Cap being used up, but i'm not using it?

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The Traveller

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In two instances I've lost about 200MB of my cap while having downloaded very little to nothing on my pc. In the last two days, I've hardly been on and yet another 200MB is gone. Firstly, and while i realise it is unlikely, can any of the gadgets on google desktop constitute this much use. I think the RSS (or web clips) reader, google talk and the day/night clock chow the most, but still that's minimal. I use a Gigabyte wireless router (GN-B49G) and so i checked what kinda of traffic is moving through my wireless card and there is nothing. Problem is, this starting happening just after I installed Google Desktop, so I just want to make sure that's not the problem.

Now the more likely cause of the problem. Could this be an account hijacking I read about on this forum before? :eek: Who do I contact if it is? Will the help desk even do anything?

I really don't want to lose anymore bandwidth. Could someone please help me?

--The Traveller
 
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Thanks, I was actually reading that thread when i saw your post. So you would recommend getting my password changed, right? Is it really as simple as phoning the ever useless helpdesk?

OR should I check whether someone has the same username as me first? And try to reason this out with them?

--The Traveller
 
The Traveller said:
Thanks, I was actually reading that thread when i saw your post. So you would recommend getting my password changed, right? Is it really as simple as phoning the ever useless helpdesk?

OR should I check whether someone has the same username as me first? And try to reason this out with them?

--The Traveller
Click to expand...

hehe well see what you can find out. and please respond here with your outcome.

they promissed better security but it's still to be put to the test "wink wink" if you know what i mean :p
 
I was thinking the same a Donovan. M$ released a bunch of new updates in the last 2 days. Don't think it will add up to 200Mb though
 
:lol: another case of using default password on your router :D
 
Keep in mind if you use a wireless router any sod with a wireless card can use you internet if you did not change the passwords.
 
Well check all of your security and check for viruses. Probably not very likley, but viruses can chow bandwidth like anything if they try...

I dont really understand the account hijacking anyway, they say only your UTD can use its password.. so how?
 
Change the default username and password of your router first. Then phone them and ask them to change your password and go an put that into the router. This way you at least know that someone isn't using your account from another line.

Then like said above make sure that wireless is turned off if you don't use it or change the default wireless password. I think that it's more likely that someone got your adsl codes than someone using your internet from wireless.
 
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bullfrog said:
Then like said above make sure that wireless is turned off if you don't use it or change the default wireless password. I think that it's more likely that someone got your adsl codes than someone using your internet from wireless.
Click to expand...

Wana bet? I heard about a guy driving around town with his car and a laptop looking for open dsl routers. Then later when he needs internet he knows where to go...
 
Thanks for the replies

Turns out I didn't have time to phone iBurst, and frankly I don't think they're the problem. I left my PC unconnected for a whole day and the bandwidth remained unchanged. At this point, I will say that my another PC was connected the whole time and the bandwidth remained unchanged. Oh and i've never used the default password on the router; not that stupid. But I did change it just in case. ;) Oh and the wireless LAN is running with WPA-PSK encryption.

Anyway, I'm watching the received and sent bytes on the router and I noticed that's it's slowly ticking over. I think, therefore, that there must be something on my PC that is causing this. I think that one of the google desktop gadgets may be to blame. Although it may not use large amounts of bandwidth immediately, the slow and steady use my constitute a lot over a period of time. If two or more gadgets are doing this, then it may be easy to explain. :( In short, I will uninstall them one by one, until the bandwidth usage stops. I'm also running an antivirus and anti-spyware scan as well to be sure.

Thanks for the help, I'll let you all knwo how it goes. :)

EDIT: Maybe I'm just being stupid here, but I assume the router does communicate with the UTD now and again without actually sending packets out over the WAN. Is this right? (Like diagnostics or something, I don't know).

Maybe this is constituting what I am seeing on the WAN Ethernet status page on my router rather than actual bandwidth usage. The networking tab in Windows Task Manager shows zero usage for my wireless card unless I do something (like request a page or download mail). Thus it can't be my google gadget theory, as the same thing happens whether google desktop is on or off. Really, I'm not sure, maybe it was Windows Updates (possibly with two computers downloading updates it could be?). Maybe I should leave my computer connected and see what my bandwidth report looks like tomorrow. Any suggestions?

--The Traveller
 
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It's google Desktop, the same happened to me. Google Desktop Indexes your PC contents online.
My index file was 800MB last time I used it, that gets 'sync' online at Google HQ. You can monitor it yourself.

Soz, I know it's 2 years later ;)
 
iBurst Stolen bandwidth : 2.4 gig in 6 hours!!!

At the beginning of the month of September, on the 1st September to be exact, by 5:40am, I’d had 2.4 Gig of my 3 Gig bandwidth cap used up in a mere 6 hours (between 12 midnight and 5:40am, during which time I was asleep and my PC was off)… This is according to the bandwidth usage email I received on the 1 September 2008.

We all know that this, even though theoretically possible, is practically impossible and I immediately reported it to iBurst that morning with a screen shot of my firewall activity supporting my case, the screenshot showed that there had been no internet activity from the time I went to bed around 11:00pm.

Despite the screenshot showing that there was no usage on my side, iBurst have done jack all to reinstate the bandwidth that was stolen from me. They bounced me from person to person and said that they were looking into it, it is now almost the end of September and there is still no resolution to this issue.

So… I have now gone over to the dark side and signed up with Hellkom for a 4mb ADSL line. As this is the kind of service I would expect from them anyway.

Has anyone else experienced this same “bandwidth disappearing overnight” issue? I would urge anyone using iBurst to sign up for the daily usage report. Our iBurst reseller claimed that there were other cases of this happening and that it is under investigation… Since each iBurst modem has its username and password hard coded to the device itself, thus making logging on with a different modem impossible (we have tried and tested this), the only logical explanation depicts that this would be an “inside” job and that some random iBurst employee is busy helping themselves to customer bandwidth.

I have 2 firewalls and an antivirus active; I do not run a wireless network, and since I have been with iBurst since March 2005, I have one of the original, grey home network modems. After being one of the first subscribers to iBurst in Durban, I feel very hard done by them. They seem to have gotten too big for their boots and lost all sense of customer support and care.

I used to recommend iBurst quite highly, however, since this event came about, I have not had one good thing to say about them… and voluntarily moving over to Telkom (*shudder*) for better service proves that. Scary thought…
 
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