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Visitor

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1 Message

Monday, April 24th, 2023 3:27 AM

Closed

Crazy Spike in Internet Data Usage

​In the two years that I've used Xfinity internet, I've gone from consistently using 800 - 900GB / 1.2TB, to suddenly jumping through to 1.5TB in the middle of the month. My internet use has been the same: Zoom meetings, working from Home, online gaming. Last month was when the data usage suddenly spiked by 600GB, but that was when I actually stopped online gaming. What could have caused this sudden jump from 800GB monthly, to 1.5TB (4/24/2023, the month isn't even over yet)?

Visitor

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1 Message

2 years ago

I am experiencing a similar issue. I am hoping rebooting our modem will solve the problem and we don't have to deal with Xfinity trying to upsell us a new plan or new modem or blame it on us when nothing in our viewing/Internet habits has changed

Problem Solver

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1.5K Messages

2 years ago

A lot of things cause data usage, and every time you connect anything to the internet, you are doing something different.  Web sites auto-loading audio/video -- some malicious, some playing video you can't even see in the background, cross site scripting attacks to load content, program/OS updates, phones/backup programs getting stuck slamming backup data to cloud services.

Assuming you don't have hijacked devices (I see lots of hijacked granny comcast machines hitting my firewall):

Streaming services are not equal.  There's a lot of 4K/8K content out there.  That can cost you as much as 22GB/hour.  (you get 40GB/day average on a 1.2TB data cap).  A cable box pulling the cable lineup doesn't eat your data use, but if you watch Netflix/Hulu or another streaming app on the cable box, you will burn data.  A lot of it.  Cable boxes can really pull down data well.

Got Xfinity equipment and close neighbors?  If you don't have an MoCA PoE (point of entry filter) installed, your neighbor's devices could be connecting to YOUR network.  There is no security on Xfinity crippled gateways for the Coax.  Anything you don't recognize if you look for connected devices?

Did you do any port forwarding (opening up ports in your firewall) for gaming devices or are you running a publicly accessible service on anything like trying to do a remote desktop/allow remote access?  Got any uPnP gear like cameras (Nest...etc), or other IOT gear like smart outlets blowing holes in your firewall and establishing remote connections?  All can be problematic.

Best practice?  Run all devices including WiFi traffic through a firewall/firewall appliance, and run your own WiFi network NOT on a gateway.  Firewalls like   Pfsense/OpenSense/Firewalla or even just a Linux box with two network ports.  Some mesh networks have decent logging....etc.  Then you can see and log what is using data.  Even throttle and control data with traffic shaping on some of them.  You can't with an Xfinity rental gateway.

The assumption -- I'm not doing anything different is incorrect.  It changes all the time.

(edited)

Visitor

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7 Messages

@flatlander3​ my phone service is a contract thru T-MOBILE.  I do not connect nothing to my t.v. i even turn my WiFi off on my fone so it dont connect to xfinity. i jus went thru my phone every app & turned off background data but thats for the sake of idk [Edited: "Language"] is killin my xfinity unless TNT basketball games are double time. HOW DO I FIND WUTS RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND ON MY INTERNET THAT ONLY FOR MY ROKU?

(edited)

Problem Solver

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729 Messages

2 years ago

@

The first thing I would suggest you do is to try reaching out to our Customer Security Assurance Team. They are experts at digging deep into these things. You can reach them at this link, https://internetsecurity.xfinity.com/help/report-abuse. I promise you that they are the best people to help you with this! 

Visitor

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7 Messages

2 years ago

REALLY!  This is crazy..i look at my data 3-6 x a day to see how much its changed & i went from 400-800  l@ month to, starting in feb i was at 900 march almost 1200 & now i have 3 days left in april & i am at 988. [Edited: "Language"] I do nothing extra as far as gaming i watch the same 5 channels i been watch wen i got this [Edited: "Language"]  Hulu,Tubi, espn, disney plus & xfinty stream only wen these basketball playoffs are on. Its [Edited: "Language"] they been tryin to sell me the unlimited data deal.11.99 @ month but im done with them as soon as this contract is up i been with them 4 yrs only caus they tricked.me into another 2 yr deal & this time i got my month mixed up wen it was up & started another 12 months i believe 4 months ago ima look wen i check my data again in an hour.  . [Edited: "Language"] i slept until 4pm yesterday with no t.v. on i was sick from pollen & my data was havin a party im still tryin to figure out wut used the data from tuesday nite at 2am until Wednesday at 4pm but somethin did

(edited)

1 Message

1 year ago

Yep having the same issue I literally just blew through 1229 gigs 17 days and I still have 2 weeks to go. Have not heard anything back from xfinity. I think it might be time for a change in companies 

Official Employee

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1.7K Messages

Hello @user_879d0c. Have you had a chance to speak to our Customer Security Assurance team that was mentioned by CCJoseph above?

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick

Visitor

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1 Message

It is happening again Sunday overnight. Since the very first time I encountered the spike, I started logging my usage in a Google sheet.

What happened on Sunday/Monday morning essentially doubled the data usage. In fact, all usage before were doubled!!!

In May, I had 753 GB, and it is showing 1523GB

In June, I had 650GB, it is showing 1319GB

This erroneous usage continue all the way to last Sunday night.

It is very clear that whoever works on the application to calculate the customers data usage are completely incompetent. Comcast better hires someone else.

If they continue to do this, no one should pay their false over limit charge. Perhaps, time to file a complaint to FCC.

7 Messages

Exactly the same here.  I'll look, and my data usage graph will show my normal usage range monthly (600-700gb).  Then, I'll look at the graph and everything is double what was actually used.  There is actually one showing over the 1.2TB, but I was never notified nor charged, not even the courtesy notice that "ooops, you exceeded this monthly, but you won't be charged" message.  Is this just an error somewhere in their system.  When I get my modem, the reported data usage is in the 600-700 gb as stated, and only the Xfinity site/app is showing the double.  Perhaps just a display error?

Visitor

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2 Messages

Exactly the same issue here with the variance between the bar graph and the data table

1 Message

I am having this same issue. Last month was the first time I was getting "close" to the limit, and even received an email from Xfinity stating that I was at 75% of my data usage allowance on September 28th. When I checked on October 1st, my final usage for September was almost exactly 1TB, which would make sense given being at around 75% with 3 days remaining. When I looked last night, it was saying I had using 2TB in September. Looking at previous months too, it looks like the data usage has just been doubled. I can even see on the data table that it says that the overage amount is 0MB. Hoping that Xfinity can fix this ASAP.

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