G4 Powerbook and G5 iMac/Eircom Cap

VERYinterested

Sorry if this post is in the wrong section but I feel this could be a Mac issue. I finally rid myself of IBB in early May and got Eircom Broadband, why didn't I do it sooner? Anyway I stumbled across a way of viewing my Broadband usage and was horrified to see that we went over our 10 gig cap in June by 2000 megs! We were away for a week in June and I reckon that we downloaded about 30 tracks from i Tunes and there were a couple of hefty Mac software updates in June. Otherwise we were just using the net for normal surfing, plus Bebo and such like. I notice that for July we have used 75% of our cap already and have amassed a hefty 429 hours on the net :eek: I can't understand this as with the good weather the kids are out and not glued to Bebo, the machines (I have a G4 Powerbook and an iMac G5 connected) are put to sleep when not and use and all Apps are quit out of. The only thing I can think of is that Widgets are going ape while we are connected to the net and as a test I have disabled them. It would be a shame if they were the culprit as they are very handy. There is no way that we are intentionally downloading this level of usage and I am worried that they will invoke their 2c per megabyte cap surcharge and I am concerned that there is something more sinister happening. I have the Wireless end of things disabled in case you think a neighbour is sitting in their garden ala Kathryn Thomas using my connection to burn a hole in Limewire!! PLease help if you can as this has me worried Again apologies if this should be in a different section but I didn't want to attract replies from the 'oh you should have got a PC, they're great, brigade'

LeinsterPar

do you have wireless broadband? if so is it secure as it sounds like someone is leeching your broadband

LeinsterPar

oops - jsut read that you had the wireless end disable.

the only thing i can think of is check the machine logs and see if it lets you nkow whats going where

Hugh_C

VERYinterested wrote:

I stumbled across a way of viewing my Broadband usage and was horrified to see that we went over our 10 gig cap in June by 2000 megs!

My Eircom BB stats were always wrong in the days I was actually able to view them - for some reason I can't any more, dunno why.

When I was able to view them though, I looked at the IP number that I was allegedly using and traced it to somewhere in Galway - I live in Dublin so it obviously wasn't me. I think there was some sort of cock-up in the accounts.

To cut a long story short, I am a heavy user and assume that I exceed the cap on a regular basis, but I've never been charged for anything. Maybe some poor sucker in Galway is paying for my heavy usage, or maybe Eircom is inept. Nooooooooooo.

I wouldn't worry about it too much.

On my modem (3rd party not supplied by Eircom) there is an area where you can allow only certain MAC addresses (unique number for every ethernet adapter, nothing to do with Mac addresses) access to the internet, so you can insure that no leeching is possible.

What widgets are you running as a matter of interest? They'd hardly be pulling down loads of data.

hc

VERYinterested

Thanks guys for comments so far, the Widgets I was running were the weather, world clock, a few news sites like bbc and that was it, 6 or 7 max. I posted this (see post below) a few minutes ago in Broadband section where after ringing eircom I don't think the stats are accurate. I examined the ip address thing for my May activity and I had 9 different ip addresses! I know I shouldn't worry, but when it comes to misunderstandings with major corporations I always come off worse. When I was signing up, I ticked yes in the box for 'have you a monitored alarm'. Reason I said yes was I didn't want some Phonewatch salesperson contact me , anyway, a week after I installed Broadband a Techie arrived at the front door. I told him all was well and was up and running a week, he asked me did I tick yes at the monitored alarm question, apparently they have to perform some operation if you have a monitored alarm for Broadband to work. As I didn't have a monitored alarm he went on his way and was delighted he didn't have to do any work. I asked would there be any implications for me, financially. Oh no, sure I didn't do anything, says he. Grand, until my bill arrived 3 weeks ago with a €79 plus vat charge for his call out. I rang them and a query has been raised and the amount is still showing against my bill today. I just know there will be rows down the line about this cap, I just want to put it to bed with them that it ain't me using all these hours/megs!

"How accurate are the stats? My stats are way off, they say I've been on the net for 716 hours in June and I was away for a week, so it was nigh on impossible for me to be on that long. 30 days by 24 hours is 720 hours. My machine was off for the week I was away, plus they say we downloaded 12101 mb in that month, on what I don't know. 30 songs from iTunes and a Software update of 100mb plus your average surfing time, nothing out of the ordinary is all that was done. I have come to the conclusion that the stats on line are flawed. I am going to do a few tests and turn off the modem when it is not in use and see what that throws up".

Hugh_C

VERYinterested wrote:

Thanks guys for comments so far, the Widgets I was running were the weather, world clock, a few news sites like bbc and that was it, 6 or 7 max.

Unlikely to be any culprits there...

Here's another little widget for your collection which measures your internet traffic up and down:

http://www.shockwidgets.com/?widget=TrafficMeter

VERYinterested

Brilliant, now I can see if the two measuring systems match up, thanks! Eircom suggested that I switch off the modem for a couple of days. I'd be lynched by the kids if they didn't get their Bebo fix! I have limited them to an hour a day on Bebo as it was getting out of hand but nobody was on the net 24/7 which our stats were saying.

VERYinterested

Thanks Hughchal, the culprit is Bebo! It is an eye opener to watch the Megabyte count go up rapidly while connected to Bebo, the widget is brilliant! All the little video clips and photos on each page take a huge toll on the monthly cap. On any ordinary site you go up a meg every two minutes but on Bebo it is every 5 seconds! It is like looking at your lecky meter when the kettle is turned on:eek: 'Hours online' is deceptively worded on the stats as it purely means how long the modem is switched on for, which is not the same as hours online in my book, but as it's 'always on' I don't know why they bother with that one. Now I know what the problem is I can avoid going over the cap drastically every month and avoid a potential row with the lovely eircom! Ta v much.

K.O.Kiki

If you're using Camino or Firefox, look for FlashBlock & teach the kids what it is - could help save a few megs per day

VERYinterested

Found Flash Block and installed it and right enough it completely slows down Bebo's voracious apetite. Thanks for that, may not need to be so many rows now

K.O.Kiki

You're welcome
I forgot to add, check out the Adblock Plus & CustomizeGoogle extensions for Firefox too; removes lots of embedded ads in webpages & makes surfing that much nicer (Camino equivalent would be CamiBlock which comes with CamiTools)