Slow dial up speed internet!
By BabyCheetah
@BabyCheetah (1911)
Australia
December 22, 2012 8:23pm CST
So for the first time ever we have apparently used up 120GB before the end of the month which is just ridiculous. Last month we were also very close as well to doing this but months before that we struggled to use even half! We think either someone has somehow hacked in and is piggybacking off our internet but it seems unlikely because it's passworded and seriously these days everyone has internet so maybe my mum or I have a virus on our PC sucking up our gigs? I've scanned but found nothing on mine I think since mum isn't home I'll run some scans of hers to see what I find.
Just FYI as well I can't log into the router because the idiot who set it up didn't give us the password. It's not the default so it's been changed which is good so noone could access it but I cant get in and mum doesn't want a hard reset done on it either 
So question is does anyone have any ideas or suggestions what the likely cause is? Also what programs do you use to find viruses? I have AVG free and I also have Spybot for the other stuff. My mum has Norton antivirus which I hate but she refuses to listen to me and go with something else 
So question is does anyone have any ideas or suggestions what the likely cause is? Also what programs do you use to find viruses? I have AVG free and I also have Spybot for the other stuff. My mum has Norton antivirus which I hate but she refuses to listen to me and go with something else 2 people like this
4 responses
@911Ricki (13588)
• Canada
23 Dec 12
Are you sure its blocked? I know where I petsit from I was out talking to the neighbours they password blocked their internet, they had their password as the dogs name. I got in and used their internet, then the neighbours who never password their internet. The houses were so close that I could hook up to about 6 houses in the area. Whereas my parents internet was never blocked, but you literally had to sit on our front step to connect, or be in the house.
Otherwise, I would think someone hacked into your computer, or internet.
1 person likes this
@BabyCheetah (1911)
• Australia
23 Dec 12
Well to get on you need the password. We didn't set this password up a friend of my mums did and it's not a word or anything obvious like that and it's long enough so not a short password. What I don't know is if it's a default password or if this friend created it. I think he's an idiot and I don't like him too much, he's one of those arrogant people who thinks they know everything but just talk crap most of the time. I am wondering if it's what you said and someone with a bit of knowledge has hacked it. If that's the case it can only be the neighbours because you can't use ours from too far away you'd have to be close.
I'm doing a full comp scan of mums PC since she won't be home for hours to see what comes up as well.
1 person likes this
@Strovek (868)
• Malaysia
24 Dec 12
There are a few things that could have happened.
1. Did someone in the family started viewing a lot of youtube? It is very easy to use up your quota with youtube.
2. There may have been a lot of patches for your Windows that may consume some of the quota. This combined with your other usage may have done the trick. The patch itself is unlikely to consume 120Gbyte.
3. Were there some huge downloads done during that month.
Virus and malware is unlikely. They usually try to consume as little bandwidth as possible to avoid detection.
Also you could call the person who set up your router to give you the passowrd. After all it is your router.
@BabyCheetah (1911)
• Australia
24 Dec 12
There are just 2 of us that use it and my mum does not use it a lot. We don't watch a heap of youtube vids but I do stream episodes on TVshows I've missed however I do a few of those each month so that is nothing new. Yes I did a windows update earlier this month but to me it doesn't seem to be 120gigs worth. Huge downloads none that I'm aware of we just did our usual.
Well did some scans on both and everything seems fine and safe so no viruses, someone mentioned that might have been the cause good to know it wouldn't be and isn't 
Oh yes I got my mum to ask and he has no bloody clue. I was really pissed off because I said to ask and he had to come over (I don't like him too much) and he was talking crap saying he knew a few "tricks". Well he ended up asking me how to get to the router and for passwords! Then he said we had to pull out cables to reset the router, told him there is simply a button at the back but he claims that doesn't work. So in the end he did nothing, had no clue and ended up pissing me off
I'll have to reset myself when mum isn't home because she won't let me near it!
Oh yes I got my mum to ask and he has no bloody clue. I was really pissed off because I said to ask and he had to come over (I don't like him too much) and he was talking crap saying he knew a few "tricks". Well he ended up asking me how to get to the router and for passwords! Then he said we had to pull out cables to reset the router, told him there is simply a button at the back but he claims that doesn't work. So in the end he did nothing, had no clue and ended up pissing me off
I'll have to reset myself when mum isn't home because she won't let me near it!@Strovek (868)
• Malaysia
24 Dec 12
Sounds like you are very knowledgeable and have more or less covered all the base. Also, the guy who set up the router is clueless.
Just out of curiosity, is it a wireless router? WEP can be broken into quite easily with all the tools available on the net. However, I think the first thing you need to do is to take control of the router so that you can check if others are using it. Explain to your mom that is is important that you are in control rather than depend on the other guy.
Good luck.
@BabyCheetah (1911)
• Australia
30 Dec 12
Well I'm certainly more knowledgeable than him but I wouldn't say I know a lot about it. It is a wireless router, I'm not home at the moment I'm house sitting but it's not on WEP as I was told years ago it's not the best to be on. I think it's just on WPA atm and not WPA2
@artemeis (4194)
• China
24 Dec 12
In order for your internet access account to be exclusive, you will need to customize your broadband router's security to your own preference. Ignoring this will just allow your account to be opened to your nearby neighbors.
I would recommend that you set your router away from factory settings and create your own username and passwords for both the router and internet access respectively. You cannot afford to overlook and neglect such a procedure since you have a limited data plan on your internet access. Your "neighbors" will just be enjoying a free ride if you don't and consumption will be at yours sincerely wallet when they stream medias, massive downloads and play online games.
The other area you will need to look into would be to customize your smartphones, to manual for apps and system updates. Doing this has 2 good purposes, where it lets you review the apps and decide if you would like to continue using it. The other would be letting you control how much data usage is required or used.
There's really no other way to it and if you do not put in some efforts here, you will just have to pay the price.
@BabyCheetah (1911)
• Australia
30 Dec 12
Yes I know all that. I finally reset the router when my mum wasn't home as she bloody wouldn't let me even though I told her I had to and it wouldn't affect anything besides me being able to access our router. The passwords were changed by the idiot who set it all up which is why I couldn't log into it. I asked my mum to get the password off him and he didn't know it so he thought coming over to our house because he knew a few "tricks" would be fine (I hate the guy personally he's full of crap). He didn't even know how to get to the router to log in!
Anyway I did it and changed everything in it and checked out the MAC addresses and there is only the 2 of us. Also we do not have smartphones so no worries about that 
@thewonderboy (7501)
• India
24 Dec 12
120 Gb data usage is something huge.
I think the problem may be with the billing. I had found such an an billing mistake for myself and I had reported this issue and the bill and it's charges was changed. I think you can file an petition against it.
I don't think that browsing will create such a huge amount of data. May be you had downloaded something a lot. This might be the reason.
@BabyCheetah (1911)
• Australia
30 Dec 12
That's why it's strange, we didn't do anything different from our usual and we struggle to use 120gb a month. The company won't do anything, they claim they can't tell us how "we" used so much. But I do know they are doing something dodgy because there was this other time years ago where my mum only had a 2gb limit and she went over in a few days just from checking emails! It's really stupid
