Question About Internet Usage(Long)

Although I'm pretty handy around tractors, engines, etc., alot of the modern computer-related things just go over my head, so a little help with something would be appreciated!

Here's the deal- I live in a remote area where there's not a lot of choices for internet. Had Vieero internet from a nearby cell tower, and it was barely faster than dial-up.

Based on the recommendation of a neighbor I switched to Verizon a few months ago. Signed up for I think 10GB plan(whatever that means)...the girl told me it'd be $90 per month or so. There's two of us here in the house, combined internet time is probably 4-6 hours per day at the most, which includes normal web surfing like reading this sight and occasionally watching some u-tube videos, etc.

Had it set up for automatic payments so I hadn't payed much attention to it, but today I got online and looked at my statement- it was over $400 this month due to overuse! Something like 33.38GB used.

They want me to sign up for a 30GB per month plan, which is about $200 per month. Way too much I think!

So, here's my question- there's two computers in the house, and they pick up their internet signal through a little WiFi thing. We just leave everything on and connected all the time. Would I save a bunch of data usage by disconnecting both computers from the internet when not in use, or by powering off the WiFi thing?

My son says we should switch to satellite internet, but I'd hate for the computers to go down when storms go over like the tv does...he mentioned CenturyLink...is that satellite? Any other/better options?

I think the solution is to get a Wifi router... when picking up a wifi signal, you won't be using your data plan (again, I THINK).

Double check with Verizon though.

I think you would save-a-lot by disconnecting from the internet when not using the computer.

I would suggest Hughes Net ... does not charge by usage.

That might be totally wrong... I've got Smart Phone on the brain - just got one and am trying to figure it all out.

If you are talking straight computer, I'm not sure.

what do you do for telephone? do you have a land line? and do you know if it is ran off a fiber optic cable or is the a fiber optic cable close by if so I would look into getting on the fiber even if it does cost a little money to get it hooked up. it is the fastest and best internet money can buy

Ron,

I don't know the answer to the question, but I'm interested in what the resolution turns out to be.

I haven't had it as bad as you have, but I have Verizon and it grows every month. I started out at $30.00 a month. During the past year and a half, it has grown to $120.00 or so each month.

My wife and I are seriously avoiding sites with animation on them. No youtube, no videos, etc. It's hard to do since many sites have embedded advertising that incorporates animation - even Weather.com!

Anyway, we're trying to reduce our usage, and maybe turning off the hotspot when we're not using the internet is going to be the solution.

Tom in TN

Interesting question... I have had Verizon wireless Internet for several years. Had the Samsung box, and bill was reasonable. It died and I got the new version, called Jetpack. Since I got it, my usage has gone WAY up, almost doubled. I do not think my browsing habits have changed.

I had Verizon with the little Mi-Fi box, (about the dimensions of a thick credit card.)
I was told to indeed power down at night or any time when you won't be using it. Also, you should be able to check your usage via your smartphone. If I was sent an attachment, I wouldn't pull it up from my home computer. It would burn up my usage. When my contract expired, we went with ATT U-Verse. A lot less expensive, and no usage limit.
We cancelled our Smartphone and will probably hook up with TracFone. You pay as you go.

8GB is a lot and satellite sucks.

For cell phone I have a different carrier(US Cellular). My house is in a valley and I don't have very good phone service here...not sure if US Cellular offers internet but if they do as bad as my phone service is I wouldn't expect it to be very good. That's the reason I went with Viareo at first for internet, since they have a tower less than a mile away and there was good Viareo phone service here. I don't know where the tower is for Verizon, but with the MiFi jetpac thing I have, the internet is usually pretty decent...I can watch u-tube videos etc without having to wait for them to download.

The place I'm on was last lived on by a retired uncle, probably 8-10 years before I moved here. When the local land-line phone company replaced phone lines with fiber-optic, nobody lived here so they didn't bother to run the fiber-optic lines this far, stopped about 3 miles away.

Surfing here on this site or the like takes very little band with (amount of data).

