[TelstraClear] Unusually high TelstraClear Cable usage bill Jan-Feb?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] Unusually high TelstraClear Cable usage bill Jan-Feb?

Feliz

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#99389 18-Mar-2012 21:46

Hey All,

I was wondering if anyone else has had a much higher bill for Cable internet usage during Jan/Feb?

We were shocked to fund out we had blown our cap by so much last month, nothing in our usage habits had changed, yet somehow we blew through 20 extra data blocks.

Now I normally would have thought some neighborhood punk had finally gotten through my Wireless encryption and had a go for it, but I was talking to a friend last night who also happened to have blown through an extra 20GB over their cap without any idea how as well, I asked in another forum, and well, a lot of people have come forward with usually around double their normal usage for either the January or February billing period.

If anyone else has had a anomalously large usage bill (~double your normal, expected average usage) in the last couple of months, please let me know.

further discussion here: http://www.gpforums.co.nz/showthread.php?s=688194fd89f9398d9f476883e407dbcd&threadid=443716&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
(apologies if posting links to other forums is a no-no!)

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#598010 21-Mar-2012 07:25

Do you have a router with VoIP capability at all?

Tradepub

Free professional, reference and technical white papers (affiliate link).

Feliz

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#598183 21-Mar-2012 13:08

No VoIP, no WPS, don't use filesharing etc.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#598187 21-Mar-2012 13:20

Does your router have VoIP capabilities though, regardless of whether you use it or not?

timmmay

20353 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#598217 21-Mar-2012 14:05

No problems here.

Feliz

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#598224 21-Mar-2012 14:08

sbiddle: Does your router have VoIP capabilities though, regardless of whether you use it or not?

WRT-54G running Tomato firmware, no VoIP.

TinyTim

1039 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#598227 21-Mar-2012 14:13

Does your daily usage meter give you any insights, like a particular day that is unusually high?

Feliz

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#598234 21-Mar-2012 14:30

TinyTim: Does your daily usage meter give you any insights, like a particular day that is unusually high?

There was indeed one day where there was 1GB+ uploaded, which is REALLY out of the ordinary for us, the only uploading I do (Other than regular http requests of course!) Is to a small website I run, and all my files are onlt a couple of 100KB each.
Other than that a few days of 5GB+ downloads, also out of the ordinary for us.

Zeon

3912 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#598240 21-Mar-2012 14:45

There is a thread on GPfroums with a number of other users saying the same thing.

Speedtest 2019-10-14

Feliz

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#598242 21-Mar-2012 14:48

You don't say?

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#598268 21-Mar-2012 15:51

Feliz:
TinyTim: Does your daily usage meter give you any insights, like a particular day that is unusually high?

There was indeed one day where there was 1GB+ uploaded, which is REALLY out of the ordinary for us, the only uploading I do (Other than regular http requests of course!) Is to a small website I run, and all my files are onlt a couple of 100KB each.
Other than that a few days of 5GB+ downloads, also out of the ordinary for us.

If the upstream is high as well it's probably somebody attempting a DOS attack.

I've seen people recently with VoIP hardware exceptionally high usage because of the huge increase recently in VoIP attacks if they are with a provider that doesn't allow them to use something such as the Linksys/Cisco "restrict source IP" option.

Feliz

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#598282 21-Mar-2012 16:29

sbiddle:
Feliz:
TinyTim: Does your daily usage meter give you any insights, like a particular day that is unusually high?

There was indeed one day where there was 1GB+ uploaded, which is REALLY out of the ordinary for us, the only uploading I do (Other than regular http requests of course!) Is to a small website I run, and all my files are onlt a couple of 100KB each.
Other than that a few days of 5GB+ downloads, also out of the ordinary for us.

If the upstream is high as well it's probably somebody attempting a DOS attack.

I've seen people recently with VoIP hardware exceptionally high usage because of the huge increase recently in VoIP attacks if they are with a provider that doesn't allow them to use something such as the Linksys/Cisco "restrict source IP" option.

Interesting, I suppose TC Cable customers would be easy prey for such a thing since everyone has a static IP by default, I wouldn't have thought such a thing was common though? Although if there's one thing the Internet has taught me, it's that there's a lot of people out there with too much time on their hands!

If it is something like this, is there anything that can be done to prevent usage spikes from script kids with a botnet spamming your IP at all?

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#598357 21-Mar-2012 19:55

A static IP makes you no more likely to suffer an attack than any other IP address.

Most DSL connections are "sticky IP's" these days anyway which makes compliance with the law much easier for ISP's.