Comcast 300GB limit

[daddyo]

I need some help from the IT gurus here.

 

From Nov to Dec last year, my data usage doubled from 250GB to over 500GB, and it's been over 500 since. I have 11GB left of the next 50GB that they charge you for when you go over 300GB limit. The only thing that has changed is that my son bought a new gaming PC. My wife and I haven't done anything differently. We aren't even online that much and we both work. My son works 5 days a week but when he is off he spends much of his time online. He is a gamer but says he doesn't download that much and that he hasn't changed his online activity since he bought his new PC.

 

I called and spoke to a Comcast Tech who told me to check and make sure that my network is secure (it is), and that no one is running any file sharing software. I'm not, my wife is not, and my son says he is not. He has been connecting an ethernet cable for faster speed, and I've noticed that whenever he does that, the data usage is higher. The only thing I can do to keep from going over the 300GB limit is to pull the plug when it gets uncomfortably close to the limit.

 

After ruling out a possible unsecured network and file sharing, what else can I check for? I've got to get this figured out or I'm very likely to cancel my Comcast account.

[Tobashadow]

Your going to have to stop taking his word for it and see what he's doing on the computer yourself and make sure he knows the net is getting canceled if you don't find the source. I put money on he's actually file sharing.

[daddyo]

Your going to have to stop taking his word for it and see what he's doing on the computer yourself and make sure he knows the net is getting canceled if you don't find the source. I put money on he's actually file sharing.

 

He knows that it is on him to figure out what changes have pushed us over that limit.

But I'm not interested in parenting advice. I'm interested in what else I can check for.

Edited February 20, 2014 by daddyo

[daddyo]

This. And that he is bad at it. Good practice when using this is to not share it yourself which requires some software options tweaks. Not to mention that the people who usually get busted for it are the ones sharing (knowingly or not) not the ones just downloading it. Gaming in itself doesn't eat up 200+ GB a month even for hardcore gamers, much less a weekend gamer.

One story I heard not too long ago was a guy that got the boot from comcast for a year because he kept going over. Turned out it was his new security system. The cameras were internet connected and sending HD video to online storage/access (that he could view from his cell phone or another computer). Moral of the story, 3 overages a year and they don't play about it.

 

I don't have an internet security system, so I can rule that out. The information about gaming is helpful though. Thanks.

 

Do you have some advice on what to check for on his PC?

Edited February 20, 2014 by daddyo

[knewcomb]

Netnanny.com. he could game 12 hours a day and still not come close to 300gb. Edited February 20, 2014 by knewcomb

[Guest drv2fst]

Your router / firewall might have a traffic monitoring service built in.  It can prove which computer is hogging all the bandwidth, when, and over what ports and protocols.  It's possible he has some virus/trojan that is turning his computer into a bot for someone else to use.  

 

It's very difficult to use that much bandwidth unless someone is uploading and downloading large video files.  We hit the limit on occasion when we start watching shows and movies over the internet from Amazon Prime, Netflix, ....  We have 5 people in our household each watching their favorite shows on their iPad.  We had to put a stop to that.

[daddyo]

Your router / firewall might have a traffic monitoring service built in. It can prove which computer is hogging all the bandwidth, when, and over what ports and protocols. It's possible he has some virus/trojan that is turning his computer into a bot for someone else to use.

It's very difficult to use that much bandwidth unless someone is uploading and downloading large video files. We hit the limit on occasion when we start watching shows and movies over the internet from Amazon Prime, Netflix, .... We have 5 people in our household each watching their favorite shows on their iPad. We had to put a stop to that.

How would we determine if he has that type of virus or trojan?

[babelt]

How would we determine if he has that type of virus or trojan?

