coles1's profile

Frequent Visitor

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12 Messages

Monday, September 30th, 2019 11:00 AM

Closed

Unusually high data usage megathread

Jessie helpfully locked the thread pertaining to this for being "off topic" after merging all relevant threads into the irrelevant terabyte thread.

I thought we should still have a place to discuss this ongoing problem. I took 20 pages of documentation into a store today and was told all they could do was charge me 70 dollars to send out a tech. Out of desperation I conceded.

Any thoughts? Anyone had any resolution yet? Some folks on Twitter seem to have made slight headway and had their accounts credited but aren't sure how to help since they seem to think they just got lucky.

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New Poster

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4 Messages

4 years ago

Something fishy is definitely going on. There's only 3 of us in the house, we don't stream 4k, and each month the usage has crept up higher and higher. We averaged about 500-750gb, and now this month we are over 1300! Nothing has changed in terms of usage. And now that I thibk about it, what is going on is similar to what was happening over the summer with our phones. We have Xfinity Mobile. All of a sudden for like 2 or 3 months straight our data usage skyrocketed, so much that I reluctantly got out of our grandfathered $12GB/month plan for the 3GB/month plan for $30/month. Literally as soon as I upgraded, our data usage went back down....and we haven't come close to 3 gigs since then. So of course we are overpaying for something we aren't even close to going over on...very suspicious. I'm afraid the same thing will happen here if we go unlimited.

New Poster

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1 Message

4 years ago

We have seen a surge of 1600 gb data between July 2020 and August 2020 . But there was no change in our household . No new device were added . We are family of 3 with only one family tv which doesn't support 4 k , don't watch netflix so often , no one uses games in our house and we have only 2 phones used for browsing etc. Our average usage had been less than 300 gb but suddenly it started increasing , going to 800 gb then to 900gb and suddenly 2500gb. Xfinity support doesn't seem to have clue . I checked in my Amazon fire stick , whole month netflix usage was just 76 gb so don't where such a high usage is coming from.
Tech support can't provide the break up of the usage either.
Really frustrating situation with Xfinity

New Poster

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2 Messages

4 years ago

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? 

Contributor

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393 Messages

4 years ago

@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.

New Poster

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1 Message

4 years ago

I believe the same. I also believe they purposefully stop and start internet service for those customers that are mobile users so that the phones have to also use cellular data at home. Early on, they were ramping speeds up and down between 6am to 6pm (pacific). And I have the same problem now. I bought my own modem and that’s when it started.

New Poster

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1 Message

4 years ago

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!

New Poster

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2 Messages

4 years ago

Between August and September and thereafter there's been an unexplained increase in our data usage reports. This makes no sense considering we used to have an additional person living here that would do live gaming and streaming every night and we were never overcharged for data. Now we have the same plan and our roommate has been gone since May so it's just my husband and I again, yet our data usage has trippled since August under the SAME PLAN? This makes no sense and I never was granted a free month of overages. I'll be installing firewalls and monitoring my actual output now because idk where the heck Comcast is lending this data out to from my modem. Such a scam.

Problem Solver

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1.5K Messages

4 years ago

@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.

Contributor

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24 Messages

4 years ago

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

Frequent Visitor

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8 Messages

4 years ago

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.. 😞

Frequent Visitor

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19 Messages

4 years ago

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.

Contributor

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49 Messages

4 years ago

@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.  

New Poster

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1 Message

4 years ago

I live in PA and about to be held to 1.2 TB/month. I haven't gone over this number but usually get to 1TB/month. I truly believe that Comcast holding us to these numbers, especially when you have remote schooling and work they should provide details to you usage - Not just a number with no Transparency! It's truly obscene when a company can just dictate caps like this and then post a number and charge you and then you have to somehow prove they did something wrong all the while YOU have to pay and have no other choice in your area! Comcast should be able to provide you an overview of the usage and at a minimum the major providers you are using - say streaming netflix, hbo max or disney+. They can even go a step deeper with services being used. At least do your customers a favor and be transparent so they can trust the numbers and not feel like they have no voice or they must pay an additional $30/month for unlimited. Add some of this into your plans with some tiering at least. I have 1gb service and I should get 2tb month cap. Also, hilarious that in a digital world today I have to be told to turn my Netflix subscription down to 720p when I went and bought a 4k tv so I could stream Netflix in 4k but now I'm worried I might go over my cap! Seriously! What happens with 8k in the future?

Also, why the heck is Comcast adding to my internet usage streaming tv service I already purchase through them in a cable plan?? I have a tv that I only connect to my network and have the Comcast Stream app and watch my TV via that app. Guess what, that is using my internet, sounds like a lawsuit to me!

New Poster

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2 Messages

4 years ago

I got a message yesterday that I had used 1109 gb of data for the month of January. What is going on???

New Poster

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2 Messages

4 years ago

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.  

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