Out, damn bot!

[JennyB]

My net needs are simple. For years I've been happy with PlusNet's 10 Gb limited offering. I'd been putting any slowness down to the phone line, because sometimes there is no dial tone.

Lately I've been getting warnings of exceeding my broadband limit, and by process of elimination, the culprit is hiding in my destop,  which will take a Gb or more at a time without asking if connected.

How do I exorcise the beast?  Windows 10 and Chrome.

[Morat]

I would start with a good scan of the machine using your AV of choice. My usual option is Malwarebytes free which seems to be very thorough. If the easy option doesn't work you're probably going to have to get a bit deeper in. Next up, try netstat -a from the command line and see what connections are open.
Is there anything on the machine that would prevent you just nuking it and starting again? Depending on what you find (or don't find) I'm not sure I'd want to trust that machine.

[fuaran]

Could be Windows Update.

[Sergeant Pluck]

There seems to be a few strands that need separating out:

- your 10 GB allowance being exceeded
- “slowness” - broadband speed - totally different thing
- no dial tone when broadband works - possible line issue?

Can you clarify this bit:

...the culprit is hiding in my destop,  which will take a Gb or more at a time without asking if connected

[rafletcher]

One thing I would do is ask Plusnet to run diagnostics on your line as well.

[JennyB]

There seems to be a few strands that need separating out:

- your 10 GB allowance being exceeded
- “slowness” - broadband speed - totally different thing
- no dial tone when broadband works - possible line issue?

Can you clarify this bit:

...the culprit is hiding in my destop,  which will take a Gb or more at a time without asking if connected

High usage corresponds with the days I've been using the desktop. A few Kb from the router when I don’t connect, the usual 200-300 Mb when I use the tablet, but a Gb or more with the desktop, even when I've done hardly anything. From that I conclude that the culprit is in the machine, rather than, for example, someone else with access to my account.

[Sergeant Pluck]

High usage corresponds with the days I've been using the desktop. A few Kb from the router when I don’t connect, the usual 200-300 Mb when I use the tablet, but a Gb or more with the desktop, even when I've done hardly anything. From that I conclude that the culprit is in the machine, rather than, for example, someone else with access to my account.

As per fuaran, Windoze Update could be a culprit. Are you using much automatic cloud backup stuff for photos or videos?

[Greenbank]

- your 10 GB allowance being exceeded
- “slowness” - broadband speed - totally different thing

Not necessarily, it could be the broadband connection being throttled (by the ISP) due to excessive bandwidth usage.

Run the Windows Update utility and see what the first setting is. If it is "Install updates automatically" or "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them" then that could be a cause.

[Jaded]

Slowness could be because it is uploading a lot of data.

[JennyB]

- your 10 GB allowance being exceeded
- “slowness” - broadband speed - totally different thing

Not necessarily, it could be the broadband connection being throttled (by the ISP) due to excessive bandwidth usage.

Run the Windows Update utility and see what the first setting is. If it is "Install updates automatically" or "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them" then that could be a cause.

Looks  like Update is at least partly the cause. It's now chewing its way through 'Working on Updates 2% Don’t Turn Off Your PC. This Will Take A While.' 

[Kim]

My net needs are simple. For years I've been happy with PlusNet's 10 Gb limited offering. I'd been putting any slowness down to the phone line, because sometimes there is no dial tone.

I don't know if things work differently in NI, but lack of dialtone is a clear, unambiguous fault.  If it still happens with just a simple (non-cordless) telephone plugged into the master socket (to eliminate as much of your equipment as possible), then you can report it to your voice service provider (don't mention broadband) and they should be able to get it fixed.  Rectifying this fault will likely improve your broadband performance, without having to jump through hoops or risk Special Fault Investigation charges.

As for what's using loads of bandwidth on your desktop, then software updates are a good first thing to check, but malware is also a possibility.  Typically I'd expect malware to be mostly sending (spam, DDOS attacks, worm propagation) rather than receiving, though.

