Unusually high data usage megathread

I changed my password to my network and it fixed the problem. This was recommend by tier 2 support.  Why didn't comcast inform customers about these data spikes?  Money grab? 

@AirUncleP,  They do send a notice when you get close to the cap.  By default it goes to your Comcast email account, but many people never read that.  However, you can go into your account and set up another email account to get notices.  They used to inject notices into your browsing stream if they thought you didn't read the email.  I don’t know if they do that anymore - it annoyed many people, and most web traffic is now encrypted so it no longer works in most cases.

Our data has gone over Oct, Nov & Dec! I have 3 of us using our celluar data to cut back, changed our password, restarted everything...We stream but I have my kids trained to stop the show before turning tv off. They are also doing in person school. My husband & I work outside of the home. How could we possibly be using this much data???  We were given a FLEX from Xfinity when I changed our plan at the end of July...wondering if this has been using data even though we do not stream from it (husband did  not like at all) it was plugged in & hooked up to tv until a few days ago. I am returning it. I am also notifying the FCC of these excessive overages. Reading through this thread it seems that is the way to go. We can't go anywhere all we have left is home entertainment & now that is in jeopardy!

@Kayvee  A decent firewall IS the solution, but you have to route all the traffic through it including the WiFi.  Buy a WiFi router, they're cheap.

PFSense / Opnsense are free.  They both work fine, but support for i386 has been dropped.  You'll need at least an old 64-bit laptop or an old spare desktop now.  Although they don't like it, a USB dongle for a 2nd network interface works fine if you disable TCP hardware and software offloading.  With a reasonable processor, USB-2.0 can push enough data handling/filtering packets so you won't notice, and can push way over 1.2T of data in a month.

Then you'll see everything on your network in real time with historical graphs.  Don't forget to lock down your gateway -- disable uPnP, ICMP, any remote desktop feature it has, all remote access, netgear ready share....etc.  If it's got a firewall on it, use it too -- set to highest level.  If it does not, and does not have a port scan block option, pitch it in the trash and buy one that does.

You can also traffic shape streaming devices and limit the bandwidth they use from the firewall, instead of from the device app settings.  Either that, or pay the $340 for  unlimited, but if you're blowing over the 1.2T cap, and don't know how you are doing it, you probably have other network issues and perhaps some really bad security issues  going on.

Hey, "problem solver"guy.

You're missing the point. It's not the accuracy of the metering, it's how it's being metered. "Turn off 4K" Why, millions of American's own 4K televisions, does Comcast know this?  I watch a 720p kitchen television through AppleTv. It adds significantly towards my cap. 

They way Comcast meters data is strictly anti competitive. AppleTV, Roku, Netflix, Amazon Prime Playstation updates and downloads, computer downloads of large files. All are comprimised. Picture quality is still terrible. Try and watch NBA League Pass and see for yourself. The FCC is currently stacked in Comcasts favor. We can only hope for a change from the behavior Comcast has undertaken in terms of statements they made to win merger approval. Most notably, consumer choice and competition. It's ridiculous, and you know it. Comcast is by defacto limiting people to remain in their eco system. And that is against consumer choice

Just noticed this thread.  Doing a December rising data usage watch that have been commented by other customers.  Might be pushed to pay the xtra for unlimited data but I'm hoping not.  Last two months have been a spike for my plan with 900+ and probably 1200MB this month usage.  Seems to be pretty easy to use up 1.2 TB in a house.

I asked the question on other two threads on how, if I voice commanded a HBO series, it would start it up with streaming service.  Not what I wanted because that use use data.  I still don't know how to default to regular HBO and not streaming HBO Max.  I do see if use of streaming service goes up then so does my usage.

Got my Xfinity Christmas present on how much pricing is going up email.  I don't need the extra monthly cost for unlimited data.. 😞

Do you have the HBO streaming service installed on your cable box? Under Apps. If so, uninstall it. There should be no need for both, correct? I use data like it's going out of style, and over the last couple months I noticed a huge spike in data. Taking into account the fact that I am working from home now and more devices are connected to the network AND they are on more often, there was still a noticable spike in October/November, almost 1Tb. Why? I have no idea. Also, if it comes to it, don't use the voice controls (I know) because they take up data as well.

@flatlander3 

"Actually, they don't have the technology to give you "per device" statistics from their end.  It doesn't work that way.  Your internal devices are on an internal network behind a NAT interface (Network Translation). "

Actually, they do especially if you're using the provided XFi gateway.  It's doing the NAT translation and it's more than capable of tracking routed packets between the gateway and the connected devices.  Destination websites may see the origin IP as 72.X.X.X and sending back to that address but, once it's received by the gateway and sent to the originating device, it's completely trackable and can be summarized.  This is how QoS and Traffic Shaping is done.

Since the Gateway is doing that, it's sending the information back to Comcast and that's how they get the per day and per device usage graphs. 

@Gus68  is correct. 

They just need to be a bit more useful and provide y-axis numbers so we know what they mean.

You are correct if you're using your own modem/Gateway.  I assume @Gus68 is using Comcasts.

At the moment, I'm trying to switch back to my old router which provides QoS stats but the XFi Gateway won't let go of the default gateway IP address so I'm a bit stuck at the moment.  

I really appreciate your detailed answer.  However, I am a computer illiterate 70 year old and don't understand most of what you posted.  That being said, I resolved my issue by switching to Frontier and they have NO data limits.

If only I could figure out how to speak with an actual agent at Xfinity to get information on my refund!  So far that has been impossible.