Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello all.

After receiving a glut of emails from my ISP about reaching my bandwidth limit (I can use 12GB a month on my current tariff), I had to investigate where it was all going. Given that about 2GB had been used whilst I was at work yesterday, it was safe to say that my computer and Eggbox were not to blame, as neither were turned on.

The missus was at home, but insists that she was not downloading much at all, and during some of the hours where there was large usage her computer was idle. I have since installed Netmeter on her laptop to check to see if anything is using her computer as a conduit, and both that and the ISPs metering show that her laptop is not the culprit.

Which narrows it down to two things.

1 - Someone stealing our bandwidth.

We have it password encrypted with a non-guessable password using the right kind of encryption. Also, when we turned all the computers on and the router on, bandwidth usage was normal, which leaves:

2 - Our Nintendo Wii is going on a mad download frenzy.

The peaks tie in roughly with when the Wii has been used recently. So, does anyone know if Wiis will automatically download stuff? And by stuff I mean the best part of 2GB in an afternoon? Admittedly we have not used the Wii much before this week (Wii Fit just arrived), so I'm not sure if it has had to download certain updates or not... but either way, 2GB in an afternoon? That's mental!

How do I stop this from happening? Our solution last night was to unplug the router when we use the Wii, but ultimately that's not really a long term solution.

Anyone Wii savvy able to hep me out here?

I'm fairly certain Wii connect gives a steady trickle, but never anywhere near two gigs. I mean, it's hard enough to get things happening online with the Wii when one is trying to, let alone when one is not.

The 360 may be set to carry on downloading demos and so on once it has been powered off, but doesn't that make the rings flash?

I'm no expert but my first thought would be, where would the Wii store 2gbs worth of data? For that much data, it's got to have something to show for it.

I'm guessing it isn't the Wii causing the problem. How accurate is your ISP's readings? Could you challenge them?

3) Don't have such a shitty tarrif

But yeah that's crazy, the wii doesn't even HAVE 2gb of storage.

Meh. It's cheap and I've never hit the 12GB limit before.

The 360 is not set to download other stuff and was definitely turned off.

If it isn't the Wii then what the hell was it?

lol h4X

Oh I'm not saying it's not the wii, I'm saying if it IS then wtf are Nintendo playing at

You can disable the Wiis internet access, but I can't see it being the wii.

2Gb in, say, four hours is a solid 1.13 Mbit/sec stream. That's absolutely loads. What's your line speed Curio?

8 thingybobs.

Surely it has to be

a) Someone's is somehow using your connection

b) Your service provider are
i) Lying scumbags
ii) Useless idiots

I suspect the latter, personally.

LTIA

While I agree, the fact the times sync up so well with the wii being on is suspicious.

I'd blame Nintendo. They stole my star points.

Still no real idea what caused the spike in bandwidth.

Ho hum.

I have a 12GB limit on bandwidth for a month, which I rarely if ever go over.

I was wondering whether I'm getting a bum deal or not. What deals do people have for their broadband (not cable) and how much downloady goodness do you get for your money?

If you have Sky TV or an O2 mobile in the house, their broadband is very good value; I pay Sky £10 a month for a up-to-16meg line with no cap at all.

That.

Quite.

I shall have to investigate this, as I have both Sky TV and an O2 mobile.

I bet they need a 12 month contract, right? I went with my current supplier (NewNet) mostly because I was intending to cancel and get a different one after a few months, but never got around to it...

Yes. If your O2 contract runs out while you still have the ADSL contract going, it gets awkward, and you end up paying more for the ADSL. I'm sure something complicated also happens with Sky. Where are you in your contracts with both firms?

I've got about 12 months to go with O2, and I've been with Sky forever, so can ditch them at will. It's more to do with 'Will I move house in the next twelve months'?

Phone Sky and do the "I'm going to cancel all this shit, I never watch it" dance. Get them to bung you sport half price for six months or whatever sweetener they come up with, then throw the ADSL in on top of that.

If you move, you take it with you anyway.

fwiw, Be, who are O2 as well is £18 a month for 24mbit with no cap I've ever found.

If you move house you say "I'm moving house" and they'll let you move it to the new place. If you cancel it's 3 months or £50.

Malc

Hmmm... I think the Wii is innocent.

Aparently 2.6GB was downloaded at 3am this morning. All electrical appliances were switched off at the time, other than the router.

So someone is hijacking us.

Which is annoying as I have an unguessable password, so there must be some other way to hack it. Bah humbug.

Either way, a switch of password will be done, we'll see if that does anything... beyond that I'm clueless, though I'll be changing to an uncapped service ASAP (probably Sky) and then it won't matter unless I'm trying to get something downloaded.

Until they download kiddie porn and you get done for it, chap.

Check your security levels and upgrade them.

Best to get to the bottom of it with your ISP really. Who knows what's being downloaded? If it's something shady it could be difficult to distance yourself from it later down the line.

Who is your ISP?

Could it be a 'crossed wire' or account duplication problem?

The amount of data and timing of the download certainly sounds suspicious to me.

Wouldn't know how to.

*shrugs*

If you give us your router model, we can tell you how to look and see what's going on.

Try this network scanning software. I've not looked at it directly, but hopefully it has some sort of background running mode where you can run it up and leave it going for 24 hours or so; then look for any out of place information, i.e, computers you don't recognise.

Alternatively, hit 'em with this:

http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html

Although personally I'd replace all images with goatse or lemonparty or something but it's your call.

Thanks guys. I will investigate these things tomorrow, and in the meantime will turn off my router at night.

change your passwords as well.... tell me it is still not set to admin and password??

<whistles>

really!!!!

No, my username is "Bananaman" and the password is "Stumbl3w33d"

I will make a note.... where do you live again

I would be very surprised if someone took ALL that effort to sit outside Mali Towers and nick some bandwidth...

you still would need his wpa/wep password,wouldn't you?

not always, you would know the iP address and log on and password..

What?

Actually, if you're getting done for kiddie porn it's better to have unsecured wireless, as that's your alibi.

Don't they actually need to find it on someone's PC to prosecute them?

Also, while I doubt for a second this is the Wii, remember that the Wii will merrily update itself while it's "turned off".

Why do you not do this anyway? Mine's switched off whenever I'm not using it. I'm saving the planet, one Watt at a time.

I bought one of those extension-socket things that switches everything off when the thing plugged into it's "main" socket is turned off. Then I remembered that I don't switch my PC off.
Yours for £10 if you want it, sir.

Indeed, though my distrust of things without a proper 'turned off' mode leads me to unplug the Wii at the mains every time I stop using it... well, that and that it was under suspicion of being a bandwidth whore.

Bring that thingy to Shunt, if you would, kind sir.

Why don't you plug the PC into the board's "Always On" socket and the monitor into the "Main Device" socket? Then you switch the monitor off and walk away, and it powers down... I dunno, whatever else you have plugged into it.

Sold. What else am I bringing?

The monitors are the things that it turns off