UPC forced downgrade after cap exceeded

MrJoeSoap

Hi all,

UPC have seen fit to downgrade my rented accomodation with three other tenants from 50gb to 30gb after our cap was exceeded two months in succession. As we have no central way of checking how much we have downloaded at any stage during the month (laptop meters are all well and good, but what about tablets, iPads, iPods, Playstations etc...) how are we meant to monitor what we have downloaded at any stage during the month so we can keep ourselves in check? Has anyone appealed this to UPC successfully before, or am I talking to a brick wall?

Also, has anyone had security issues with the Thomson router's being hacked? I really can't imagine that we are going over a 500gb limit as none of us are major users and we all monitored our usage as closely as possible last month.

Thanks,
MJS

Sponge Bob

Your wireless may be hacked so do change the password and enable WPA not WEP security.

Also ensure that NO torrent clients are live for the rest of the month and keep a periodic ( weekly) eye on traffic by contacting UPC if necessary and checking.

vibe666

well that's a turn up for the books, they used to upgrade you if you if you went over, but now they're downgrading you instead?

i suppose when all the packages have the same caps its more of a punishment to downgrade, but they used to just charge you more.

i'd definitely complain either way, you've got nothing to lose.

i'd be making a big point of demanding that if they intend to hold you to usage limits that they have an obligation to supply you with a tool to monitor that usage.

if they won't do that then i'd make a point of emailing them 10 times a day asking what my current usage was just to bug the feck out of them.

Tea_Bag

just got a letter myself today. I'm on the 100mb package and in October apparently exceeded my FUP with a total of 539.4999999997GB.

they kindly asked to not exceed this again or ill be forced onto a €79.99 30mb unlimited bundle.

This pisses me off because A) I'm on their most expensive consumer package they advertise, the downgrade from 100mb to 30mb is substantial, and C) with a letter like that they clearly monitor your usage down to the byte but refuse to supply you with any monitoring software package on their website.

I suspect ill use close to 500gb this month again (which is why I got this package), but to be sure ill be following Vibes advice and emailing them every 10min every day. if I fall short ill torrent the remainder so as to get to 499.99GB by the 30th scummy.

I got a good deal on a router which does the job fine, so I really can't justify upgrading it again to get some bandwidth monitoring tools on my end

java

vibe666 wrote: »

i'd be making a big point of demanding that if they intend to hold you to usage limits that they have an obligation to supply you with a tool to monitor that usage.

if they won't do that then i'd make a point of emailing them 10 times a day asking what my current usage was just to bug the feck out of them.

I'd also complain to Comreg. Its a bit ridiculous at this stage that they haven't developed such a tool.

oisin

If you want to monitor the traffic through your router install Networx, you can get it here:
http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/

It's freeware and it will tell you what's been downloaded/uploaded on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

PaulieBoy

I am now with UPC and am a bit miffed that they don't have a usage meter. I was with Eircom and they do. If they can provide a usage meter then so can UPC.
Just do it already!!

Tea_Bag

oisin wrote: »

If you want to monitor the traffic through your router install Networx, you can get it here:
http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/

It's freeware and it will tell you what's been downloaded/uploaded on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

That's not exactly any good unless you've only 1 PC. It doesn't run off the router which is ideal, its a windows app.

When you've got 4PCs, 4 xboxs, 3 laptops, a PS3 and several tablets/wifi phones it becomes impossible to use software like that...

oisin

Tea_Bag wrote: »

That's not exactly any good unless you've only 1 PC. It doesn't run off the router which is ideal, its a windows app.

When you've got 4PCs, 4 xboxs, 3 laptops, a PS3 and several tablets/wifi phones it becomes impossible to use software like that...

It will monitor all PC's connected to the router and aggregate all downloads and uploads.

MrJoeSoap

oisin wrote: »

It will monitor all PC's connected to the router and aggregate all downloads and uploads.

PC's only or all devices?

Sir Oxman

Does the thompson support SNMP? i can't find settings for it and networkx won't gather data from router without it.

vibe666

Tea_Bag wrote: »

That's not exactly any good unless you've only 1 PC. It doesn't run off the router which is ideal, its a windows app.

