Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Viasat Data Usage

I need some advice. We have a monthly allowance of 150 GB which has served mine and my wife's needs without issue for a long time. This month we ran out after 10 days and used 31 on Sunday. We checked and it is my computer running up the tab. I don't watch movies or porn and haven't done anything out of the ordinary. Watch a few You tube videos, mostly on the 24HCF, some Fakebook, check news articles, do a little online buying of merchandize. Changed to a different laptop today, bought 10 extra GB and it ate up 11+ GB today. Any ideas.

All those background programs doing what they were designed to do.

How do I remedy it?

I believe that streaming videos eats about 1 gb/hour.

Open the task manager and see what all's running. At the end of a session, do you sleep, hibernate, or shut it down completely? There won't be anything running when it's hibernated or shut down but something could be running when it's sleeping.

Is your WiFi password protected? Any chance someone is bootlegging off you? (Think neighbor kid online gaming and watching porn).

What operating system are you using? If it's Windows, I have a couple suggestions.

My last laptop with Windows on it has been officially put away for good because of all the background programs continually sending who knows what data who knows where. The damned thing would power up in the middle of the night and run for a long time.

As a start, If the usage is happening when you aren't on the computer, just disable the internet on the computer when you aren't using it, or turn off the router. There are drawbacks to modern OS like Windows 11. There is a whole bunch of stuff they do that you can't prevent.

Or, you can set your internet connection to a metered connection, which reduces what data transfer happens in the background. Also, if you can go to startup settings and disable the automatic loading of programs that access the internet, that will help a lot.

I've only been learning to code a few months, but my neighbor who is giving me pointers got his education in network architecture. The best advice he has given so far is to ditch Windows.

We are password protected. Near as I can tell it is my device eating it up. I look up news stories I see here from different sources. Watch a few You Tubes (Tucker). On Sunday our church voted to send a monthly donation to Teen Challenge ( a NGO I find suspect) so I came home and dug up some dirt on them. Used 31 that day, as I said I look at Fakebook. I look at the meme thread, I have a Schwab account I watch a trade a little on, would that do it? As I've been told 150 GB is a lot. It costs over $14 to add 10 and now that does last a day.

I'm not doing anything new other than a little investigating.

Now days so many people have unlimited usage it's not a concern for operating systems. And it's very hard to prove how and when the bandwidth is used. I would simply turn off the wifi on your device every time you walk away from it, then enable it when you return. There are some monitoring programs you can use, you'll need something to fight against your IP, they won't take your word for it.

Shut it down when not using and see what happens, I suspect you have a virus or spyware of some sort.

Pull the Power Cord as Mention Above..

I had the Mystery Startup issue ..

A Good Maintenance Software solved my issues with Windows ..

Good Points Above..

There are a some exploits out that build a bitcoin mining "bot".

I'm not keeping up with this chit anymore.

Like others said use task manager on window$ or HTOP on Linux too see whats going on.

Some routers have logging capabilities as well. Pretty easy to enable and see where devices are connecting.

Good luck

That's what I thought so I went back to an older laptop and shut mine down but I'm still eating data. The 24HCF, Gmail, Fakebook, Tucker on Youtube, my Schwab account, and news or Wikipedia articles are about the extent with a little internet buying are about all I do.

Pretty sure no neighbor is scalping. If I were to guess I would say this site is where it's going. With a computer I'm about like the average woman driving a car. I know how to start it and get it going but that's it.

I don't remember buying AVAST but I have it and it may be some sort of sneak attack.

As described, your problem is Windows and/or anything Google.

Get an external drive (You can get a terrabyte drive at Walmart for $50) and transfer ALL your personal stuff to it: Documents folder, Pictures Folder, Music folder, etc. Export your passwords, bookmarks, and everything else you will need in the future, except software. Unplug that drive.

Now install or get someone to install Linux Mint Cinnamon.

Move everything personal back.

Problems over.

Not really Rocky, doesn’t matter what OS if the router has been hacked. Here’s the old adage of Linux is virus malware free, it isn’t. Most routers are Linux but guess what

Trojan Attacks
A trojan attack tricks you into downloading malware hiding a virus that then tramples all over your phone, tablet, or computer. A router virus can ride inside a trojan, waiting to sniff out vulnerable public or home Wi-Fi networks to infect.

Now my guess is he got a virus that has now infected the router, then passes it to any available device on the network. Do a hard reset, change admin password and update firmware. Also get malwarebytes free version and run it on all devices before hooking back up to the router.

This^^^^^
Look up "switcher trojan"
A friend that's still working IT says most of the router attacks he has dealt with lately have come through smart phones using the routers wireless connections.
Make that router admin PW a good one.
Soon we will all need something like PFsense firewall in front of whatever router in use.
I've gone to a router with firewall and wireless access points behind that at home.
Been dragging CAT6 around the house for POE cameras. Already have a level 2 switch to separate IOT, wife's work network and our home stuff but it only has 4 POE ports so I may have to get a 16 port.
All that crap gives me something to do in retirement!