Terabyte Internet Data Usage

[COBryan]

They are offering a new plan with unlimited. Better rate. Just need to sign on the dotted line for another 2 years.

[lesmikesell]

I wonder if the locations where they are offering the unlimited deals (with xFi or increasing your speed) https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/comcast-is-offering-unlimited-data-for-customers-who-upgrade-to-xfi-... correspond to the ones that are seeing the monitoring errors.

[COBryan]

Until this September, I have not had any issue with Comcast. I have the fastest internet offered and xFi TV, Security and all. Now that my 2 year contract is up, all of a sudden I have this data spike that they are not able to explain, but can fix it with a new buddle. Coincidence?

[lesmikesell]

Probably something accidental rather than targeting you with fradulent charges, but it could be related to something they are changing.   But if you are in an area where you get unlimited free for a new contract it sounds like the quick fix.

[COBryan]

I would not say free. Need to add other things I do not need to get a better deal. Just need to sign another 2 year contract .😑

[RGale]

In the last 6 months our usage was under 200 GB a month March the highest at 248 then maybe 100 or so August was 44 GB now September is 980 with days left they cannot tell me what device is using all this data and no explanation. I refuse to pay for overage of data when they cannot identify the user very upsetting I do believe it’s a scheme putting customers and their pocketbooks at the mercy of Comcast billing

[Rustyben]

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@RGale wrote:
In the last 6 months our usage was under 200 GB a month March the highest at 248 then maybe 100 or so August was 44 GB now September is 980 with days left they cannot tell me what device is using all this data and no explanation. I refuse to pay for overage of data when they cannot identify the user very upsetting I do believe it’s a scheme putting customers and their pocketbooks at the mercy of Comcast billing

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changed out your gateway/modem lately? subscribe to a cloud backup like backblaze?

[grday2]

Obviously, xfinity is watching this forum or otherwise they wouldn’t removed the postings-mine wasn’t the only one removed. The data error is obviously on their side. They just don’t want admit it. Unless they delete this, you can file a complaint with the franchise authority it is listed on your bill.   All, I was saying there are two many people having the same issue for it not to be an error.

[Chanman1231]

I have had this same problem ever since I started using comcast, less than a year now.  I moved into a resident that has comcast.  I used to live in an area where the highspeed internet was Satellite and they too had a cap of 750GB/month, I've never passed that in over 15 years.  Since moving into an area where we have comcast, while it's faster internet, I'm consistently doing over 1200GBs a month for the past 6 months.  So mr. expert, please explain why me and so many other users including family who has comcast has complained about the same thing.

[Chanman1231]

I wouldn't know, I've never used less than 1200GBs a month, according to the comcast meter anyways.

[Variaaaa]

My agreement plan's been over for a year and this is the 2nd time i've went over the data limit. The first time i've only used about 20gb of the courtesy month data. This time i've "used" nearly 100gb in t he past two days.

[Chanman1231]

I have and nothing has changed, it's been about 6 months or so.

[flatlander3]

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@grday2 wrote:

Obviously, xfinity is watching this forum or otherwise they wouldn’t removed the postings-mine wasn’t the only one removed. The data error is obviously on their side. They just don’t want admit it. Unless they delete this, you can file a complaint with the franchise authority it is listed on your bill.   All, I was saying there are two many people having the same issue for it not to be an error.

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Xfinity owns the domain.  They delegate the FQDN.  They signed the SSL certificate.  It's hosted on Xfinity equipment.  They mod the board.  They remove the posts that get a bit too technically close to the problem, or suggest you route all of your traffic through an internal firewall for data usage comparison.

You will get a chatbot that says, your neighbor might be using your wifi, or are you using a backup service.  Other than that, you're on your own.  I'd suggest keeping your own traffic stats. 

The funny part?  The "I'm <s>not</s> a comcast employee" part.  (wink)

[COBryan]

No. As we all have said. Nothing changed from previous months.

[MZ2]

No, I have nothing resolved. Comcast just wants to force people into the extra $50 for unlimited data.

They said I went over in September, which is a quandry since I was doing nothing big at all, ie.,,no streaming, downloaded 2 very low end computer games and watched regular cable tv so their calculations are not correct.

They seem to think they are correct in the data usage numbers, but it is impossible I used that much.  

Apparently, Comcast does not value long time customers(I've been with them since 1980), just want to give new customers a deal. Now Century Link is coming in to my area with Fiber Optic internet, no silly contract and unlimited data.

Guess I will be checking with them very soon.

[KaylaB]

We experience the SAME thing. We have a terabyte of data and somehow ALWAYS go over, even when no one is home all day long, WiFi is shut off of our phones (we have unlimited through our phone service), and they can’t tell me why we always go over. As in what device is the culprit. I’ve looked at the usage chart and none of the 4 devices connected have excessive use. It’s starting to get fishy to me and I’ve been searching other provider options. My BIL works in IT, and it says it would be nearly impossible to go over a terabyte of data. Especially with the amount of time we are here. Not to mention the service is always out, freezing, pausing, etc. Good luck!

