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Am I being misblamed?
The Anonymous
Uh, uh, uhhhhhh...Uh, uh.Registered User regular
Uh, uh, uhhhhhh...Uh, uh.Registered User regular
Okay, before I get to the problem, some background information. At home we're on an ADSL2+ internet plan with Telstra. Said plan has a set usage limit (20GB IIRC); once exceeded, you're charged extra for how much you go over by. I know, it's fucking criminal, but there's nothing we can do about it. Out of myself, my parents and my younger brother, only my technologically-challenged mother doesn't use the internet.
In the past there have been months where we went over, and every single time I've been blamed for it. Only a couple of times did I consider it to be the case; both those occasions I'd spent a good amount of time playing online and such. But in the past two months, I haven't even touched an online game, and in fact my overall web usage has gone down; I generally only browse PAF and a couple other sites (mostly PAF though).
So imagine my surprise last night when my father rung to inform me that we'd gone over. He then proceeded to inform me that I would be paying the extra (which I have absolutely no intention of doing), and generally acted as if I was the only person responsible. This morning he disconnected our router (not a major issue, I still have my iPhone), and seems intent on putting as much of the blame on me as possible.
tl;dr: we used too much internet, I don't think it's my fault, yet my dad acts like it totally is. Who is really to blame here, and what should I do about it?
In the past there have been months where we went over, and every single time I've been blamed for it. Only a couple of times did I consider it to be the case; both those occasions I'd spent a good amount of time playing online and such. But in the past two months, I haven't even touched an online game, and in fact my overall web usage has gone down; I generally only browse PAF and a couple other sites (mostly PAF though).
So imagine my surprise last night when my father rung to inform me that we'd gone over. He then proceeded to inform me that I would be paying the extra (which I have absolutely no intention of doing), and generally acted as if I was the only person responsible. This morning he disconnected our router (not a major issue, I still have my iPhone), and seems intent on putting as much of the blame on me as possible.
tl;dr: we used too much internet, I don't think it's my fault, yet my dad acts like it totally is. Who is really to blame here, and what should I do about it?
The Anonymous on
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Some routers keep a log of how much data has been transferred to each device. Or so I believe. What I do know is that some do allow setting quotas for each device.
On router logging, I know it records some stuff. But I'm not sure what exactly, and I can't check because I don't have any access to it.
Also, a 20 gig cap is absolutely ridiculous, and a good malware scan or two won't hurt if you're looking for something to blame if you're sure no-one's burning through that.
Youtube uses up a lot of bandwidth. Videos there aren't exactly very compressed anymore.
MSN should use very little bandwidth, unless you're constantly streaming webcam sessions.
Did your Dad secure your wireless when it was up? Maybe he could hook it back up to check if it logged anything apart from your own families devices, or you could convince him to hook it back up secured (if it wasn't) to see if it might've been someone piggybacking on your connection.
Telstra can GTFO, imho.
Yeah fuck telstra. I mean unless it's the only ISP that has coverage where you are, pretty much anything is better than Telstra.
This is good advice
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
Yeah, this.
My grandparents have really, really shitty cable internet. Its capped at TWO gigs a month. At one point i ended up staying there for a month when i was between apartments (long story). I used mirc, browsed the web, and watched youtube videos and played online games (Counterstrike, some crappy free korean MMO) quite a bit because i was bored. It didnt go over the 2 gig limit (they only use their internet for email, nothing else, so it was only me using bandwidth basically).
Gaming, websurfing and chatting take up like, no bandwidth. You can do these things on dialup which maxes out at around 20 megs an hour. Youtube takes up a bit more, but still unless youre watching youtube videos for like 8 hours a day, its really unlikely youd use anymore than about 5 gigs a month doing these things.
Your dad or your brother probably discovered torrenting or some hd streaming site and didnt realise how much bandwidth it takes up.
Check out my band, click the banner.
Really, most of telstra's plans are horrible horrible ripoffs. See if you can diplomatically convince your parents to switch to somebody else - compare plans at http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/ and find somebody for the same price that will probably get you twice the download limit (especially considering most other isps ignore upload).
Also - I don't believe that Telstra have any 20GB plans anymore - Telstra aren't particularly forthcoming in upgrading existing customers to their new plans, so you may actually be on an old plan and can upgrade to a new better plan for no more trouble than a phonecall.
Play with me on Steam
I don't even think it's possible to play an MMO enough to use 20GB (or anything near it) in a month.
Sadly this is most likely going to be a game of chicken... and the situation won't go away until someone can't live without the internet one way or another. So it's going to be how much sanity you can hold onto while missing online games, your dad missing whatever he does on the internet, or whoever it is that's taking up 20 gig of bandwidth doing whatever it is online.
Hang in there bro... and don't compromise with anyone for anything because you'll need the truth to come out to clear your name.
The simplest solution would be to look into software that actually measures how much data the devices on your network are transferring. Obviously this won't solve the problem of the current overdue bill, but it will "solve" future issues and might give you some rhetorical leverage in the current dispute.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
I don't know what the fuck people are talking about when they say "regular use" won't bust 20gb - I suppose I probably haven't known what "regular use" even looks like for about a decade now - but I lived in a house with five gamers in it that managed to use over 500gb in two months (without any illegal activities, to my understanding) when several members of the household were fucking around rebuilding/reformatting new computers then grabbing their Steam libraries. Even most US providers will balk at that amount of use but with the proliferation of digital content it's only getting easier and easier to do.
The big problem with these policies that charge for overages on use above a certain cap is that this places the onus for bandwidth monitoring on consumers who simply do not understand the way usage works. Sitting in front of your computer for fourteen hours until you start turning a ghastly pale shade and your eyes can no longer focus on anything beyond your monitor... doesn't actually use that much bandwidth, if you're spending your time on the PA forums, or basically any text-and-images website. However, if you leave the "WoW download helper" open and it uploads at 40k/s while you're off punching sharks and fending off poisonous beasts and scavenging for gasoline in the wasteland - or whatever it is that Australians do with their day-to-day, I'll admit I'm hazy on details - that'll soak up all of your bandwidth with no visible "use," which is counter to most folks' intuitive perception of what "overuse" of an internet connection ought to look like.
If you can convince every user on your network to run a simple bandwidth monitor in the background, that'd be a start. Ideally, though, you would be catching your usage at the router where you won't miss a friend or neighbor "visiting" your wireless network. My ISP provides a nice little webpage that shows what they believe our usage to be, which is all that really matters, and I've been pleased to note that they seem to be a bit more forgiving than my own monitoring is. As easy as it is to use up infinity bytes of bandwidth in a month, it's also pretty easy to avoid using even 20gb if you keep a watchful eye on everyone's usage.
Call telstra. Switch to an updated plan.
Play with me on Steam
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Depends really. If high-def internet offerings are a substitute for regular television, I can see people hittin' a hundred gigs or so a month.
I average 80 a month (through Netflix alone), and my connection is rather slow, such that Netflix streaming gives me the lowest quality it can usually. If I had a good enough connection for real HD stuff, then yeah I'd be way up there.
Spankwire for example have a mobile edition and I am sure others do as well.
Additionally check to see if the computer has a torrent program loading on it.
Then see if there is anything left in it, then check the download directory to see if your brother forgot to delete the torrent.
Satans..... hints.....
Satans..... hints.....