I occasionally see prolonged unexplained bandwidth use on our connection and track it down to The Guardian in a forgotten tab in barakta's browser.  It seems it likes to stream video adverts to itself for hours on end.   

[barakta]

It occurs to me that 10GB isn't actually that much these days.

Windows 10 doing its updates plus a bit of browsing can easily add up. Windows isn't averse to downloading at least a couple of gigabytes a month on its own. I would go through the privacy options and make sure as much of that is turned off as possible.  Searching for windows 10 update download sizes shows people on 100GB a month tariffs sometimes struggling.

Browsing can easily eat up more than a few hundred megabytes a day cos lots of sites force an auto reload every few minutes and or are playing lots of bloody adverts and video at you.

I struggle with 500MB on mobile data sometimes cos it quickly gets eaten up.

[fuaran]

The Plusnet 10GB package has been discontinued for a few years. All of the current packages are 'unlimited'.
Could be worth upgrading, probably won't cost much more. Or may even be cheaper, depending on current offers, and whether you get line rental included etc.

[drossall]

We've found that PlusNet will leave you running on deals that are no longer offered when something newer would be cheaper. Worth talking to them about what could be done for the same price.

[woollypigs]

Yes first step is to upgrade your ISP offering, unlimited ain't that dear anymore, heck you might get a sweet deal - faster access and less dosh to fork out (I did). Give your ISP a call and say that you want to bugger off as you have seen a sweeter deal elsewhere. Punch in your postcode on broadbandgenie or broadbandchoices and check of offers, might even get a £50 cashback

Of course check if there is "a naughty" playing around on one of your computers, easy enough to get install something. Heck it could be an update that is stuck. I had one on my tablet, I think it downloaded the newest update at least four times before I paid enough notice and searched for a fix. And as said up thread an Win update now easy clocks up Gb's. Mobiles especially likes to update every 1-2 hours, it does feels like it, and if you haven't told it to hold its horses, you have updated an app 2-3 times in a month, yes only 10-30Mb but it soon adds up.

Even an phone connected on your wifi - farcebooking, Instragraming and twitter might be light use for some, but boy do they like their bandwidth. (side note: why is that, that an app that is doing exactly the same and was about 10Mb is now about 200+ installed??!?!?!)

Before I got this new job, where I know my use has gone up, we chewed through 200+ Gb a month, let's post these photos to a farcebook gallery, view a few things on demand and that wasn't helped that I like to play around with various OS's in VirtualBox, so one download is quickly 1Gb before I updated said OS, heck a clean Win10 I think if I remember right just shy 5 GB.

[Cunobelin]

One thing I would do is ask Plusnet to run diagnostics on your line as well.

They are BT....

We had no phone or Broadband, so (on the mobile) reported it.

There was no fault on the line and the service was working fine.... they would send out an engineer the following day

On the News we then found out that someone had stolen about 500m of cabling for the scrap. se we informed BT that this was the case, and questioned the diagnostics. Apparently an absent cable won't show faults!!!!!!

[Kim]

Apparently an absent cable won't show faults!!!!!!

It probably looks the same as the phone on-hook and no ADSL modem switched on.  It might come up short if they do TDR to estimate the line length, but I don't think that's part of the automated testing.

Surprising how many people don't realise that from the exchange's perspective, a disconnected phone 'rings' just fine.

[Polar Bear]

A few weeks back out broadband started slowing drastically.   We were also getting faults with the telephone.  Rang Plusnet and spent some time on the phone exploring the options.  After quite a while the 'agent' states that they've changed some settings.  Not sure what settings mind.

We've been fine ever since.

[frankly frankie]

It occurs to me that 10GB isn't actually that much these days.

And a 20 stone person isn't that fat these days?

[Somnolent]

It occurs to me that 10GB isn't actually that much these days.

And a 20 stone person isn't that fat these days?

Apparently not.
Was reading a review of a 'bent the other day and the reviewer was commenting about how it was rated for a rider weight of up to 300lbs.  Such a pleasant change (or words to that effect) from the majority of such machines which can only be rideen by those of an 'athletic' build - i.e. less than 250lbs