We recently upgraded our service to the Ultimate package because we were getting warning letters from COX saying that we were close to exceeding our bandwidth level.
We thought it was our kids (we have 2) and they like playing XBOX online and watching videos all night on YouTube and Netflix.
We upgraded our service to the Ultimate so we wouldn't go over. Then this weekend we got a note from COX that we went over.
I took a look at their bandwidth meter and saw something strange... There were 3 days where bandwidth usage per day was over 20 GB a day... and I couldn't blame the kids as NO ONE WAS HOME those three days. And we all had our laptops with us.
After getting this email from COX letting us know we went over our bandwidth cap I logged into my Asus router and took a look at the bandwidth monitor screen. I noticed that we have 5 mb/s coming in but most interestingly 12 mbps going OUT of my internet connection.
I then powered off EVERYTHING in our house which can use the internet including my iPhones, Apple TV units, Smart TV's etc, all the laptops (except for my laptop)
I kept an eye on the monitor as I turned things off. Looking for what was eating the bandwidth. I turned everything off and STILL the high usage continued.
I then went into my wireless settings and changed my WPA2 password as soon as I did that BOOM the internet usage dropped like a rock.
I downloaded an app for my laptop which monitors the bandwidth usage on my router called PeakHour and have been keeping an eye on things. All devices in my house are now back online. And monitoring the bandwidth all day yesterday we used 8 GB of data. So HOPEFULLY we got the problem fixed!
I have now reconfigured my network, I have changed the SSID to my network, changed the password and turned off the SSID broadcast.
Even though my network was password protected it appears someone figured out the password and was using my connection. So please watch your connections out there even if your using a password it appears people can get in and use your networks. I just hope whoever was using it was not doing illegal things. :(
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Scott Greczkowski
- SatelliteGuys.US
- MultiChannel News
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