MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I know the first answer is jazz sites but bear with me 🙂
For the last month Ive been allegedly using 5GB of data a day from my ISP
I have just been told theyve had enough and Im for it
The thing is I cant see where its going
I have an old old modem connected to a Mac airport WAP
My network is invisible and Im running good security with a sensible password
Ive also locked with MAC address stuff it so only my stuff can connect
I did have loads of kit like the Wii and a Kindle but I switched them all off yesterday and still used 5GB yesterday
My routers stats say only this laptop has been connected for the last 24h
Ive run a virus check and its clean
We have limited our browsing
No one has looked at Youtube or vids or downloaded anything
The kids are little and none of us have honestly (yeah right) been looking at porn
So where the hell is my data going?
5GB a day is enormous
Could it be something to do with my old router?
Its tx/rx lights flicker all the time
How likely/unlikely could this be a BT problem?
Im about to go out and turn the bugger off for the day
Any ideas?
Cheers
It's unlikely, but the MAC address filtering is easy to hack. I assume you're using something else as well.
Depends how long you've got to find the problem, but I'd start with what you've done; turn it off if you're not there.
You could sign up to openDNS (need to set up your router). The advantage is this will log every web site the router looks at. (I'm sure there are other ways to do this.)
Edit: If you're running Windows, have a look at the Task Monitor, Networking. See if there's activity when there shouldn't be.
Leave all your computers/phones etc off for a day, see if it still goes up.
If it does still get used with no computers on, you have a security problem with the router. If not, run malware scan, check that no bittorrent app/steam client etc are not running
Or just change your routers password for something more complex and see what happens.
WEP or WPA password? If WPA do all the network bits support WPA2? If WEP you have a script kiddie in the neighbourhood and need to change your hardware as WEP is not secure.
Any Winodws PCS ? Could have a virus and are part of some botnet ?
can't yr provider tell you the main sites that you have downloaded from ?
Sounds like a neighbour has found a way onto your network. Turn off your laptop for a but and see if the lights are still going mad
You could just unplug the modem itself for a day - if there is still usage then that points to BT rather than your kit
I'm assuming by "modem" you mean "router" if you're connecting to it wirelessly. Can you log on to the router's admin console and get it to show connected devices? That'll tell you if there's a rogue machine you can't account for.
What Cougar said.
and second turn everything off for a day and see if the usage continues - could be a BT issue.
If it is BT I am surprised they have told you that you are for it and are about to be charged.
When I did go over my allowance once (the only time ever in about 5 years of broadband service from them) they just whacked me for about £15 in charges without warning.
Needless to say I moved provider straight away.
If you can, it may be worth setting up the MAC filtering to deny anything that you don't know about
I'd turn off lappy wifi (and all other known devices that connect via wifi), reboot router to clear all connections, connect to it via ethernet cable for a day or so (will be a different MAC in the connection logs), then view the connected devices and system log.
Then change admin and WPA passwords, and watch the logs for another day or so, also connected via wired ethernet.
If you see your lappy's wifi MAC addy (attempt to) connect, you know you've got someone local spoofing a MAC. If you're still getting 5Gig throughput on the wired LAN, you know you've got something dodgy going on on the lappy.
PS finding the "hidden"/"invisible" SSID and MAC of the router is very easy, as is finding the MAC of anything that tries to connect, as is changing the MAC on a device.
What they all said. One more thing. You don't have any torrent clients running in the background do you?
On Vista and W7, from the task manager you can get to the Resource Monitor which is an ace tool to see what's going on. It'll tell you the sites that are responsible for your traffic and (I think) the programs that are doing it.
OP has a Mac, I thought?
Do you have BTFON or openzone enabled on your router this could be where the usage is coming from.
Hi and thanks everybody
Ive just skimmed the thread from work
I'll take a good look later
In summary:
Im using an old modem kind of thing connected by ethernet to a 3y old Apple Airport WAP
My security is WPA2 with a sensible password
Thinking about it I may have disabled MAC address specific hooking up after some trouble with my mobile phone - but Ive looked at the WAP stats and all thats connected is my laptop
If someone could log onto my network would they be able to stealth their connection or would I see something on my WAP logs?
If they are clever enough to do that can they get round the security when I switch the MAC address only setting?
And as my modem/router is over 10y old could this be an issue or not in just guzzling data?
Lastly has anyone ever heard of an exchange or BT problem giving rise to this?
I'll report back tomorrow after having my modem switched off for a day
Cheers
Forget MAC filtering, it's pointless.
Other than that, as you were.
Do you have BTFON or openzone enabled on your router this could be where the usage is coming from.
If anyone can download 5kb on a day from BTFON it would be a huge achievement let alone 5Gb.
Do you have BTFON or openzone enabled on your router this could be where the usage is coming from.
If anyone can download 5kb on a day from BTFON it would be a huge achievement let alone 5Gb.