When you've got 4PCs, 4 xboxs, 3 laptops, a PS3 and several tablets/wifi phones it becomes impossible to use software like that...

i was just about to shoot it down, but it turns out it has an option to monitor SNMP on your router OR aggregate readings from multiple PC's on a LAN which is actually pretty sweet for a bit of freeware.

according to the Thompson manual, it DOES support SNMP but there are very little details on it in the manual and the screengrab appears to be incorrect. (EDIT: it's actually in the section below the one in the screengrab).

double edit, fcuk me it actually works!

vibe666

right, so download and install NetWorx onto your PC and go to Settings > Main and under the monitored interfaces section at the bottom, change to your THompson's IP address and in the dropdown on the right choose WAN-Man Interface and hit okay.

now download something from the net using another machine on your network and you should see the graph reflecting the WAN usage on the other machine via SNMP.

now go up and add a "thanks" to oisin's posts.

might well be worth making adding into one of the stickies for UPC users too.

PaulieBoy

vibe666 wrote: »

now go up and add a "thanks" to oisin's posts.

might well be worth making adding into one of the stickies for UPC users too.

But that computer would have to be running 24/7 in order to monitor the others ?
If so it's still of little real use in real life !

Sir Oxman

Nope, I'm not getting anything in the dropdown box for WAN Interface - it's blank.
If I click OK with just router IP and the blank 'WAN Interface' it tells me maybe SNMP isn't set up or supported on router.

Stock Thompson router.

vibe666

gambiaman wrote: »

Nope, I'm not getting anything in the dropdown box for WAN Interface - it's blank.
If I click OK with just router IP and the blank 'WAN Interface' it tells me maybe SNMP isn't set up or supported on router.

Stock Thompson router.

have you put in the correct IP for the thompson router?

if you don't have any other router then the IP for the thompson will be your default gateway address when you do an ipconfig in dos.

Sir Oxman

vibe666 wrote: »

have you put in the correct IP for the thompson router?

if you don't have any other router then the IP for the thompson will be your default gateway address when you do an ipconfig in dos.

Yeah vibe, Thompson router IP correct, 192.168.0.1 which is my default gateway checked through ipconfig /all. I have static IPs setup on all PCs with default gateway as 192.168.0.1
I have a second router in a DMZ for VPN which serves my bluray player for iplayer access
Do you have a bunch of error messages in the SNMP log on the thompson? Maybe that's the reason?
Only warning today was:
Fri Nov 04 09:19:22 2011 Warning (5) Map Reject - Not Authorized for Requested Downstream Traffic ...
My UPC connection is rock solid.

MrJoeSoap

gambiaman wrote: »

Nope, I'm not getting anything in the dropdown box for WAN Interface - it's blank.
If I click OK with just router IP and the blank 'WAN Interface' it tells me maybe SNMP isn't set up or supported on router.

Stock Thompson router.

Getting the same here with IP 192.168.0.1, no option to choose anything in the WAN interface.

vibe666

well that's weird. firewalls blocking the connection maybe?

my configuration is slightly different in that i have my own router managing my LAN in connected to the thompson, but if anything i would have expected it to make connections more difficult.



PaulieBoy is correct though, in that it it will only monitor SNMP whilst it's running so anything that happens whilst it's off will go uncounted.

you can configure it to collect and aggregate data from all PC's on the LAN with NetWorx installed though, so if you have several PC's and have it configured to collect data from the WAN interface on the Thompson on each one it *may* (not tested, but you never know and it's worth a shot) still gather and aggregate enough info to be reasonably accurate.

Tea_Bag

i was getting really excited reading this but im just home to test it out and..... nadda.

ive got my Thompson -> DMZ -> Netgear WNDR3300 (through static IP) -> devices.

the WNDR3300 doesnt support SNMP and im also getting a blank on the Man-Wan trying to tunnel into the Thompson by doing 192.168.0.1.

turned off the software firewall but still getting nothing. everything on the Thompson is turned off already.