 

Running scans with multiple anti-virus programs. Most of the anti-viruses have the same stuff in the databases but I have seen where one will pick it up and the others won't. Of course don't have two installed and running at the same time, it can lock the computer down because one anti-virus with think the other is a actual virus since it is scanning. Alot of people run the free anti-virus and that is fine most of the time but for my stuff and anyone that ask me what they should run I tell them Vipre. Always had good luck with it and it's $100 for the life of the computer. The link below is Vipre Internet Security. You can get regular anit-virus but this one has a few more features. 

 

http://www.vipreantivirus.com/VIPRE-internet-security/

[babelt]

Also forgot to mention. Do you stream any kind of media from say Netflix, hulu, or through your TV provider? When I got direct tv I was downloading alot of movies from on demand and that was racking up my data usage. Since I canceled the movie channels I don't do that any more and the consumption has went down. 

 

Also if you sign into your comcast account online if you look under my services they actually have a calculator showing you what kind of data you should be using depending on how many devices and what kind of stuff you are doing. 

Edited February 20, 2014 by babelt

[Spiffy]

What games? There are few that use a P2P service to distribute updates and the like. Do you have iPads that are always connected to WiFi? When I got mine it ate up a lot of my bandwidth with it's checking for new stuff (email, notifiations, ect).

 

If it's a brand new PC it might have had a lot of software updates for both the OS and games. 

[QuietDan]

Separate the service.

 

A Comcast feed for you, and a Comcast feed for your son - that he pays for. Then the eventual Comcast cancellation only affects him and only rewards his behavior.

 

He does have a job to support his habit, right?

 

By the way, you tipped your hand that you know what the problem is when you wrote: ". . . and my son 'says' he is not. . . . "

Edited February 20, 2014 by QuietDan

[daddyo]

Thanks for the replies. Some good information.

Once again, I am looking only for technical advice, not parenting advice. Not that it's anyone's business, but he knows that he will pay the overage when Comcast starts billing for it since I can say with petty good certainty that what's coming through his pc is the problem.

Now that that's settled, I'd love to hear from others who have something to contribute in the technical area ONLY. Thanks.

[Metalhead]

My money is on th virus/trojan. No way online gaming is eating up that much data part time. I'd have him download and run malwarebytes in safe mode first tbh, maybe even the MS Security Essentials as well if he keeps it updated. I'd let him do it though, as I wouldnt go poking around someone elses computer too much.

[Wiljo05]

A couple things you can check and do on the network side:

Since the gaming PC is the only "change" to activity and data has increased since this came online, I would start there. Normally the gaming itself doesn't eat tons of juice(basically just sending coordinates) , but if his PC is the "host" it can destroy data usage. You are hosting the heavy usage piece of the game, plus all the traffic from the other gamers hits too!

If you are familiar with a router, you can log into the console and blacklist the URL's that he is playing on for a couple days to isolate the concern.

Long in the short, you can reset your usage "counter" on the router, then blacklist the sights. Go 2 days and note the amount of data used. Reset the usage counter again and open the router back up, go 2 days and note the usage again. If usage is exponentially higher, you know immediately the culprit is indeed the gaming and then can address however you choose at that point.

Feel free to pm me if you need any guidance on the router piece.

[2.ooohhh]

daddyo- does the family use any streaming services and if so on what devices? How are those devices connected?

 

I ask b/c recently (december?) our netflix account defaulted to post-play automatically what this means is that the next episode of a tv show will start right after the previous episode ends. Not too bad if your watching it, but downstairs in one of our setups the PS3 was connected to a HDMI switch which kept the ports active. What would happen is my wife would run on the treadmill while watching a TV show and then turn off the TV and amp with the universal IR remote.(that PS3 is not controllable via IR) The PS3 couldn't tell the TV was turned off due to the HDMI switch and was continuing to play HD episodes of the wife's show 24x7 until the series ended.

 

Add to that the new "Ultra HD" and "5.1 audio" that netflix will stream if your device supports it and your video quality settings allow it (PS3 is in this group) and I was clocking around 6gb an hour.

