Meteor E3131 Hi Link with TP-Link MR3420 v1 causing excessive bandwidth reporting

davmigil

I have been using this combination since 21.12.12 and with pretty moderate internet usage have meteor insisting I have used 37.5Gb in two weeks! Latest firmware installed.

Some other threads here say the combination of dongle and router shouldn't work, but it has been working for me.

Is it possible this combination is resulting in Meteor's usage counter clocking up multiple duplicate data?

THE ALM

Hi davmigil.

Interesting the you have had this combination working as it does seem a bit hit and miss.

I have just received, today, the MR3420 V2.1 router and will be trying to run it with the Meteor E3131 and will let you know how I get on. Like you I would think that I am not a heavy user.

davmigil

THE ALM wrote: »

Hi davmigil.

Interesting the you have had this combination working as it does seem a bit hit and miss.

I have just received, today, the MR3420 V2.1 router and will be trying to run it with the Meteor E3131 and will let you know how I get on. Like you I would think that I am not a heavy user.

Updated the firmware, selected Meteor from the drop down list and it worked from the get go, didn't even have to enter PIN number, in hindsight maybe that has something to do with my woes!

Keep a daily eye on your usage at www.mymeteor.ie to be sure. If I had done that I would have cancelled the service within the first 7 days as would have seen something radically wrong!

eirator

OP hopefully this is a stupid question but you did check that there is a secure password on the wireless connection and that you are using decent encryption WPA or better?

davmigil

eirator wrote: »

OP hopefully this is a stupid question but you did check that there is a secure password on the wireless connection and that you are using decent encryption WPA or better?

WPA password in place. Also where we are located is fairly remote, so somebody trying to access wireless signal would have to be close by to get a signal. Have ruled it out as a possibility.

I have a thread in the meteor hosted forum, but the usage amounts seem impossible to me (not sure how meteor calculates/reports usage but they seem odd to say the least).

Within minutes of the stick first being connected to the router it had clocked up 113Mb, within an hour and a half another 1.7Gb:

21 Dec 2012 11:26 00:00:00 248Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 11:29 00:00:00 3Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 11:30 00:00:00 193Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 11:32 00:00:00 1Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 11:33 00:00:00 113021Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 12:48 00:00:00 275Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 12:57 00:00:00 572Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 13:02 00:00:00 2Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 13:03 00:00:00 1781829Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 18:04 00:00:00 2Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 18:06 00:00:00 1302941Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 21:41 00:00:00 366914Kb Mobile Internet €0
21 Dec 2012 23:26 00:00:00 267591Kb Mobile Internet €0


What seems odd to me is in the one minute between 13.02 and 13.03 the usage is 1.7Gb - I don't think that is even physically possible with the speeds the dongle can achieve?!

eirator

Glad that was a stupid question but it needed asking

I would say the times are the session start times when you log on followed by the data used in those sessions so the 21 Dec 2012 13:03 would be the start time for the session that used 1.7GB.

So what was the computer being used for at 1 o'clock in the afternoon on the Friday before Christmas?

The last time I went item by item with someone on their bill it turned out that the kids were home from school (it was a half term) when the usage went through the roof and further investigation showed that the kids were watching films all the times the usage was high. Not saying thats whats happened here but you to ask exactly who has been using the internet and for what.

Those usage figures and timings are far from impossible and easily accountable for if someone was downloading or watch movies. Depends of course how fast your connection is?

davmigil

Am looking into all possibilties.

So the times refer to the start time of activity and not when the activity was logged? I got the impression from customer service that usage figures were recorded after connection closed.

Later in the month, when the router was permanently connected just getting usage figures total once a day. One day there was 7Gb used, with nothing on this end that would account for so much data.

However the 21st was the first day had the dongle. Initially the only computer connected to the router was my Macbook and the main website I was checking was speedtest.net to determine where I would get the best reception. Hence have more seperate usage figures to look at for those days.

Looks to me that for every kb used was causing multiples to be clocked up.
Anyway, will keep you post.

eirator

I could easily be wrong on how the time stamp is put on the data usage but start time is how I've enterpreted it on other bills.

I've taken a look at the router (well the online simulator) and it doesn't really have any helpful features like external logging to help you. Best I could find was the emailable security log and the statistics log, might be worth setting up the statistics log to see how the figures mount up there?

Have you tried something as simple as leaving it off for 24hours and checking if there was any usage clocked up, that would be a good check in case there was something "impossible" happening like a mix up of account numbers or two accounts logging to the same bill - never heard of it happening btw.

What speeds did you get?

I know next to nothing about macs but is there any possiblity there is some update thats failing and occuring over and over?

davmigil

Thanks eirator, appreciate you taking an interest

My account has been suspended as I reached my credit limit and won't be reactivated until I pay!