Im going to try DD-wrt again but i honestly dont know much about it.

this is what it it lists for my Netgear:



would it run OK with 16mb RAM? i kinda need it to be rock solid cause im hosting a game server on the PC with a few external connections and several XBox's need to have OPEN NAT's too.

vibe666

i have the tomato firmware running on my own router and altho there's snmp support via an addon, i don't have it installed so there's no snmp on it at present. i'm assuming anyone with another router is still able to get to the thompson webui via their browser? i'm just wondering if it might be a routing issue maybe? might be worth trying it directly connected to the thompson just to rule out the other router as a potential cause?

i'm just trying to figure out why it works for me and some others, but not for everyone?

MrJoeSoap

Tea_Bag wrote: »

i was getting really excited reading this but im just home to test it out and..... nadda.

ive got my Thompson -> DMZ -> Netgear WNDR3300 (through static IP) -> devices.

the WNDR3300 doesnt support SNMP and im also getting a blank on the Man-Wan trying to tunnel into the Thompson by doing 192.168.0.1.

turned off the software firewall but still getting nothing. everything on the Thompson is turned off already.

Im going to try DD-wrt again but i honestly dont know much about it.

this is what it it lists for my Netgear:



would it run OK with 16mb RAM? i kinda need it to be rock solid cause im hosting a game server on the PC with a few external connections and several XBox's need to have OPEN NAT's too.

I take it you didn't have any luck afterwards? Still haven't managed to configure it here.

vibe666

righto, its got to be a simple configuration issue somewhere stopping it working for you guys so this is as much info as i can think to give on my set up, so hopefully it will help someone.

i've got the 64bit version running in win7 (with a static dhcp address) with the firewall off via a wired connection to my own router (via a switch) which is in turn connected to the thompson via its WAN port with a static IP, sitting in the DMZ of the thompson with everything on the thompson disabled, wireless, firewall, dhcp, all off, its for all intents and purposes just a dumb modem.

my LAN is on the 192.168.1.x subnet with the thompson and the wan port of my router on the 192.16.0.x subnet, with the thompson web gui browsable via it's 192.16.0.1 address.

when i put the ip of the thompson into the networks client config where it says to put it, after a second or two i get a list of possible interfaces to monitor and just choose the WAN one and thats it, it just works fine from there.

alph

old thread but seemingly if you go to the firewall page on router and where it says Firewall Protection and has a drop down menu, setting that to off will allow networx to connect with it.

At least thats what worked for me

parsi

Tea_Bag wrote: »

just got a letter myself today. I'm on the 100mb package and in October apparently exceeded my FUP with a total of 539.4999999997GB.

they kindly asked to not exceed this again or ill be forced onto a €79.99 30mb unlimited bundle.

This pisses me off because A) I'm on their most expensive consumer package they advertise, the downgrade from 100mb to 30mb is substantial, and C) with a letter like that they clearly monitor your usage down to the byte but refuse to supply you with any monitoring software package on their website.

I suspect ill use close to 500gb this month again (which is why I got this package), but to be sure ill be following Vibes advice and emailing them every 10min every day. if I fall short ill torrent the remainder so as to get to 499.99GB by the 30th scummy.

I got a good deal on a router which does the job fine, so I really can't justify upgrading it again to get some bandwidth monitoring tools on my end

A zombie thread but..

I received this letter on Friday telling me that I'd used 1TB last month.

It appears that they won't provide us with monitoring tools so I've written a latter (oldskool on paper) to them detailing the points mentioned above .

It will be interesting to see if they respond.

parsi

parsi wrote: »

A zombie thread but..

I received this letter on Friday telling me that I'd used 1TB last month.

It appears that they won't provide us with monitoring tools so I've written a latter (oldskool on paper) to them detailing the points mentioned above .

It will be interesting to see if they respond.

Good idea. Looking forward to see if they respond.

Bit late now, but probably should spend extra few euro and get registered post, so you know if they get it, and then they can't use the "lost in the post" excuse.

parsi

I sent it normal post. If I don't get an answer I can send it again.

If I was looking for money or trying to start a formal complaints process I'd certainly have registered it.

I'll work on the basis that they'll be so surprised to get a printed letter (rather than email or call) that they'll be shocked into lifting the cap totally