Comcast 300GB limit

[Spiffy]

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.

 

You can tell I play WoW can't you!   

 

I turned off the P2P stuff since I'm on satellite and only pull from the server.

[Guest TankerHC]

Not necessary to wipe the drive yet. Ill take a guess at this. narrowed down to his PC. He says he doesnt download "That much". Nothing else could be causing it. So here is my guess.

 

Some of the downloading he did, although not much and it only takes one file, allowed in a file sharing trojan. (Came in through a backdoor, the backdoor being attached to a file he downloaded).

 

My guess. Your son is file sharing through a backdoor trojan and doesn't even know it.  

 

Run Comodo

[Tobashadow]

Here's you some more friendly "parenting advice" as you call it - http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/43713/how-to-monitor-the-bandwidth-consumption-of-individual-applications/

[analog_kidd]

If he is using BitTorrent to download files, you need to remove all the files he's downloaded, or at least tell the BitTorrent software to stop sharing them out. The way Bit Torrent works is its a network of people all over the internet sharing files. When you download a file, your PC will connect to dozens of those other computers in the network, downloading little parts of the file from each of the remote PC's you are connected to. As parts of the file are downloaded to your PC, your PC becomes one of the many PC's in that network, and those parts of the file in turn get shared to the world. In short, your PC starts hosting the file out for others to connect to and download.

 

Downloading a file may have only cost you a gig or two of data, but the constant downloading of that gig by other people may be what is eating up your bandwidth. Especially if it is a really popular movie or album. Most Bit Torrent apps have a way to stop sharing the files you have downloaded, but you have to go out of your way to stop sharing them. Or you can move the files into a folder the BitTorrent software is not looking in. IF you just download the file and leave them where it downloads, if your PC is on, and connected to the Internet, it makes those files available to the world.

 

The hosting of the files is where you can get into trouble. If he has downloaded music or a movie, and other people are downloading it, you have just become a software pirate, illegally giving out free copies of music and movies to anyone. There are organizations that look for people hosting copywrited material and will prosecute.

 

If you find out that Bit Torrent is the cause, you need to educate yourself and your son about the implications. Most people stumble into these programs innocently enough, and are just thrilled to have a free movie, but don't understand the underlying technology.

 

If he's not using BitTorrent, then you almost certainly have a virus or trojan. Download and Install MalwareBytes onto the PC and run a full scan. It's free and does a good job of finding malware that an antivirus may ignore. Get it cleaned up, and make sure you have a good antivirus installed and up to date, and make sure the firewall is on.

 

Google search "No Add Host File" and install a host file on all of your PC's. This is a free and effective way to keep your PC's off of malicious sites. It's the first thing I do when friends ask me to clean up their infected PC's.

 

Good luck