# 10GB Limit



## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

I'm with BT Broadband on their smallest package as I don't see the need to pay any more for a service that is slow. I can only get 1.5MB at my current house.

I only use the connection for surfing here and Xbox Live. There is me, my girlfriend and the two boys and none of us download large files, it's litterally for surfing and a bit of gaming.

Last month I was getting emails from BT saying we were near our limit, but I thought nothing of it and at the end of the month I got an email saying our usage for December was 15GB!

Yesterday I had an email from BT saying our usage for this month is already 7GB! I really can't see how. Can anyone suggest anything? I'm not paying any more per month for a slow service so if this continues it's just another reason to switch to another provider. For £17 a month I get a 40GB limit with Sky.

Thanks.


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## JB052 (Mar 22, 2008)

We found xbox live used quite a bit. especially when downloading demos.


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

I only ever play MW2. Don't download anything here.


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## Demon (Jun 27, 2008)

live is around 50mb an hour on halo 3


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

I barely play for an hour at a time but I guess that could add up.


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## Demon (Jun 27, 2008)

If you played every day for an hour, that would still only be 1.5GB


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## Cheesy231 (Apr 6, 2009)

IIRC the 5GB you went over by last month will be added to the next month as a sort of punishment, and your speeds will be throttled because of this, plus the fact youre on the base tariff.


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Cheesy231 said:


> IIRC the 5GB you went over by last month will be added to the next month as a sort of punishment, and your speeds will be throttled because of this, plus the fact youre on the base tariff.


In the email they said that because this was the first time they won't do anything, but if it happens again they will charge me £1 per extra GB used. So for 15GB I'll get charged £5 on top of my monthly bill.


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## JB052 (Mar 22, 2008)

Puntoboy said:


> I only ever play MW2. Don't download anything here.


It was certaing the 'Demo's' that upped the usage for us.
Do you have to download maps on MW2?


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## colarado red (Jun 5, 2008)

i would consider moving to sky.I have tv,phone line and calls,10 meg speed,10 gb usage and pay around £45 a month depending how much the phone is used:thumb:


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

JB052 said:


> It was certaing the 'Demo's' that upped the usage for us.
> Do you have to download maps on MW2?


Nope, still using the ones that came with the game.



colarado red said:


> i would consider moving to sky.I have tv,phone line and calls,10 meg speed,10 gb usage and pay around £45 a month depending how much the phone is used:thumb:


Well because of where I am ( started another thread about getting a BT Accelerator) I can only get 1.5MB in the current house, although apparently we can get 2.5MB in the new house. Because our Exchange isn't unbundled we can't get as good prices for broadband. So it's £17 a month from Sky regardless, but I'm sure it said a 40GB limit. I might give them a ring to find out.


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Well I've just spoken to BT, they can't give me any indication of why my usage is so high apart from me downloading stuff...

They did however offer me a better deal. I am currently on Option1 which is £15.99 a month, 10GB limit. I could change to Option2 which is currently £20.00 a month with a 20GB limit and as I am a current customer (Oh I feel so special) they can give me £5 a month off making it £15.99 a month...

Now the choice is stick with BT and pay £15.99 for a 20GB limit or switch to Sky, pay £17 and have a 40GB limit....


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

I would continue to question why your bandwidth is so high. Unless you are streaming a lot of video or downloading lots of demos on the Xbox your bandwidth shouldn't really go above 3-4GB per month.

Are you on an unsecured wireless connection? Someone else may be piggybacking it and using your connection to download stuff.


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## EastUpperGooner (May 31, 2009)

Meh, I have virgin @ £20

20mbps and unlimited downloads.

BT are a rip off


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## 500tie (Oct 15, 2009)

Believe it or not Puntboy i have had exactly the same thing with BT and all we use the internet for is a little bit of surfing, i come on here and my wife goes on her forums but thats all and yet somehow we are going over our limit. Its not unsecured and no one else knows the password to my knowledge anyway. Think im going to have to take your advise and get on the phone to them and see if i can get that "special customer" discount on the larger package


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

EastUpperGooner said:


> Meh, I have virgin @ £20
> 
> 20mbps and unlimited downloads.
> 
> BT are a rip off


Well I wish I could get cable, but in the village there is only BT on a crappy, old Exchange. Not a lot I can do about that.



500tie said:


> Believe it or not Puntboy i have had exactly the same thing with BT and all we use the internet for is a little bit of surfing, i come on here and my wife goes on her forums but thats all and yet somehow we are going over our limit. Its not unsecured and no one else knows the password to my knowledge anyway. Think im going to have to take your advise and get on the phone to them and see if i can get that "special customer" discount on the larger package


Worth a shot. See if you can find out why...



jamest said:


> I would continue to question why your bandwidth is so high. Unless you are streaming a lot of video or downloading lots of demos on the Xbox your bandwidth shouldn't really go above 3-4GB per month.
> 
> Are you on an unsecured wireless connection? Someone else may be piggybacking it and using your connection to download stuff.


That's what I thought, 15GB is a lot for surfing alone. I do all the downloading at my parents house an their 10MB connection. 

