Computers............

I'm at my wits end.

We get our Internet service with a Verizon "Hotspot", and I have a "Jet Pack" to carry along to run my laptop when I'm on the road. We're on a 6 gig per month plan.

Usetabe, we'd run under 6. Then for the last 6-8 months, the monthly usage has steadily gone up. Right now, we're ten days into our monthly 30 day period, and we've used almost 5 gigs. It's going crazy.

Between my wife and I, and both of our computers, we really haven't changed our habits to any degree. We haven't added any new programs. I had a computer shop check both computers, and they couldn't find anything that would be causing usage to go up.

Still, it's going berserk. I've tried pulling the plug at the wall one computer at a time, I've tried running our computers off the Jetpack instead of the Hotspot, and nothing seems to make a difference. One time, overnight, I pulled the plug at the wall on both computers, and took the batteries out of both the Hotspot and Jetpack, and the next morning it still showed a slight bit of usage overnight.

Verizon isn't any help. I talked to one of their techies. He said he'd analyze our usage and call back at a certain time on a certain day. He didn't. I suspect Verizon isn't too interested in solving a problem that would reduce usage overage charges. The BBB in Lincoln says they get so many complaints about Verizon, they can't handle them all in their office, they have to hand them off to a large BBB office in New Jersey. Our monthly bill for 6 gigs should be $80. With overages, our current bill is $140, and the next one will be worse.

I'm going nuts trying to isolate the usage to one unit, but I haven't come up with anything. And I have to be on the 'Net for business purposes, so it's not like I can pull the plug on the whole thing for days at a time.

One bright spot is my two year contract on the Hotspot ends in a week and I have the chance to do something else. But I don't know what, as I don't even know if the problem is at our end or Verizon's.

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

If you had them unplugged overnight and it showed usage, it would have to be on their end. Verizon isn't the best company in the world.

You're scaring me goose, we are getting rid of our Wildblue satellite and switching to Verizon right now. So far it is much faster than Wild blue but now I'm worried for down the road.

It's possible that someone may have hacked into your account.

Goose, I got on Verizon with jet pack, to carry alone with my laptop if need it. I have been on it almost two yr. I get real good fast service with it.
I started out with 6 GB, I see I did not need that much. I cut back to 4GB. I have not went over 4GB yet. But I don t watch many videos. That is where you can use them up fast. Mine is only $51 A mo. My service in good so for.

Not sure, you may have another problem.

Hammer Man

i am on att at 5g per month for mobile hotspot. in addition to mobile hotspot i had unlimited data plan on my cell phone. i too have noticed my usage on hotspot has gone up. recently att has changed billing for hotspot with a reduced fee and an increase in gigs without any mention made of unlimited data on phones. that said, my belief is att combined mobile hotspot usage with cell phone data usage and no longer offer unlimited data on cell. perhaps verizon has combined cell phone data with computer use as well.

I also wondered if Goose has someone hacking in, and using his wifi.

I agree. If you leave it unplugged there shouldn't be any usage. There have been some "odd" things with usage through Verizon.

Troubleshooting tips:
Make it simple, just to check things.

You have a program that you have to run, to start the Verizon connection, right? VZ Access or something, right?
You click “Connect” to start the connection.
You click “Disconnect” when you’re done, and you stop using their service.
When you start it, you have a program that tells you your usage, right?

You need to start watching that closely, which sounds like you’re already doing

1. Check if there is usage, when you’re disconnected.
Let’s say you’re not using it overnight. Check your megabytes used, before you disconnect.
Then the next morning, when you connect, there should not have been any usage.
Make sure those numbers are the same; at night and again the next morning.

Do the same test for one afternoon, when you don’t need your computer for 2 hours.
Check usage, disconnect, wait 2 hours, check again. Should be the same number.

If that number is increasing when both computers are disconnected, then either Verizon is cheating you, or someone else is using your service, your account.

If that’s not it, then:

2. Try using the Verizon service with only ONE computer. Leave the 2nd one disconnected. (Just for a test)
Check your usage at the beginning of the day, and again at the end.
How much did you use in one day?