Watching YouTube and other video, or with animations on the screen on the side of some web sites, takes a great deal of bandwidth.

It is night and day difference, animations take a great deal of data.

So, you need to limit the video you watch.

Shutting it down will lower the odds and ends updates and data flow, so yes you will gain by shutting it off when not in use.

There are programs that go check the Internet often - weather updates, and so forth. They don't use a lot of data at one time, but they do so very often, on 2 computers it adds up over a month.

There is a lot of malware - spam junk - that accesses the Internet frequently. That can use up a lot of data. Be sure your anti spam and malware is up to snuff, and that your computer is clean.

A lot of that malware can come along with a new computer, ads, begging you to play their games, link to their site for special offers, blah blah blah. They like to track back and forth to the home web site.

But, mostly, video is what is killing you. Takes the most bandwidth,

Paul

30 gigs is HUGE use. I have 8 and only go over if I post several videos. Watching youtube don't use much unless you download them to watch later. I watch dozens of movies a minth on youtube as well. Is your wifi password protected? If not you may have someone close by stealing

And now a long response.

I'm guessing you've already checked that you can't get DSL. I'm in the same boat, it only works up to 8 miles from town. Some of the other villages around are upgrading out many miles, not mine. I'm in Nebraska too, so I get it. I had dialup until '06, Wildblue satellite for about 7 years. Then a well known company called Millenicom that is a prepaid reseller of Verizon Internet. They had 20GB for $70 (prepaid, so not much for taxes, that was the total), you get the same hotspot that Verizon has, same tower, same service. First 3G, then 4G when that was upgraded (3G slower, 4G much faster). I needed a roof antenna for both, tower is 9 miles away. Service was GREAT. Well, that raised to $90. At the same time Viaero turned on their upgrade here, so I got that instead, since it's practically unlimited and less than $60.

Do you know if your area upgraded to their so called 4G service yet, while you had it? It was just turned on in my area in May (map below). Do you know how far from the tower you are? Do you know if there are probably a lot of people on the tower, that it might be overloaded? I ended up buying a Wilson booster to use with the service, I have very thick trees to get through, there was no signal without it. Away from the trees I had good signal. But service is "pretty good" most of the time now. Their old service was worse than dialup here, but I've not had issues with the new one, yet. They don't have the best reputation, but I'm satisfied at the moment. http://www.viaero.com/coverage/local

If you are in a 4G Verizon area, they might install this. If you are not in a 4G area or don't have a good signal they will not. The prices are cheaper for data, but there are still overages. http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/lte-internet-installed/

Satellite is last resort. The satellites are something around 25000 miles away in orbit, so there is more delay when you click things, and some uses don't work very well, because light/the signal actually takes a while to go back and forth. General use it works ok most of the time. You have a choice of Exede (Exede is the product name, owned by Viasat, their old service product name was Wildblue) or Hughesnet. I very, very strongly suggest you DO NOT get HUGHESNET. Their service is MUCH worse, support is MUCH worse. Exede support is US based so you can understand them (Hughesnet support has a VERY thick accent). Exede has an unlimited download zone during the night after midnight so you can download anything (updates, movies, etc.), Hughesnet has a capped download zone during the night. You can bundle either with Sat. tv service and save a little, but with Exede you lose the download zone and get worse support when you do that. So Exede.com direct would be the best. There are no overages, they slow you down if you hit the daytime cap, but you can still do stuff (they limit some things you can do though, but not web and email though it won't be as responsive, things like video and file downloads are generally restricted). Also, speeds are restored temporarily during the free zone so it functions normally, or you can buy more to get speed restored. Add a $10 equipment fee to what you see for prices. Some areas have new plans available, mine doesn't. Their next upgrade isn't coming for around 2 years, new satellite is being launched, last one did not cover this area, focused around the more populated areas and a spot or two in between, they get more speed for the same price. My zipcode was closed to new installs due to the area being full the last couple years, but enough people cancelled after the two year contract, new installs can happen again here. So you would need to make sure you can get it first in your zipcode. The service is not perfect, does not always work, sometimes "free" usage is counted, etc., but considering the alternatives, it's not terrible. I use it at times at the neighbors, it works.