[DanCon1]

Thank you Kayla! We went old school and turned off all of our devices for two days and Xfinity still showed that we used 35 gigs of data a day. I'm calling them tomorrow to have them respond to check out our system because it's definitely not us. Other online blogs have experienced the same issue and users also report that comcast refuses to acknowledge that it's their problem. If I don't get satisfaction from them I'm going to the local news station consumer reporter and change providers. Thanks.

[caseybirge]

We have the same exact issues. No explanation as to why our data had suddenly taken a huge increase. I had 5 devices placed on the Xfinity hotspots for a month and I am still having a huge increase in usage even when we are not at home. Something is definitely fishy. Customer service has no answers and can only read the cue cards that are in front of them. As of yesterday, I do not have access to the Xfinity hotspots and again the cue cards do not help with the issue.

[CharleneS]

This cant be an isolated issue. I am having the same problem as well. Received a text yesterday that they had to increase the download speed to my plan?? Looking through the app and its showing usage at times when I'm not home. Hopefully I can get assistance with customer service.

[RobertWy]

https://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Your-Home-Network/Terabyte-Internet-Data-Usage/td-p/2741624

[Chanman1231]

By Default comcast enables your WIFI as a hotspot and you are sharing your bandwidth with other customers.  To turn this off, goto My Account Settings and turn off your Hot Spot.  This will help.

[Chanman1231]

Yes, turn it off.

[lesmikesell]

That is not 'supposed' to count against the customer's data usage, but it would be nice if someone could confirm that.

[georgebalek]

We have NEVER gone much over 250GB in a month. Out of the blue we get a warning indicating we’ve exceeded 1024GB!!! Why would our usage suddenly quadruple when we are not doing anything differently? Appears as though we are not the only ones who have experienced this exact same problem. However, there does not appear to be any logical explanation here regarding what is happening. I just wanted to make you aware of the situation and let you know if this problem continues I will be visiting our local Xfinity center soon. Apparently attempting to contact you by phone is a waste of time.

[nacgroman]

For the month of September i have used all of my data and into the extra data by 360gb. We never use more than 30-40gb. I have reset eveything, changed wifi password and shut off the wireless to the tv's and cell phones and even shut off the hardwire to my pc. I left everything off for days and the data sill went up.  It has to be on their end i would think. I'm lost.

[lesmikesell]

There are many possibilities, and one is obviously an error on Comcast's metering.

But others are:

A virus or malware on one or more of your devices doing something that uses data, possibly participating in an attack on other sites.

Being the target of such an attack - the inbound packets count even if nothing responds.

Software you have installed using more data than you expect - backing up to icloud, google photos, pictures, etc.

Security devices like Ring doorbells or cameras uploading a lot of video when they sense motion.

Neighbors or strangers guessing your wifi password or possibly even getting MoCA (internet over coax) connections to your router if the proper filter is not installed.

There is a reddit thread here where someome said their Apple TV was the issue, but only once.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Comcast_Xfinity/comments/d86v4w/data_usage_over_1_tb_how/

And Xfinity has a security team to investigate if you suspect viruses or hacking https://internetsecurity.xfinity.com/help/report-abuse/

[Rustyben]

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@lesmikesell wrote:

That is not 'supposed' to count against the customer's data usage, but it would be nice if someone could confirm that.

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it does not count toward your home usage. (differnet IP).

[EG]

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@Chanman1231 wrote:

By Default comcast enables your WIFI as a hotspot and you are sharing your bandwidth with other customers.  To turn this off, goto My Account Settings and turn off your Hot Spot.  This will help.

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FWIW, it's a completely different / separate service flow from the CMTS / system going to a different device's MAC address.

[lesmikesell]

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@EG wrote:

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FWIW, it's a completely different / separate service flow from the CMTS / system going to a different device's MAC address.

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If you joined your own devices to the xfinity hotspot instead of your own would you avoid having the data counted?

[BR724]

Been with Comcast for 20 years or so.

Funny thing (not really) I never even knew I had a data cap UNTIL I finally 'Cut the cord' and got my own router and two streaming sticks.

(I dont watch movies. I dont watch tv during the day.  When I do watch tv it`s about 2-3 hours at the most at night and I only watch Travel channel ,some car stuff, history things like that so 5 channels out of 600 is all I needed)

Historically my usage was always around 35-40gb per month..thats LOW usage I would say.

Now since I cut the cord (August) I`ve been notified a number of times that I exceeded my data cap !!

August was like 1040 and now for September I`m probably now around 1070 or more.

