Unusually high data usage megathread

Does anyone know a way to audit Windows file sharing from the client side? I found articles on how to do it from a server for the files and folders being accessed, but I'm trying to figure out which misbehaving app on the client is using up the network and I don't know which of several remote servers is involved.

I consider uBlock or Noscript a must – even if just for my own sanity.  I've been running noscript in Firefox for over a decade but sometimes I visit with someone and browse the web on their system that lets every script fly and it just amazes me how annoying and inefficient so many webpages are. Ie: you want a three-word answer to some simple question and you get sites that want to blast floating video thingies at you, and beg you to subscribe for updates to the three-word answer.

We gleefully pay the 30 bucks for no cap because it was $50 before and we haven't used less than 1.2TB in a month in the last 8 years. They used to call to complain back before the cap and I laughed at them.  If you know you're using TB's a month $299 for fiber 2gbps symmetrical unmetered or $143-166 for 940mbps/40mbps with no cap depending on your region isn't too crazy.

There's a very informative article recently published in Ars Technica that discusses the history of Comcast's Data Cap plan, including the recent announcement that beginning in early 2021 all 39 Comcast regions will have capped data.  Recall that several years ago, CC imposed a 300GB cap, then later dropped it after customer complaints.  Read the article, then scroll down through the comments...whoa, a huge amount of anger directed toward CC,  surprise-surprise:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/11/comcasts-data-cap-finally-goes-nationwide-in-expansion-to-12-more-states/?comments=1

https://ibb.co/XL82Vsg img.bb is like imgur but without comments and way faster. behold it'sagreatdeal.png, so long as you really get your money's worth anyway.

Also experiencing higher than average data usage. This will be my second month going over I can only assume (as of writing I am at ~1TB/1.2TB).

tl;dr: I stream games and watch anime.

I do gaming streams with a 6k constant bitrate upload for about ~4hrs at 5 days a week. I also watch anime at 1080p and occasionally leave it on overnight maybe once or twice a week. There's a lot of games on my PC that have auto-updates too, but my 3 main games' updates are normally 3-7GB every other week or so. I downloaded 5-7 games earlier this month with drastically different sizes, but I'd argue no more than 100GB each. I have no monitoring tools, so I'm probably forced to pay the extra fee for 50gb per. Is it possible to hit 1.2TB with this kind of usage?

I read a ton of other posts on the site, but haven't found another streamer on here. I had to fight tooth and nail to figure out an outage my neighborhood had for roughly a whole month without Comcast knowing about it. I'd hate to do the entire song and dance with Xfinity (call for basic troubleshooting, call again, wait for tech, wait for higher tech, etc) if their monitoring system is borked. 

I promise to keep an eye on this thread and just installed Glasswire (free version) in the meantime. If I don't have any evidence, how would I be able to argue with Xfinity anyway? 

EDIT: I totally forgot about Win10 has it's own built in Data Usage (Win Key > Settings > Network > "Data Usage" button under "You're connected to the Internet"). I'm currently at 668.74GB for the last 30 days. Where is the other ~400GB coming from?

EDIT 2: Used Glasswire all this month. Hitting 900GB by the 17th. I suppose I am the culprit at this point. 1.2TB isn't enough unfortunately. I tried opt for the unlimited data plan, but the site tells me it's not available in the Chicagoland area... so what the eff do I do?

After many years of being a subscriber, I received my first text warning me that I was soon to exceed my data limit. Surprised, I looked at recent data usage and found that there was an inexplicable doubling of my usage three months ago. Nothing about my actual usage has changed. I've been basically quarantined since March, yet usage apparently doubled and has remained at the new level for three billing cycles now. Can I access a more granular breakdown of usage (time of day or particular device)? It seems suspect that my usage would suddenly double and I would start to be threatened with overage charges.

You got a warning? lol I never got one personally then went unlimited. I am even on unlimited for my phone But this month I got a alert for my xfinitymobile than some how I reached my 20 gb limit despoite being unlimited and I have no idea how I had done that seeing as I only  send a few texts here and there. and play cards that's isn't online  on my phone. So yea I feel like the data  thing isn't working right. I would love to See xfinity say my phone used up 20 GBs next month as I turned off data use. Desp[ite I know there is no way I used up 20 gbs . 

Hello, I am new to streaming TV and I need help understanding internet data. They say almost nobody uses their data up for the month, but we have used ours up for both of

the months we have had it. There is nobody in my home except me and my husband, and we are both over 65. Can somebody please explain to me how we are using up all of our data? Thank you.

There are lots of ways to use data.  For streaming in particular, Netflix uses around 3GB/hour in HD and up to 7GB/hour for UHD.  That's just an example - other services may use different amounts.

I am showing over 2781 GB of data usage - how is that even possible? If I understand correctly - 1,000 GB = 1TB so it is saying that we have used almost 3TB.....That is ludicris!! There is no way when we have not changed our usage habits. So my overage charges are going to be astronomical....Unfortunatly I cannot change providers since my hosuing development has an exclusive contract with Comast so I am stuck.  How is this fair trade democracy when you cant choose a procider?

The first thing you should do is find out if you are using that much data, and if so, whether you want to reduce that or continue.  If you want to continue, then paying for unlimited would be cheaper than paying overages every month.

This is insane. My usage, too, has shot up 350GB a month or more and I am gone 12 hours a day. There is no way! I spend 2 hours on CHAT with a tech who told me to call the "dedicated data escalation team" and gave a number, but, he then said he created a call back. Naturally when I told the peron on the phone they had no idea what I was talkign about and swore up and down there was no such department. Even when I had 12 chats with "dedicated data escalation team" and the number to call. Xfinity is the worst. It is the 1st ISP I have that limits data, then pushes you to near limit, or over (becasue most don't notice) so they can jack up charges at some point down the line. 

I was told would be given a detailed report from the dedicated data escalaton team to show usage times, devices consuming data, etc. Then the woman on the phone said the ONLY thing available to us is the daily usage.....which I can see on the site myself! This is criminal. Not showing you your own data, only pretty graphs saying  "yep it went up!" 

If you have the xFi app, you can get a break down by device.  If you find the right person, you can get a day by day break down.  If you want lots of details, you should probably use your own router.  Scroll back through this thread for ideas on those, including making your own router out of an old PC.

Same in my house, its just me and my wife and when she went back to school in late August, she's an Elementary School Librarian, my internet usage went up over the 1.2 TB limit, with just me working from home by myself, our kids are grown and out of the house. I spent the last 3 months on the phone with them trying to determine the cause, but conveinently each month when I called back they acted like this was the first call to them about this. They've recently "Upgraded" their metering system per an admin on another thread, right about the time my usage started going over. 

Well there is good news if you can get Consolidated Cable, they have 1,000mbps for just $3 more than I was paying for 600mbps with comcast and its unlimited and its fiber. They connected me today and all is well, after 20+ years with comcast they just let me walk away. Good luck!