If you want to limit usage on your computers, there are programs to track data to find the guilty programs, and ways to stop things from auto updating, etc. But video uses a LOT of data, with Youtube you can turn the quality down a bit and it would help, but still uses a fair amount. If you do much with video, that is the most likely culprit. Unless you have a virus or something, updates are sometimes big ones as well.

Basically, if your Verizon area is 4G and you have a good signal, that would be likely the best and most reliable service, that other option I have above is the cheapest way to get data from them. Viaero, if you didn't use it since they upgraded would be worth looking at on a trial basis, because it's nice not worrying about caps. Satellite, not as reliable, but not the overages either. So, that's up to you. I can ramble on some more if you have questions, I know about this stuff, a little....

Edit: 30 gigs is NOT a lot. Last report I saw the average household used over 30 per month. That was a couple years ago. It just depends on what you do.

My wifi has a password that I had to type in to get the computers to work initially. Even so, I doubt anyone's stealing it, I'm a half mile off the highway, closest neighbors are my parents about 3 miles away, closest town is 30 miles...

Ron in Nebr- Maybe you might have someone 'piggybacking' off of your WI-FI.

Have you made yor WI-FI secure by adding passwords?

I can drive down the road for 12 miles and pick up about 8 open 'networks' (Wi-Fi and none of them are protected.

Tom We have had old wild Blue and now Exceed. Reason is NOTHING else works here on our remote mountain. Now is it perfect no but like the other poster says it sure is not bad for 50 bucks a month. We both stay on the computer lots of browsing, not a lot of videos. Not many problems. Does go out sometimes in extreme weather.

rview- Nope, no DSL available here(see post
below). Anyway, when I switched from Viaero to
Verizon, Viaero hadn't yet upgraded our tower to
4G, although for two years they had been telling
me "soon".

The neighbor who convinced me to switch to
Verizon had also been on Viaero before, and he and
I were the only people within range of the tower
who had internet off of it, so I'm guessing
upgrading our local tower was a pretty low
priority. I'm still not sure that they've gone 4G
on it yet....

I just checked my Verizon MiFi thing and it says
it's on 3G too....

The thing I disliked most about Viaero was the
modem or router thing that had to be plugged into
the computer. Once a day at least I had to unplug
it and restart it in order to get anything to
work. Sometimes there was no internet for days at
a time, neighbor didn't have any either, and we
would call Viaero and they'd say they were working
on it. Again, with only two customers on that
tower, it was a pretty low priority.

I also had very slow if not non-existant internet
with Viaero at first, but I did buy a Wilson
signal booster, which helped. It also helped some
with my cell phone service here, since my house is
in a deep valley in the sandhills.

Tell me more about these programs to track data?
My computer is less than a year old and I've
installed McAfee Total Protection
antivirus/antimalware on it, so I dont think that
could be the trouble?

Greg, I doubt anyone's piggybacking off of my WiFi(see my post below on the subject). I'm not sure how far WiFi reaches, but I'd imagine someone would pretty much have to drive most of the half mile down my lane(visible from the house) to pick it up? How far do they reach?

4G wireless broadband is fast enough you can quickly blow through a 10GB per month cap. You need to get your usage under control and you should probably go for a higher cap.

First off, secure your WiFi connection if you haven't done so already. There's no reason to be giving out free WiFi to your neighbors. And if you're already secure, you might want to change your router password.

Next you need to understand where the usage is going. Monitor your usage on a DAILY basis. You're burning through a gigabyte per day, which seems like a lot until you realize a single movie can be over a gigabyte. Once you figure out what activities are driving usage, you can stop doing them.

There will be some traffic over the internet if you leave your computers turned on, but it should be fairly insignificant. UNLESS, of course, one or both computers are infected with malware. And if your PCs are running Windows, that's pretty much a given. Turn off one computer for a day, and see what happens to your usage. Chances are they're both infected and your usage will go down about fifty percent when you turn off either one. Good luck cleaning out malware; you may need to do a fresh install of a newer operating system to get rid of everything.