Then do the test with the other computer. How much did it use in one day?
Can you narrow it down to: One computer is using much more internet than the other?

3. The Verizon Hotspot is designed to let additional people use your internet connection. When it’s on.
Even if your computer is off.
Question: Do you have your Hotspot set up with a PASSWORD? You should.
Check that out, by:
Ask a friend to bring their laptop to your house.
Turn on your hotspot.
Ask them to connect to your hotspot
TEST: Does it ask them for a password? Or can they connect without a password?
Figure out how to make it require a password, if it doesn’t already.

You should turn off your hotspot device when you’re not using it.

4. Do you watch movies or download videos when connected to Verizon?
We had a case at my work once, where someone watched a movie on the weekend, with their Verizon service
and used up all the data. I don’t know if it was Netflx or just YouTube, etc, but it used a lot.

Comment: You only need to “Disconnect” the Verizon service to stop using it.
You don’t need to turn off the computer.
You don’t need to remove the battery to stop using your Verizon internet service.
Although the hotspot is different. It can let others connect to the internet, when your computer is off.

If you have shut the modem down, I do not see how anyone could be using the wifi. As prev mentioned, check you usage at night - shut everything down including modem and then check it again in the morning. If it shows usage, I would say a billing issue within Verizon.

Greg K: Verizon only does one thing very well. CHARGE THE heck out of YOU!!!!!!!!! We have a group cell phone plan. I have to watch it all of the time. Just about every month has some mistake or another on the bill. It always is in their favor too, never LESS money.

It went so far as I had my lawyer write them about them billing me for a service that I did not order or request in any way.

As soon as this contract is done I am dumping Verizon. I don't care if I have to go back to two tin cans and a string. I will not deal with a crooked company like Verizon!!!!!!!

I've pretty much done all of that.

The Jetpack and Hotspot each have their own password. We don't watch movies, listen to music, or whatever. My wife just does email on her computer, checks out the local funeral homes to see who croaked, and surfs the 'Net a bit. There are days when I need to be on the 'Net for several hours for business use, but I was on that much before the usage started going up. Like I said, our habits really haven't changed that much.

Our nearest neighbor's house is about 200 yards away, and I don't think the Hotspot has that much range. The neighbor is a Deputy Sheriff, but that doesn't mean anything. Knowing him like I do, I wouldn't put it past him to filch someone else's Internet service if he had the chance. I once owned the house he's living in and half of his rent checks bounced, among other misdeeds. I don't know how the fellow I sold the house to is doing.

Thanks for the responses. Until I can come up with some ideas, I'll keep the hotspot turned off when we're not using the computers.

I have had Verizon for years and never had a problem.

Run something like malwarebytes on your computer. It can find stuff that the OS and antivirus can't. Unless they loaded something on to your computer to look for spyware and such, they wouldn't find it if it is there.

My daughter has been with Verizon for years and never had any major problems. When her last contract was up, she just kept the same phone and found a plan that suited her budget. No contract required. So if your contract is almost up, you should be able to do the same unless you get new equipment from them. That would give you the option to change any time you wanted to.

I have the same set-up except I buy from Millenicom. Jetpack 4GLTE using Verizon towers. Millenicom is the company Verizon uses for the device. We have the 10 gigabyte per month plan for $69.99.

We have four computers and have never run over. Came close though when my kid was using Google Earth a lot. I was also told to never leave the system on all night along with the computers. Automatic updates can cause a large-download problem.

change your passwords.
carefully check all devices for viruses, etc.
hackers will sometimes take control of unprotected or lightly protected computers, leaving nothing you can casually see.
Then with their 'network' of compromised computers, they
can do some amazingly nasty things.
I heard of one customer that had a similar problem.
Unplugged, unhooked everything, put it in a box, dropped it off at the providers store. Picked it up the next day and had them check usage while they had it.....it was fixed soon after.

There's a delay between usage and when it's reported. Either someone is accessing your WiFi or malware is running on one or both PCs.

Network sniffer software like Wireshark can show exactly what's going in and out of each PC.