Just had a look at the totals. From first getting the dongle on the 21st to the time I was cut off on the 10th January Meteor have me down for having used 54.6Gb!

The other discrepancy I have pointed out to Meteor is that when I plug the dongle directly in to the lap top it reports a total usage of 9Gb. I haven't reset the counter, so first thought that was a total since 21st Dec. Person I was talking to in customer service webchat said it would have been from bill date (which is 5th January). However the usage from 5th January on mymeteor website adds up to 15.5Gb, so either way a difference.

I was thinking if had a connection could leave router on with no computers attached and wifi turned off for 24 hours and see what usage figure would result.

I have gone through any computers and devices which were accessing the router and checked what files downloaded by date. Mainly update files etc. but nothing that would add up to such a huge total.

I will have another look at the laptop with a different internet connection and see if any problem with updates etc.

Will do the same with other devices - including smart phones using the wifi connection. There must be a leak somewhere so to speak!

eirator

You could limit your liability for high bills and test by trying it out with a Prepay SIM card. I'd doubt you get the same level of useage logging at the ISP level other than a count down so checking when and where the data is going to be harder.

Is there a network monitor that counts data used on a spacific port that you can get for use on the mac and limit useage just to the mac? There are quite a few free programs that do this for PCs'.

davmigil

eirator wrote: »

You could limit your liability for high bills and test by trying it out with a Prepay SIM card. I'd doubt you get the same level of useage logging at the ISP level other than a count down so checking when and where the data is going to be harder.

Is there a network monitor that counts data used on a spacific port that you can get for use on the mac and limit useage just to the mac? There are quite a few free programs that do this for PCs'.

Good thinking:

I could try various combinations and try to narrow down where problem lies:

1. Router on own
2. Router just with laptop
3. Router just with PC etc.

davmigil

Checked the laptop and found no problem with updates.
Did however find an odd file in download folder: .ZIP.DOWNLOAD with a date modified as Jan 1984 (presume a default date), size not reported (loading type bar given instead) but Info gave it as a 19Mb file. File was a SanDisk SD card utility, so nothing out of the ordinary, however must have been a problem with its download. Connected laptop to work network and when clicked on file (default action is to open with safari) it downloaded the rest of the file quickly. Now displaying as date modified 31.Oct.12 and 30Mb file size.

Not sure if significant or not, must search mac forums and see if that could cause problem such as I have (e.g. if was trying to download file over and over).

I installed a network usage app and so far nothing out of the ordinary.

davmigil

Got a letter from Meteor Complaints and Escalations which just re-iterates cap exceeded, charged accordingly.

I totted up the daily usage, it really is very high. If we had Netflix or other movie service I might believe it, but very minor youtube usage is the only video bandwidth here:

21.12.12 - 4.85Gb
22.12.12 - 2.2Gb
23.12.12 - 3Gb
24.12.12 - 2.6Gb
25.12.12 - 0.78Gb
26.12.12 - 4.8Gb
27.12.12 - 2.5Gb
28.12.12 - 1.5Gb
29.12.12 - 2Gb
30.12.12 - 1.9Gb
31.12.12 - 1.3Gb
1.1.13 - 1Gb
2.1.13 - 1.8Gb
3.1.13 - 7Gb
4.1.13 - 3.8Gb
5.1.13 - 2.9Gb
6.1.13 - 4Gb
7.1.13 - 1.5Gb
8.1.13 - 2.27Gb
9.1.13 - 0.8Gb
10.1.13 - 3.2Gb
11.1.13 disconnected (total used about 56Gb! Average amount 2.7Gb per day)

Can't match up history to make any sense of this. 3.1.13 about 1hrs worth of youtube (which would be high for us), but that hardly would take 7Gb, even if at HD!

eirator

Have you plotted those figures on a calander? It might help you see what is going on. For example there is always high data usage on a Monday? Look at opposites here (lateral thinking ) and see if the results are highest when you are not in the house or using it the least, like does somebody borrow the dongle on Mondays?

Edit> Ask Meteor which mast you are connecting to and if its always the same one.

davmigil

Reverted back to using older dongle and Dovado UMR for the moment. It keeps track of upload/download and is tallying with Meteor (when using 1000kb per Mb rather than 1024kb). Will try the TP-Link and new dongle again next month, as close to 20Gb data cap for this month and don't want to risk going over.

An Ri rua

davmigil wrote: »

Reverted back to using older dongle and Dovado UMR for the moment. It keeps track of upload/download and is tallying with Meteor (when using 1000kb per Mb rather than 1024kb). Will try the TP-Link and new dongle again next month, as close to 20Gb data cap for this month and don't want to risk going over.

Sorry for updating an old thread. But how did you get on?

I'm looking at hooking up an E3131 in a similar setup to yours.