You don't say if you're locked into a contract. If not, switch to Millenicom. You should be able to use your existing Verizon mobile broadband device. For 90 bucks you'll get a 20 GB/month cap. <a href="http://3gstore.com/product/5117_millenicom_20gb_plan.html">http://3gstore.com/product/5117_millenicom_20gb_plan.html</a> Millenicom operates over the Verizon network.

I'm about 4 months with Viaero now, and I've had no issues. I know how they were with the old service, Internet not working at all, etc., so, ..I know.... "Coming soon", yes, they said that for many years. I was shocked when I saw it was on. Can't say there but it doesn't sound promising. Both out sounds like tower issues, but does sound like their old service. You say "plugged in", did it plug in to USB like one of those flash drives? You could take the activation card out of it and put it in other certain devices, so you could have a backup device to use if it's not their tower acting up. I purchased a device off of ebay, then you can just go in and get the activation card, and you don't have a contract when you don't buy their device. I did not want a contract with them because I didn't expect it to work well. You could check the tower and see if it is upgraded, and do a device trial first, but I would never have a contract with them. Off of ebay you can get an unlocked hotspot device for around $60 or less (like a mifi). The home router thing which is better for always on use is over $100 to buy outright. The USB stick things are cheaper usually. But it takes specific devices that support the right frequency of course.

You can safely put your address in the Verizon thing I linked before, they don't bother you unless you speak to them. If you can get the service, it will tell you, or may direct you to contact a store. It's possible that your device is not getting enough signal for 4G (or your tower isn't upgraded). Depending on your booster, it might not work with or boost 4G. The Wilson 4G boosters for homes only came out this year, older models only worked with 3G. If it says you can get this other service, they should do a free visit to check first, it has its own antenna they install, and you'd have a trial period unless that's changed. With satellite you have no trial period, but if you complain hard enough you can get out of the contract.

Here is the main program for tracking data. You can try it if you want. http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/ I can look for something different. Honestly, the neighbors I've helped out, haven't had much issues with data caps. It's been things like video, plugging in Dish or Directv, or automatic backup software, usually. Download and run Malwarebytes (google it for download), when you install it, be sure at the end to un check the "pro trial". That should catch most "bad stuff" that your other software might miss. It's one of the best tools for that kind of thing. You have to run the scan manually, if you pay for it, then it scans all the time by itself (lifetime license can be purchased for less than $20 sometimes). This is something you use in addition to an antivirus. If you are virus free, turn off automatic updates, and limit video, that -should keep you under.

wildblueworld.com/forum is the Exede forum, LOTS of info in there about data monitoring.

Satellite is fairly reliable if it's installed well. Mine went out pretty much the same as when the sat. tv went out. The free download zone is worth a bit, but not as handy as more daytime data.

Mark- That's the thing I can't figure out- we really DON'T use computers nearly enough to be using so much.

Just how long would a person have to be on the computer each day watching, for example, youtube videos, to use 1GB per day?

We're only 3G I found out. We never watch movies over the internet, just the occasional youtube video, etc. which is very rarely over 5 minutes in length. And we always select a lower resolution(or whatever it's called) since the hi-definition makes them too slow to watch.

Both computers, as noted earlier, have up to date anti-virus/anti-malware installed.

Also, as noted, there ARE no neighbors who could be stealing wifi. Closest neighbor other than my parents is 4 or 5 miles away.

Everyone has been telling me to monitor the data usage...well, like I said, I don't know alot about this stuff, so, HOW do I do that?

Someone mentioned a way to do that with a smartphone...I looked on my phone and couldn't see any way to do it.

Is there some program on the computer or one I could get for it that would tell how much data is being used, like in a day for example, and what websights or programs are using that data?

Here is a very rough data usage calculator. There are lots of variables of course, because it varies. I can explain things better, but better quit for the night. http://www.exede.com/internet-packages-pricing/plan-selector

rview- thanks for the info on the data tracking,
I'll give it a shot.

