Strange download spike on Wellington cable

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tieke

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Topic # 154467 29-Oct-2014 09:09

Saw that this month's usage was quite high, and checked the daily usage charts to find that apparently I downloaded 50GB at 3am last Wednesday morning:

I have no idea what it would have been (seems a trifle high for an automated update), but I am impressed with how fast it happened :)

I don't suppose anyone else has something similar?

timmmay

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Reply # 1164138 29-Oct-2014 09:20

Have a read of this thread.

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tieke

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Reply # 1164142 29-Oct-2014 09:39

timmmay: Have a read of this thread.

I had a look at that, but that thread seemed to be discussing hour after hour of upstream traffic rather than a single 50GB download blip.

ckc

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Reply # 1164195 29-Oct-2014 10:56

I think the same principles apply. Checking for open ports, checking your equipment for spyware, etc. Like turning things off and on again, you can't really move forward on a diagnostic until you've covered the obvious, even if the obvious seems too obvious.

tieke

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Reply # 1164205 29-Oct-2014 11:31

ckc: I think the same principles apply. Checking for open ports, checking your equipment for spyware, etc. Like turning things off and on again, you can't really move forward on a diagnostic until you've covered the obvious, even if the obvious seems too obvious.

Fair enough, although I think a one-off, non-repeated 50GB "download" over the space of a few minutes doesn't fit standard malware profile.

Anyway, no open ports visible, computers are clean of malware and viruses, recent firmware on router, firewall on router as well as firewall on computer that would have stopped a new access request.

The computer that would have been on has no new or modified files from the time indicated (let alone 50GB worth of them).

I had suspected that it was either some weird program update glitch resulting in multiple failed access attempts but no download (but even so - 50GB of them?) or a vodafone data usage error that other users might have encountered, as it is basically 50GB of download listed against one point in time.

I'll just roll with this month's halved download limit and keep an eye on it to see if it ever recurs, but thought it worthwhile checking to see if anyone else had encountered this, as it seemed possible that the problem was occurring on the Vodafone side of things.

Brumfondl

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Reply # 1164228 29-Oct-2014 11:48

2 people support this post

You appear to have 7 days of no data whatsoever, followed by that huge spike. Any time I have seen this it means the usage meter has not been working properly and Vodafone have got it going so all the data has been charged at once. If this is the case then you might want to watch out cos it looks like you are going to blow your cap for the month :/

Brumfondl

tieke

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Reply # 1164229 29-Oct-2014 11:51

Just checked with the router logs, and it registered a total of just under 2.5GB WAN Bandwidth used on the 22nd, which sounds about right for Netflix usage etc - as I suspected, it looks like any 50GB download never made it onto my LAN.

tieke

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Reply # 1164233 29-Oct-2014 11:59

Brumfondl: You appear to have 7 days of no data whatsoever, followed by that huge spike. Any time I have seen this it means the usage meter has not been working properly and Vodafone have got it going so all the data has been charged at once. If this is the case then you might want to watch out cos it looks like you are going to blow your cap for the month :/

Thanks: looks like that's probably the case - I thought last month's usage was a bit low. Looks like metering wasn't active for the last week of last month or the first week of this one, meaning the spike was from a fortnight's usage added at once. Bit of a pity, as half of it should have come out of last month's cap.

Oh well, only lost about 25GB from this month's cap because of a usage meter/billing error - at least it wasn't an error on my end.

cheers,

tieke

Sideface

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Reply # 1164234 29-Oct-2014 11:59

For what little it is worth - I am also in Wellington on VF UFC cable (unlimited), and have had no such usage spikes.
The Broadband Internet Usage Meter seems to be working normally.

Sideface

tieke

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Reply # 1164252 29-Oct-2014 12:47

Sideface: For what little it is worth - I am also in Wellington on VF UFC cable (unlimited), and have had no such usage spikes.
The Broadband Internet Usage Meter seems to be working normally.

Thanks - I'd say it's almost definite there was no incorrect download, just deferred accounting, and looks like it was a random stroke of (bad) luck.

It's obviously worth me checking on the daily usage every now and then rather than just the usage total, just in case it happens again.

tegraman

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Reply # 1165584 31-Oct-2014 10:05

I had the same thing happen to me. 10 days of zero usage according to the meter, and then a huge spike on the 1st day of the next billing month. This sent me over the cap for the next month. I had a hell of a time on the phone with Vodafone trying to convince them that there was a problem with their systems - they just kept on trying to sell me a higher cap!

MaxLV

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Reply # 1166239 1-Nov-2014 01:07

tieke:
Sideface: For what little it is worth - I am also in Wellington on VF UFC cable (unlimited), and have had no such usage spikes.
The Broadband Internet Usage Meter seems to be working normally.

Thanks - I'd say it's almost definite there was no incorrect download, just deferred accounting, and looks like it was a random stroke of (bad) luck.

It's obviously worth me checking on the daily usage every now and then rather than just the usage total, just in case it happens again.

Get TUC for automatic monitoring of your monthly data usage.

It gets it's usage data directly from Vodafone's system.

http://www.tuc.co.nz

tieke

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Reply # 1166294 1-Nov-2014 09:04

MaxLV: Get TUC for automatic monitoring of your monthly data usage.

It gets it's usage data directly from Vodafone's system.

http://www.tuc.co.nz

It's a cool tool, and I will be using it to avoid problems with this month's limited data, but it wouldn't have avoided this issue - my problem isn't that I was exceeding my limit, but that my (and tegraman's) under-balance usage was incorrectly added to the following month.

I did try giving Vodafone a call to see if they could do something regarding this month's usage, but my first call was abruptly terminated after ten minutes on hold and I got bored thirty minutes into my second call :)

Judging by tegraman's experience, I probably would have had a hard time explaining the problem to them anyway.

tieke

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Reply # 1166394 1-Nov-2014 11:54

Decided it would be easier to change to Unlimited rather than try and get credits for the billing muckup, so shouldn't have to worry about usage meter now.

I will probably have to call billing back next week to avoid overage charges though - sales connected me to billing, and after the mandatory additional forty minutes on hold I ended up talking to a billing rep who appeared to be connected to the phone network by some sort of muffled tin can.

Despite me giving her the order number and letting her know that I was upgrading so I wouldn't exceed the cap, all she was able to do was offer to cancel my current connection, or to cancel my Unlimited order, or to transfer me to sales if I wanted to order Unlimited. My requests to simply change the billing cycle failed, so I obviously made a mistake in accepting a new modem with the plan upgrade. Will try again next week.

saeran

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Reply # 1166632 1-Nov-2014 18:54

tieke: Decided it would be easier to change to Unlimited rather than try and get credits for the billing muckup, so shouldn't have to worry about usage meter now.

I will probably have to call billing back next week to avoid overage charges though - sales connected me to billing, and after the mandatory additional forty minutes on hold I ended up talking to a billing rep who appeared to be connected to the phone network by some sort of muffled tin can.

Despite me giving her the order number and letting her know that I was upgrading so I wouldn't exceed the cap, all she was able to do was offer to cancel my current connection, or to cancel my Unlimited order, or to transfer me to sales if I wanted to order Unlimited. My requests to simply change the billing cycle failed, so I obviously made a mistake in accepting a new modem with the plan upgrade. Will try again next week.

Classic annoying Vodafone call centre.

Honestly the calls are always quiet and horrible. What's up with that? Some dodgy VOIP connection between here and the call centre?