 

Moral of the story- log into Netflix / your account / Play back settings / set data usage to "medium" and turn off "play next episode automatically" if you have bandwidth caps. My wife can't tell the difference and I can always change it back if I'm watching something in the theater. I wish they allowed it on a per device basis but this fixed the issue for now.

 

You can also use the viewing history to see how many shows you have watched in the last month to see if this might be the issue.

Edited February 20, 2014 by 2.ooohhh

[Guest Bolt_Overide]

Just because you "think" your network is secure doesnt mean it is. You need to check the logs on your router by MAC address and see if there are any that dont match the MACs on your PCs, consoles, phones, tablets, etc. Most consumer class routers do not have all that robust of an encryption package. Next, I would be checking all devices you own for malicious software. A compromised system being used for a botnet could easily explain the increase. Lastly, I would echo the advice of others, check ALL systems in the home for P2P software. 

[johnwilliams5721]

What games? There are few that use a P2P service to distribute updates and the like.

Specifically, Blizzard likes to use P2P for updates to its games. Once your son downloads an update, he automatically uploads it to others as needed. There's a button to turn it off somewhere in the game on a per game basis.

Netflix, Amazon Instant, and other streaming movie/TV services eat a lot too if you have any of those.

Beyond that there's likely a problem either of the fibbing or malware kind.

[daddyo]

Tuesday I had him disconnect from the network. Usage for that day returned to normal. When he left for work yesterday I told him to leave it running and connected. Usage spiked again, with another 4GB used in that time period and he wasn't even home. So I think the verdict is in on which device it is.

[daddyo]

You know, guys, I would appreciate it very much if you could keep your opinions about whether or not my son is lying to yourselves. If you can't respect that request, then just don't post. Thanks.

[Wiljo05]

Tuesday I had him disconnect from the network. Usage for that day returned to normal. When he left for work yesterday I told him to leave it running and connected. Usage spiked again, with another 4GB used in that time period and he wasn't even home. So I think the verdict is in on which device it is.

If you had that much usage while it was not being played, the likelihood is possible that his PC is acting as the host of the gaming, or has some software (malware, ect) that is causing some serious web traffic even while unattended.

Check your router settings (upload / download usage) to see what is higher. The majority of users out there have a much higher download rate. But if the upload traffic is heavy, there could be a piece of software that allows traffic out (google uTorrent).

I used uTorrent (to download free ware legally) to test some software one time, and came back a few days later and realized it opened a port and allowed other users to download that same software from me as the host. That sucked some serious data.

[Joseg]

go to www.grc.com and use their tools to check your ports, also check your router's log. not sure what brand your router is but you might be able to slow down his connection if your router supports it. 300GB a month is a lot of data, I mean a lot of data. 

[Hershmeister]

4GB a day when no one is using the PC is a sure sign of either a virus/trojan and/or the PC is hosting something.

[Sam1]

Definitely not using up that much bandwidth gaming, even 24/7. And unless you all streaming movies or music 24/7 it's probably not that either.

My guess it would be one of two things:

Malware or file sharing/downloading.

The easiest way to verify file sharing is not happening is to install a keylogger/screencap program on his computer. Don't take that as opinions on how to parent, it's just the easiest way to get to the bottom of things with limited technical knowledge. Outside of that, you're looking at a vast array possibilities that could take a long time to isolate or remediate without a tech person physically investigating for you.

Normally if it is malware, Comcast will tell you they've detected something and ask you to download their Symantec, and run a scan.

[Joseg]

It's p0rn.. check his palms..

[BryanP]

Okay, you've narrowed it down to his PC.  So the next step is to either find what is on the PC that is generating so much traffic, or assume that it's infected, wipe and reload the OS.

 

That much traffic, it's almost certainly a file sharing app of some sort.  If the PC got infected someone else may be using it for that purpose without your son's knowledge.

 

If neither you or your son can determine what the problem is, you'll need to either find a more technically inclined friend or take it and have a pro look at it.

Edited February 20, 2014 by BryanP