To show how little I know about all this, to
answer your question, when I said the old Viearo
modem "plugged in", I meant that it had a cord
with ends on it just like a phone cord but a
little bigger, running between it and the back of
the computer. The modem was a white box about 8x10
and an inch or so thick. It did have that little
card in it that occasionally when i called them
they had me take the card out and put it back in
along with unplugging the power cord, which,
almost a daily basis I had to unplug the power
cord from the modem, wait a bit, then plug it back
in and wait longer for it to power back up. To
Viaero's credit, they did waive the $200 or so
cancellation fee when I shipped the modem back to
them(couldn't just drop it off at our local store,
had to mail it to Colorado).

I'm ready to call it a night too, but one last quick
question...on the data-usage link you sent, after I
install the trial version on my computer, will it
only track the data being used by this computer, or
will it track all data being used, meaning by both
computers, wifi on cell phones, anyone stealing
wifi, etc?

Unfortunately only the one device it's installed on. So you would need data tracking on every device. They make routers that can track each device separately, but i'd start with what you have, computers first.

Ok thanks! Will install it on both computers and go
from there! Thanks again!

I have three smart phones (two teens) and the Fusion 4g home internet sharing data on my Verizon plan. We usually average around 14 gigs a month. Each phone uses 2-2 1/2 gigs per month and the Fusion uses the rest. Kids are constantly on youtube or other video sites and I spend a lot of time online for my job. We don't do Netflix or download movies...a 2 hr movie can use over a gig.

A few months back I got a data alert about data usage only a few days into the new cycle. A virus on my laptop burned thru 8 gigs in a couple hours. Verizon was great...they adjusted my account back to the pre-virus usage and didn't charge for the overage.

You can see a breakdown of data usage from Verizon online or you can call customer service. It may also be on your monthly billing statement. 30 gigs a month seems awfully high.

Call Verizon to discuss your bill. If there has been unusual activity compared to previous months it will show up. They have always been good about working with me whenever I've had issues.

Good luck!

Ron, you should be able to check your usage online through your Verizon account. I've never been a Verizon customer, so I don't know the particulars of how to do it, but I'm sure that they provide that ability. If you can't figure it out, call Verizon and ask. If you're paying 300 bucks a month, they should be happy to walk you through their web site over the phone.

I've used both AT&T and Millenicom, and both provide at least cumulative data usage. For unknown reasons, both service providers have about a 24 hour delay in recording usage. Also, if you push them, Verizon should be able to provide detailed data usage by day and time. However, if both PCs and your 4G device are always on, it will probably look like one big month-long phone call.

You don't say what kind of 4G device you're using, but I'm guessing it's a MiFi device. (The other possibility being a 4G USB modem coupled to a Cradlepoint-type mobile broadband router.) Most of these devices are capable of monitoring usage; you'll have to log into the device using its administration interface and turn the feature on. The data usage as recorded by the MiFi should be close to the usage according to Verizon, although it won't be delayed.

Oh Man Ron!

Wish you would have hollared before you dumped the Viaero!

Their 4G is as fast as it gets and there is no 'data cap'.

Trouble is, after you get it, you have to call in to their support to have them properly route your wi-fi. It just crawls before you do this.

Allan

Im on a similar plan that goes up the more you use. My first jump is at 5 gigs. If I watch a few you tube videos it puts me over the top in a hurry.

Your story is a familiar one to new Verizon customers- they want to sell you a higher usage plan. When our usage went over, we ran Malwarebytes and also took off things we weren't using. It seems that Kindles use a lot if they are left connected, so we only connect to download a book. The biggest users are video games- do you have kids playing? We always turn off the computer at night and when we think of it, hit the wireless disconnect button on the keyboard's top row.

If you are in the country, you shouldn't have to worry about others tapping in to your system, but it should be protected anyway.