So I went from 35 GB to over the 1070 GB and my online habits havent changed one iota.

Many calls and no answers !!!

Comcast knows whats up and NO... I WILL NOT GET THE UNLIMITED PLAN. So stop offering it !

[Specialedwin]

I had the same problem, my monthly data is almost twice what it normally is and I’m already being charged for going over my terabyte, I called and asked customer support and they told me that September 3 and 4 my data usage spiked and used 400 GB in two days. Two days I was not home... They are telling me that one of my devices most likely had something running in the background which I don’t believe. And they are telling me that there is nothing they can do about it…

[Molly79]

I am experiencing the same exact thing!!! I've had this service for 3 years and never had this problem before! 🤬

[Nanobe]

My monthly data usage had always been under 300 GB. Then, suddenly Xfinity says my data usage for September is 1187 GB and counting, despite nothing changing on my end. So, I tried to look into it.

Here's my setup: I'm using an SBG6580 cable modem. There are only three devices that should ever be connected to it: two desktop computers connected via ethernet, and my smart phone over wi-fi. It shows that only one device has connected to the wi-fi recently, and it's the MAC address of my phone. Also, the wi-fi password is a randomly-generated 32-character hexadecimal string, which is not realistically crackable by brute force.

The phone's wi-fi data usage shows 0.98 GB used from August 31 through today, September 28. And only part of that is from my own wi-fi; part of that number comes from the wi-fi I used at work.

The two desktop computers are both Linux computers, and I'm extremely careful about what software I install on them. I'm also the only person living in the house, and the only person with access to the computers. One of them computers is my primary workstation, and the other is essentially a stand-by that I only use for nightly backups of my primary computer.

On my secondary computer, running uptime shows that it has been running for 58 days since the last reboot. Running ifconfig shows that, over those 58 days, it has received a total of 75.3 GB and transmitted a total of 889.7 MB. I happen to know that nearly all of that data was from nightly backups of my primary computer, which occurs directly within my local network (via rsync) and should never touch the Internet. The secondary computer also gets system updates, but little else.

On my primary computer, running uptime shows that it has been running for 110 days since the last reboot. Running ifconfig shows that, over those 110 days, it has received a total of 792.7 GB and transmitted a total of 105.6 GB. Again, it's likely that a majority of that transmitted data was from the nightly backups, which wouldn't have touched the Internet. So, realistically speaking, my data usage comes almost entirely from the amount that my primary computer received: around 800 GB. Over the course of 110 days. That averages at around 225 GB a month, which is about equal to what Xfinity shows as my average monthly usage up until September, when Xfinity suddenly shows that I used 1187 GB in a single month.

Simply put: Xfinity is incorrect. I didn't use anywhere near 1187 GB of data this month, unless nearly all of that data was transmitted to my home from Comcast's network unprompted and was blocked by my router. In other words, I'm being penalized for Comcast's own network problems that have nothing to do with my usage of their service.

[Rafa209]

Same problem here I use all my internet for the month and got a message I had gone over my limit and I would get charged $10 for every 50gb I go over so I pause all my devices at home except my cell phone 4 days later I’m around 600gb over my limit in 4 days!!! Oh and let me tell you I got the slowest internet xifinity over witch you have to qualify for it’s called essentials so I talked to a few representatives and said find out what device is using all your data then call us back. So I called to cancel my plan and the guy who helped me said it just did not make sense how much data I have use with the internet speed my plan offers. So I said put a hold on my plan and I will call back and maybe you guys will figure it out. At the time I put a hold on my account I owed $120 or $130 now I owe $140 how is that possible when I put a hold. Will have to call again.

[RobertWy]

https://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Your-Home-Network/Terabyte-Internet-Data-Usage/m-p/2741624/highlight/t...

[kikas5]

Why am I getting emails saying I went over data usage? I have always had unlimited internet?

[COBryan]

If your contract is on a month to month basis or is expiring soon, this may be Comcast's way of telling you to sign another 2 year agreement. My contract expired at the end of August and my data suddenly spiked to 2292 from 181 in the previous month. I have never gone higher than 349 in the past 6 months. My suggestion to Comcast is to send a letter to the folks who have upcoming expiration's suggesting better bundles vs creating frustration and negative reviews. I had no issues with Comcast until this month and hopefully there will be no future issues going forward. The new bundles are better than what I had for the last 2 years including unlimited data. I will be curious to see next month levels to see if they go back down. Not that it matters now that I have unlimited data. Do not just add the $50 unlimited they are suggesting. Check with their sales group first (who have no idea we are all going through this frustration). It is only the data security folks who are aware but deny it is happening. The new bundle I signed up for actually lowers by monthly bill by $12 including unlimited data. Unlimited data is only $10 per month.

UPDATE: My data has actually gone down since this comment was added this morning. I am now at 2266. Wait, now back up to 2335 on 9-30. 