I'm not stupid either  My Router is secured and a regulary check to see what other clients connect to it. Only our laptops, my iPhone and my Xbox connect.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

I can only suggest that you make an official complaint.

Alternatively, depending on your router, you may be able to see how much traffic is passing through the router since it has been restarted. So if you restart it one day and monitor it for a week and see how much traffic is passing through it.


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

It's a BT HomeHub 2.0. Not sure it has that capability but I will check tonight.

Thanks


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

I have just spoken to BT as I noticed there is a specific number on to call on the email they sent me.

He seemed to think that websites like Facebook use more data that you realise and that online gaming does too. He seemed to think that 10 hours Xbox Live would be around 500MB of traffic. 

I started to think he was just trying to get me to upgrade my package but he has given me a link to a data usage monitor to install on the computers to monitor the traffic. He did also confirm that my router also can show the information for things like the Xbox where I can't install the other monitor.

I'll run it for a week or two and see how that goes.


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## ryanuk (Jun 22, 2007)

I'm with 02 pay £7.50 per month can download as much as I want and it's 8meg speed! We are getting 6meg were we live. 

We have just moved from sky as there service sucks big time!


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

I can't get o2 for that price as previously mentioned because we are on an Exchange that isn't unbundled.


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## Johnnyopolis (Oct 25, 2005)

Puntoboy said:


> he has given me a link to a data usage monitor to install on the computers to monitor the traffic. He did also confirm that my router also can show the information for things like the Xbox where I can't install the other monitor.
> 
> I'll run it for a week or two and see how that goes.


Can you link me what he suggested as I would be interested too 

Thanks!

Johnny


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

www.thinkbroadband.com then click on the green slow broadband button on the right.


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## Stephen (Jul 23, 2009)

I am with O2 broadband its has no download limits and the service is pretty good. O2 all the way for me, but then I am a bit onesided as I work for O2. lol


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## Stephen (Jul 23, 2009)

If you had a mate working for O2 somewhere they could get it for you on the staff discount deal for 12.50 a month.


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## Dunkwho (Jan 23, 2009)

we're on talktalk ... 40gb, broadband, line rental, and now calls day and night for £18 I think. Their support forum is very good for any broadband tweaking issues.


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## Johnnyopolis (Oct 25, 2005)

Puntoboy said:


> www.thinkbroadband.com then click on the green slow broadband button on the right.


Thanks, not good for me though as it only works with Windows.

 Oh well.

Johnny


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Stephen said:


> If you had a mate working for O2 somewhere they could get it for you on the staff discount deal for 12.50 a month.


I do actually. He is a store manager.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

The 360 shouldn't use any more than 100MB per hour on a full server in COD or Halo.

So 500MB for 10 hours is a reasonable estimate for general gaming. Facebook doesn't use that much unless you are browsing whole galleries or watching videos on it.


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## Scotty Pro (Nov 12, 2008)

Puntoboy said:


> It's a BT HomeHub 2.0. Not sure it has that capability but I will check tonight.
> 
> Thanks


you can check with the hub manager how much you have downloaded, but you have to have admin rights.

I do it all the time, just to keep an eye on things, even though I am on unlimited downloads.


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## ryanuk (Jun 22, 2007)

Stephen said:


> If you had a mate working for O2 somewhere they could get it for you on the staff discount deal for 12.50 a month.


If u meen the Internet mate then it's only 12.50 anyways.

And if you have a mobile phone with them it's only £7.50.


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Looking at my hub, which I restarted this morning, I have used 92mb in the last 10 hours.

Connection time	0 days, 10:34:16
Data Transmitted/Received (MB)	31.7 / 92.7


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

What have you been doing in the last 10 hours (if you don't mind me asking :lol.

I think BT also include your upload, so it is actually 120MB.


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Well one of the boys is currently on the Xbox. Something isn't right here because he's been at school all day.


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## Matt. (Aug 26, 2007)

I had all this with Sky mate. I played the ps3 for about 2-3 hours a day and used the internet a fair bit. I had to upgrade to Sky every day. I did only have 2mb which was free with the package, and i was using 7mb a month.

Is your network secure? Somebody may be using your internet?


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## ryanuk (Jun 22, 2007)

mattastra said:


> I had all this with Sky mate. I played the ps3 for about 2-3 hours a day and used the internet a fair bit. I had to upgrade to Sky every day. I did only have 2mb which was free with the package, and i was using 7mb a month.
> 
> Is your network secure? Somebody may be using your internet?


thats what i was thinking!


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

As said earlier in the post. My wireless is secure and I regularly check which devices connect. I'm an IT professional so I do know what I'm doing


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Well here is an update on my connection.

Connection Information

Connection time...........................1 days, 18:52:53
Data Transmitted/Received (MB).....153.4 / 552.9

So 550mb in just under 2 days. Sounds a lot to me so I'm going to monitor the devices individually.


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2010)

Do you use spotify?


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Nope.


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2010)

Yeah, stick tbb meter on all your computers and total them up at the end of the day.


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