive Access.

[nicephotog]

Do you or your daughter get pictures or documents as attachment in your email "if" you use an "email app" e.g. Outlook or Thunderbird in your personal PC (it downloads all info to your PC potentially by configuration even if you have a google account) and how old is your daughter and does she have the password to the record management app list of URL's?"

The last tab should be network usage, and should show you your current net usage.

oh and there is spyware too, the usage is obvious, but with spyware you need to look at the summary and validity sometimes of the running processes and open the administration console and look at the running DLL's(services) too.

[evan_au]

My network provider has a daily and monthly graph of my internet usage on their website. Maybe yours does too?

[David Cooper]

Cheryl - I've been wondering for some time - did you ever solve the problem or is it still happening?

[amazingray]

The bandwidth would depend on how busy the forum members are with postings. This forum probably can run on your basic hosting package.

[evan_au]

If your email is set to replicate to your phone, you can use a lot of data.
Picture-heavy applications like Facebook and Google Maps can use lots of bandwidth.

[cheryl j (OP)]

I think it's better. I haven't run over my limit in a long time, and definitely not in the first week. I never did figure out what caused it.