[tmitchell117]

I received messages saying my data usage exceeded my cap of 1 terabyte in September. Every previous month was around 50 to 60 gigs pretty much always. The store tech told me phone was the culprit ad it uses 80% of data daily. That’s not news as my wife is the only other person here and we never do movies and such. I was given a phone number to call Security or something for details. They said yep my phone is the reason and I should go to Xfinity Mobile. Kinda in circles for who can figure out the cause. I shut my phone off wifi and used my laptop for reading news and emails. Guess what? It posted a higher usage for those days. So I guess all my hardware is the problem and not the way Xfinity calculates data since September. You guys changed something and need to find the bug before someone starts a class action suit for over charging. I can’t find anybody to listen

[lesmikesell]

There is an interesting statement here:

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/x1-dvr-cloud-technology-general-faqs

where it says

Does X1 Cloud DVR count against the Xfinity Internet data usage threshold?
Downloading and/or streaming DVR recordings, live TV or Xfinity On Demand content will not count against your Internet data usage threshold if you are connected to your in-home Xfinity network. However, if you choose to stream or download DVR recordings outside of the home, this may count against your data usage threshold.

Does that last sentence mean that if someone watches recordings outside your home it counts against your home data usage?  What about streaming other xfinity content?

[grday2]

Most of you expert people are not realling pointing out the actually problem and not giving them good advice.   It is not happen to a few people,  the data spike is happening to a lot of people.    I went from 82 gb to 550+ gb.  I am on the low speed pacakage.  I used up to 300 gb before  but not this time.  June,  July and August were around that 80 gb.   There no way neighbor would hack my service.    Now,  I am unplugging the modem when not in use or gone.    Thankfully,  I always prefered SD over HD.   I really can't see the difference (eye issues).   So,  I set my video to below 720.   Xfinity,  needs to get it fixed.   I belive the Xfinity meter is allegedly doubling or trippling the data you  use.  I have roku unplugged,  I haven't used it in months.   The only thing I have is modem with the phone (now disabled wifi-when not using).    A laptop & a desktop.    Unless I am working on both,  one is always turned off.     Both are turned off when I gone. 

[lesmikesell]

If you have the xFi service you should be able to see usage by device.  Not very well, but as a percentage of usage for time ranges.  I've seen some surprises like an iphone with 'very high' internet usage at 1am when everyone was asleep.

[grday2]

My cellphone is not a smart phone.   It is just wifi.   To clarify my cell phone is not a smart phone. When I said modem, I was referring to the modem I rent from Xfinity. I don’t have Phone or tv service through Xfinity. As I stated before, there is to many people experiencing this issue for it not to be an error allegedly. 

[Hammer85]

Xfinity are playing a dangerous game.
Same thing on my account. Average around 200 a month now over 1024!!! I was told it was a Comcast issue and not to worry. I don’t believe them, in regards to not worrying about it, but absolutely it’s their issue!
Disgusting behavior

[captainmike1]

for the past couple years we used about 100GB of data per month.

this month we are at 975GB with one day to go.

this makes no sense as we have not changed anything.

I started debugging yesterday when I got a notice from comcast. I am  using the proper comcast apps and meters etc

what has disturbed me is that today I disconnected the cable modem from comcast for a few hours and then changed the WifFi password. we have had basically nothing except two printers and one computer hooked up. I have scanned the computer for malware and have put it to sleep when not in use.

yet in the past 6 hours the comcast app shows 25GB of usage !!!

our cells phones are not on WiFi and tablets connect to the phones.

tech support was not able to help me.

anyone have any idea what is going on ?

there is no way we have used 25GB in the past day even. we were gone most of yesterday !

[FlickNFreckles]

They are now claiming we have used 1620GB!

This is insanity.

Not sure what we are going to do if they don't get this sorted out soon. We only have one more courtesy month left now because of this nonsense.

Never in 7 years have we used over 500GB. I have checked everything I can, and this should not be happening.

[coles1]

They're saying we used as much in the past couple days as we usually use in 2+ weeks. lol

[Bhenders1]

My monthly data usage is less than 100gb. So how did it increase to over 1024gb in September when I have not changed my daily practice for using data nor have I had guests that used data.?

[deadmoto]

I turned off my modem completely but the counter keeps going up and up...

Totally desperate.

[lesmikesell]

I'd call the security number to see if they think you are being targeted by anything.

https://internetsecurity.xfinity.com/help/report-abuse/

[COBryan]

The data security group deny there is any issue. They only say we have used the internet more this month than anytime previously. Nothing has changed. I gave up and switched plans. No one at Comcast is listening. Even the sales folks had no idea there was an issue. I spoke with them 11 times with different departments (data security and CS). None of the agents had a clue this was happening to other people. Extremely frustrating.