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Thread ID: 125731 2012-07-15 21:09:00 Excessive data usage - advice please BBCmicro (15761) Press F1
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1288764 2012-07-15 21:09:00 Two girls came to stay with us yesterday (20-something graduate students, acquaintances of family. Not paying rent, here for 5 weeks). When I turned off my computer at 10 pm there was a message from Telstra saying I had used over 80% of my 10 GB monthly allowance, and further checking showed 8 GB had been used that afternoon!

I would welcome advice on what the traffic is likely to be and what to do about it. Both girls have gone off to work this morning. Neither of them was near a computer for a good hour around 6pm when we had dinner 		BBCmicro (15761)
1288765 2012-07-15 21:14:00 Good combination of Download + Upload like that is likely to be bittorrent, or the likes of Skype (Voice / video chat)

Save yourself some heartache (And your data cap) and spend $80-odd on a TP-Link router and pop Gargoyle on it. Per-device bandwidth limits are *simple* to setup and will solve all your problems! :)

EDIT: Just make sure you're there to grab them when they get home, it's plausible it will fire itself straight back up again if it's a torrent. 		Chilling_Silence (9)
1288766 2012-07-15 21:23:00 Hmm - just read the other thread. Will think about that

So it could be bittorrent. Will that have had access to media on my computer? I have more than a dozen folders shared 		BBCmicro (15761)
1288767 2012-07-15 21:34:00 So it could be bittorrent. Will that have had access to media on my computer? I have more than a dozen folders shared

Bittorrent doesn't just go and pluck everything it can find and seed it, so unless someone has pointed their torrent client at one of your shared folders, no. 		inphinity (7274)
1288768 2012-07-15 21:58:00 Perhaps a bit OT and moralistic, but I just can't believe the cheek and audacity, not to mention immorality, of commandeering a benefactor's bandwidth without any attempt at finding out the consequences to the owner. Seems as if it doesn't come into the theft category now. Call me old fashioned if you like. linw (53)
1288769 2012-07-15 23:14:00 If you're at the start of your billing term, I would suggest making them pay for another data block if it's offered by the ISP. That's just not fair. 8ftmetalhaed (14526)
1288770 2012-07-15 23:20:00 Hmm - just read the other thread. Will think about that

So it could be bittorrent. Will that have had access to media on my computer? I have more than a dozen folders shared

So the way that it'll be working is (IF they're downloading via bittorrent) they will have found something they like. Lets take Linux Mint for example (www.linuxmint.com), they will have chosen to download a .torrent which is an "information" file, it contains a bit of an overview of the files, some hashes to make sure they download OK, and the details of a "tracker" which keeps track of who is downloading the file.
The .torrent file containts information about the actual download, broken up likely into anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 pieces (roughly).

As the file begins to be downloaded, the parts that you've already download will then be re-shared.

So lets say it begins downloading, and it gets Parts #1, #587, #3244 & #7950. Somebody else connected to the tracker needs Part #587, so they get it from you, meanwhile you then start getting Part # 6289 from them at the same time. This is how the whole "Peer to Peer" side of things operates, because as you download part of it from one person, you also upload another part to another person.

What that does is lightens the load on the original server / sharer because they don't have to upload Part # 587 to every single person people pull it automatically from each other.

There's a bit more kung-fu that goes on behind the scenes, but you're OK because a bittorrent client won't scour your network finding everything it can and sharing it. However, keep in mind that depending on what they're downloading, they could be putting you at risk under the new copyright law if they get caught, as the account is under your name.

Again theres no promises it *is* bittorrent, and as mentioned there are a lot of legitimate bittorrent uses. However, ask them, it's your best bet, coz my money says it's either that, or some form of audio / video chat etc.

@linw:
I agree! Still, because a lot of people take it for granted, or simply don't mind abusing that kind of thing, it's good to know it's not hard to prevent them, and "abuse them back" as it were. Screw them over with a 50MB a day limit, then we'll see who's laughing!! ;) 		Chilling_Silence (9)
1288771 2012-07-15 23:25:00 Nothing more frustrating than being stuck on 5kbps (as you can do with gargoyle) probably more effective than shutting it off entirely. Makes everything SO slow and yet still annoyingly usable.

I do this on a couple of my machines as they've spiked usage occasionally (mostly automatic processes). Sometimes I'll be on there and realise it running really slow then notice it's tripped the quota. 		psycik (12851)
1288772 2012-07-15 23:31:00 Are these girls used to unlimited/large data caps (e.g from overseas)? They may have not even thought twice about downloading/watching a video; after all, 10GB is pretty small in this day & age. I (just) get by with 40GB & 3 teenagers gaming/Skype'ing & watching YouTube & the odd TV show online - mind you, they have been careless in the past & I have got them to think about how much traffic they're using once I've shown them the Gargoyle stats... MushHead (10626)
1288773 2012-07-16 00:45:00 I hate to think about how much I use
At least 1gb a month on my iPod, the same on my phone, and I *barely* use them. Don't even know how much on my laptop, but must be a lot. Good thing uni pays for my dad's internet, must be pretty generous as I've never blown the data cap.

Speaking of which, is there any program that can measure how much data I use on my laptop? i have no access to the router, so anything using firmware on that is out. 		Nick G (16709)
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