Where is my bandwidth?

G

gdot

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This weekend I ran out of bandwith and then got 3gig more even though I thought it was kinda early for me to run out. By the end of the weekend I had used up all 3gb but I don't know where it went!

My only unusual usage is two episodes of Anime off www.dattebayo.com but together they should only be 340mb (they didn't even finish downloading!). I'm a bit of a leech too so my uploads is limited to 1kb/s.

I'm running on a Macbook - Leopard. Using Transmission and Firefox. My wifi router is configure to allow only certain MAC addresses. My ISP says they only saw one login and they tell me that it must be the torrents and they don't support torrents anyway.

Could it be the torrents? Where else can I check?
 
As always, there is a possibility of bandwidth theft.
Check that someone has not hacked your ADSL account isn't stealing your bandwidth.

Otherwise it could be Malware or Viruses on your Macbook ;)

EDIT:

If your ISP is certain about only seeing 1 login, then watch out for you Wifi, as generally it is very insecure, even if you have it protected.

Also watch out for little programs that like to update themselves, they can sometimes cause bandwidth disappearance that you know nothing about.

3Gigs is a fair amount of bandwidth and shouldn't dissappear easily without your connection being hacked or bandwidth stolen in some way.
 
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I'll hack a wifi router using MAC based security in 10 seconds if there is anything alive on it. It's THE easiest thing to crack and spoof!!
 
Its not only MAC based but has WPA on it as well. I'm still trying to find a symptom of where the bandwidth went - so I immediately know in the future if it is happening. Nothing seems to point to the wifi hack. It almost seems like the torrent downloaded 300mb while actually causing 3gb of traffic, is this possible?

Or maybe I can run tcpdump occasionally and search for specific ports or IPs but I have know idea what to look for. Anybody know any mac tools for checking for Wifi hackers?
 
Either the theft or you're uploading a heck of a lot for your torrent - check that your torrent client setting for upload is limited.

For anime downloads I would have to recommend realitylapse.com. Most if not all anime is hosted on the site and its direct downloads. File format is .rmvb only about 75mb a file and quality is very good.

IIRC Glordit has a snapshot up here, will post the pic once I find it.
 
My uploads are limited to 1kb/s and Dattebayo is about as reputable as they come for Naruto and Bleach downloads. Though I will check out realitylapse for sure.

Still doesn't help in early identification or protect myself from the problem I had though.

["Here's the rail," said the user to the thread.]
 
And the frustrating thing is also that I've had very little feedback from my ISP. I've sent a couple of emails and yesterday phoned them. The guy yesterday said a couple of things I'm sure was wrong so I asked him to mail me so that I can follow up on them. No word. Even email them again but no word.

Things the support person said that I figure is wrong:
1. My network monitoring tools can be wrong in measurement. Sure, I said, but not by 3gb. Yes, he said, it can.
2. The torrents can create bandwidth, besides the uploads and downloads, that could be responsible for a significant chunk of the missing 3gb. Send me a link that tells me shows me this on the internet, I said.
3. He suggested I log a call with Telkom. Why? I'm paying them not Telkom.

Suggestions on alternative ISPs would also be welcome.
 
Who is your current ISP?

I'm afraid I'm not clued up on Wifi hacking, so you're at a loss with me there :p

Do you run Skype all day?
 
ISP is Cybersmart. I run Adium (gmail,msn), Mail all the time. Skype only now and then.

My programs allowed through the firewall are:
firefox
transmission
itunes (it doesn't run all the time)
adium
skype
entourage (though only for when I'm at work)
cyberduck
(I've just noticed that Mail works despite not being in that list)
 
Never had any issues with Cybersmart myself...

Why I asked about Skype is because there was another forumite that left Skype running overnight and it made its way through 2GB. This was because of him being set as a supernode iirc, will try and find the link as well.

EDIT: There you go.

I really don't know if that could be the problem, seeing that you don't have it running all the time, but its an avenue to look at it.
 
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If it is skype. Try turning port 80 and 443 as alternative incoming ports off.
I am not sure if video calls are also forwarded through those ports. That could eat a lot of bandwith
 
I can't remember if Skype was running at the time, so maybe that is something to look into.
 
Went onto Skype's knowledgebase. Did a search for "super node". Nothing. Searched for "super" - nothing. Searched for "node" - nothing. Did a search for "and" - nothing. Searched "the" - nothing. Searched for "skype" - nothing! WTF?

Went to Google, found this:
http://visibleprocrastinations.word...-how-not-to-be-a-supernode-still-no-solution/

So clear answer on making your mac free of the supernode status. Still looks like this was not my problem though. Though it has made me wary of Skype.

I think I'm gonna have to find some time this weekend to play around with tcpdump and maybe set up regular checks.
 
i am with telkom and since febuary this year i have noticed that my 3g has not been lasting the full month which it had for the past 4 years. phoned telkom and they gave me a load of carp about changing passwords and hacking etc and so forth, which i found was a load of bull.
this month my 3g was used up equally fast, so this saturday gone i was capped. i then did a topup of 1 gig online and went through saturday as normal. by 11.30 all computers in the house had been turned off and everyone was asleep. sunday morning logged on and was on for about half hour when we suddenly got capped. phoned telkom technology support as was told by a technician that at 1.52 sunday morning we used 800mgs. to which we told him that it was impossible as no one was using the internet.
now we have concrete evidence of not being on the internet at all yet they are still trying to give us some excuse.
of course there is someone stealing peoples bandwidth and here is the proof of it. but telkom are trying to tell us we used it?
i am so mad because as the consumer we are getting the raw end of the deal and now we have to wait till the end of the month to start with the new 3g. i am not going to pay for another topup and have someone steal it again.
 
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