We are very limited here as to other options, but would switch to another company if it became available. Seems Verizon has a monopoly in many areas. You will feel computer deprived for a while, but after cutting down on computer time, it will get better in time. Good Luck--- Rand

Ron, I am about 50 miles west of you, I think. Right in the bottom of the Niobrara valley. We have had Wild Blue, Excede, and now Dish. I would NEVER EVER recommend Dish for internet. TERRIBLY slow, and they only use their own speed test.
Excede was ok for download speed, but they will throttle you down if you go over 10 gigs. With my wife having her leather shop, and uploading videos, we were over about 3 months out of the year.
We also found out that if you listen to music on the internet, that uses lots of data. If you have your Facebook set so it auto plays video, it will use lots of Data.
We are now with Dish/Husghs Net. We end up with about 20 gigs of use, and haven't gone over that, but its so slow, that we don't use the internet much wither.

That Networx program needs something checked in the settings. It will make an "icon" by the clock, right mouse click on it, then left click settings, then put a check mark next to "ignore local traffic within the LAN" sort of bottom left, then ok. Then you can right click again on the icon, usage report, the applications tab will show which programs used what (that didn't work until that was checked). You won't probably know all of the programs, some are things that are part of Windows, other programs. It's been a while and I don't use Windows personally, so I had to check it first.

If you want to monitor other devices we can get that going, just figured with the video and other possible issues, pcs would be the likely causes to check first.

I will second what Allan says about Viaero now. If your area is upgraded, it has been excellent for now, night and day difference from their old service. I worked on several computers with the old service, it didn't work, or when it did was practically unusable, even a couple blocks from the tower. I am about 6 miles from the tower, only reason I have a signal through the trees is because of the booster. But video streams fine, at higher quality on the base package. It sometimes tries to load HD, and it can play that at times. Sounds like the device you had is like mine now, probably more tower related issues than device. But I don't want to push you back to that service based on past experience, and knowing how they can be if there are any future issues. But, it is worth checking out. There is a data cap now, they sent out a letter that there was. They stated 100GB, which their usage meter said for a while, so more than enough, but my data meter now says over 300GB now and they never said anything about that, so I don't know what they are doing. Their overage use charge was quite reasonable. You go to my.viaero.com and login, click on the account, and "unbilled usage summary" to see the data.

That said, Verizon 4G is MUCH faster with downloads, and would be more reliable with issues. Except of course the data cap. I left for Viaero because of that data cap, and don't regret it a bit.

People keep saying that that's a lot of data, which, like I said, it isn't. Depends totally on what you do, and how many people. With the old Wildblue, I was researching pickups on ebay, lots of pictures. I calculated I could use over 200 megs an hour doing that, so just that for one month, 6 GB (if I would use it that much, which I didn't, just an example). That was with the much slower service. Faster service, not hard at all to blow through data without trying. There are ways to lock down your web browsers too. Firefox, if you install Noscript and adblock it helps with some of the stuff.

I keep neighbors and family on free antivirus and it works fine, if you are paying there are sales to get it cheap. You can look on slickdeals.net. If you like Mcafee for example, you can type that in the search box, should come up with recent sales. Or any other thing you want. That Malwarebytes is probably the main tool to get malware off, and like I said, I'd run that, even with your other stuff installed. It's pretty much the first thing I run on anybody's when I suspect malware.

We are now with Dish/Husghs Net. We end up with about 20 gigs of use, and haven't gone over that, but its so slow, that we don't use the internet much wither.

Click to expand...

As I said before, if satellite, I'd go with Exede direct for the unlimited download option at night, you lose that when bundled with sat. tv. Exede is the lesser of two evils. I've used Hughes and Exede both in this area, neither are "great" but Exede is generally "better".

most browsers will let you disable animations, etc in the advanced settings to save bandwidth.
(you can turn them back on at a page if you need them)

Whatever you use for internet, there will be connection for it in network settings.
make a shortcut to it, and put it on your taskbar.
Get up from your chair for any reason, right click on it and choose 'disable'
sit back down, right click, and 'enable'

stops all that background internet usage when you ain't even there.
Your router will still be on, but your computer won't 'speak' to it.
You will still be vulnerable to external wifi stealers, but that doesn't seem to be an issue here.

Thanks, I did see the breakdown of usage on my online Verizon bill, but it just said so many KB or whatever at such and such a time during the day, it didn't show what websites or programs etc. were using the data. I'll check again, maybe I missed something.

Thanks Allan, I'll have to call our local Viearo store to see if they've got this tower out here upgraded to 4G yet. As of June this year they hadn't....

I'll darn sure switch back to them if/when they do, no way I'm gonna keep paying $400 bucks a month to Verizon!

Thanks, I'm gonna give Malwarebytes a try and see if it finds anything McAfee missed.

I'm not too worried about feeling internet-deprived haha, survived about 40 years without it and five or so years more with just dial up!

Lazy WP, somehow I was thinking I read you were south of Nenzel? If so you're only 25 or so miles west....

Anyhow, thanks for the response. I'm going to try my best to avoid going to satellite internet if at all possible. We've got Direct TV and it's bad enough for losing signal when storms go over...

Ron,

You gotta get rid of that Mcafee junker. That thing is slowing your computer by 50%!

Allan

Allan, I wasn't in favor of McAfee...I'd always had very good luck using free AVG(?)....but the wife bought it at WalMart just this past April to put on her computer, and since there was enough to do 3 computers, I went ahead and installed it on mine too.

Never really noticed a slowdown, is it really that bad?

(quoted from post at 18:06:34 08/22/14) I think you would save-a-lot by disconnecting from the internet when not using the computer.

[b:efeecc714e]I would suggest Hughes Net ... does not charge by usage.[/b:efeecc714e]

Click to expand...

hen your allotment in bytes for the day are used up you are dead in the water till they refill your quote the next day.
You however have unlimited use between mid night and 6 AM.

You're correct, the billing statement doesn't show what was downloaded, just when. The virus I mentioned in the other post downloaded several gigs at 2 am one morning. It was pretty easy to figure out what happened once I saw what time it happened. After comparing with our previous usage history Verizon agreed and adjusted our account. You can access your account and see usage online as well. Its not updated real-time but its close.

You can also adjust your data plan during the month. They charge $10 for each extra 2 gigs if you upgrade before, or $15 per gig if you go over your plan amount.

I would highly suggest calling Verizon to see if they'll work with on the overages.

(quoted from post at 19:49:37 08/23/14)

(quoted from post at 18:06:34 08/22/14) I think you would save-a-lot by disconnecting from the internet when not using the computer.

[b:56800c2b3a]I would suggest Hughes Net ... does not charge by usage.[/b:56800c2b3a]

Click to expand...

hen your allotment in bytes for the day are used up you are dead in the water till they refill your quote the next day.
You however have unlimited use between mid night and 6 AM.

Click to expand...

Hughesnet changed that, that's the old service for those that still have it. It's no longer a daily cap with the new service, it's monthly. If you go over the monthly cap, you are slowed until the next month (or temporarily during the night zone). And the unlimited nightly usage is gone too. It's a separate nightly monthly cap that is the same amount as the daytime monthly cap. So if you have 10GB daytime monthly cap, you get 10GB nightly cap.

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I mentioned wildblueworld.com/forum being the Exede forum, which it is. However it's down since yesterday, don't know if it's permanent. They also have community "thing" that the users don't like as well. https://community.exede.com/exede Not part of their official support is http://www.dslreports.com/forum/wildblue there would be lots of info in there about monitoring usage.

I was going to say something about Mcafee, because it honestly isn't the best. Performance wise, if you don't notice it, then that doesn't matter much. Here are tests on how well different products work. http://www.av-comparatives.org/dynamic-tests/ page 14 of the latest pdf report groups products in a star rating thing based on overall protection.

Yea we are south of Nenzel, guess I wasn't thinking to clear this morning. I still can't place where you are for sure. Are you just north of Goose Creek, on 83?

Yep, that's it...my house is about 100 yards north of Goose Creek on 83. Our "home place", where my parents and brother live, is a couple miles on south on 83, west side of the highway.