Broadband usage limits

Hi guys,
I am not a happy bunny - previously had unlimited BB with AOL but BT sales advisor assured me that 10gb limit per month was a huge amount and more than enough for our family - he asked about downloading moviees (just occasionally) online wii games (rare) surfing (quite a lot) etc and said we would be fine.
One week into our BT contract we have used 2.5gb according to the monitor - I have no idea how since we haven't downloaded any movies or used online games. I found a website that asked me to put in my average surfing, downloading etc and it estimated we would use max 7gb per month.
Is it possible to get a breakdown of our BT usage? I can get itemised bills for mobiles and landlines so surely I should be able to get an idea of downloads/uploads etc?
thanks for any help.

Hi,
We have skype but rarely use it and haven't in the past month. My daughter does access facebook on her blackberry quite a lot but she gets that free in her blackberry deal. You tube - yes I watch the occasional news item that links through to Youtube.
I gather you can get a broadband usage summary from sky if you request it in writing. Are you saying that it's impossible to get any type of breakdown from BT? How can that be? Could you sell any other product and just expect the consumer to believe your estimate of how much they used? There has to be some way customers can query info they think incorrect?
In any event, after reading other replies it seems that what has actually happened is that we have been grossly misled by the BT sales guy we spoke to. (He also told us we could carry forward our old email address - which turned out not to be true either).
We got a promotional price for 6 months and when I called BT, the girl suggested we upgrade to 40gb and it would cost only about £5 per month more BUT she then said since we'd got a promotional deal on the 10gb we would lose that discount so our bb will increase from £13 to £22/23 per month.
I seem to recall that the terms included a 30-day period in which we could cancel so unfortunately that looks like the best course of action. I don't want to have to worry all the time if we use iplayer or download a movie that we're going to exceed our limit - we are a family of 5 and all use internet, emails etc.
*When I told the BT girl I spoke with about this that I wanted to make a complaint because we'd been misled, she said there is no complaints dept as such and best she could offer would be to put me through to her manager. That didn't sound good either - there must be a customer service dept that deals with issues like this.
Finally, if someone could tell me how to access the home hub settings to check on usage that would be great.
I downloaded a program some time back called Netlimiter that was supposed to give you a running check on bb usage but it was a free version that doesn't seem to work on my machine.
thanks again everyone for the help.

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Bt infinity package 2 usage limits?

Hello
a few weeks ago I got bt infinity package 2... I was just wondering is there any usage limits that come with it? whats the max ammount of data I can download eacxh month?
thank you

BT Infinity 2 is unlimited. See http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/broadband/packages/?s_cid=con_FURL_packages
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
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Broadband usage checker - overdue

Come on BT, if you are going to put limits on your broadband, you need to let your customers monitor their own usage with a online BT broadband usage checker. Maybe even a widget etc that can constantly show on your desktop etc your usage.
In this day and age, with homes having so many LAN and Wi-Fi enabled devices, it is simply crazy that BT, can turn around and suggest to customers to download a free monitor. Which I have done (2 different ones), and that filters out internal network traffic - great! Both roughly produce same results. But by the end of the month it was 20Gig different to BT's total. So my other devices in the home are using ~20Gig alone. How can I monitor this properly without a online BT broadband usage checker??
Also why when phoning BT do I get a different story about FUP? Some say Im unlimited there is no limit, and I will never be capped. Some say I have a 100gig threshold, but not to worry as I will only be capped if I go over that in 2 consecutive months. All which I believe is not true.

Been mentioned so many times before and we always get left with "we'll forward this to the XXXXX team"
The homehub monitors usage up and down, I dont see why they dont just simply adapt the firmware so that it doesnt wipe when the connection is lost.

Snow Leopard's High Level of Broadband Usage

Has anyone else experienced and/or resolved the issues of a high level of ISP-metered broadband usage using a Mac running Snow Leopard? Not only have I seen this with my own eyes, this has been widely reported and discussed in the Apple Forums and other sites. As recommended, I have installed Surplus Meter and Little Snitch, un-sync'd everything I can find and changed IMAP e-mail accounts to POPs (except for AOL, because I cant find the settings anywhere). SL still uses a great amount of broadband because it is constantly using mDNSResponder to broadcast the Mac's presence, apparently as part of a virtual network. Apple Support was initially helpful then would not get back to me on this issue.
Metering is going to spread beyond broadband cards and isolated ISPs. SL and related Apple products apparently create more broadband use. That's what the recent AT&T trial balloon, re iPhone limitations was about.
SL's Bonjour use appears to add usage and Safari refreshes constantly, creating more usage. Apple would be well served by addressing this issue by providing the user with a software switch that would shut off the high usage apps when attached to a metered broadband.
Has anyone found such an app? Has anyone found a Mac broadband log/meter that saves to a file to compare against the ISP's calculations of usage? Has anyone set up an AOL POP account? Thank you.

Hello and Welcome,
NJEsq wrote: "Has anyone set up an AOL POP account?"
AOL is... "not well regarded" here or anyplace where there are people knowledgeable in matters of personal computer and internet use. I believe others responding to your questions have already questioned whether your ISP (i.e., AOL) is playing straight with you IF as indicated by your statements, AOL is telling you that your Mac and OS 10.6.x are exceeding their limit on usage.
You evidently don't know that AOL has, from its earliest days, played this game wherein they sell what is claimed to be "complete" Internet access but then put limits on your access and use. You should know that they "for your protection" put you behind their firewall and that's how they keep such close track of your usage.
Including myself, I've known a lot of people who start out going through what might be called the "AOL Phase" but soon learn there are far better choices among ISPs. To put it politely, when these folks discover this they FLEE to the better ISPs.
So, despite your impression, such limits are not likely to spread beyond ISPs like AOL, regardless of what they have told you or what you may have heard. Macs and OS X are NOT (suddenly!) some abnormal broadband gobbling phenomenon.
Your mention of the supposed effect of iPhones on broadband brings up another thing: what you say is ONE way of perceiving what's going on. The actual truth is that iPhones did become part of a trend which puts greater demand on ISP / telecom providers. - But so do a lot of devices and that includes automobiles with the "On Star" type crash detection and crash response systems. But the iPhone (and its competitors) did NOT "start" this trend - not by a long shot.
Basically, what you've been told is just... BS!

Excess Broadband Usage - complaints experience

I have been a BT customer for some while, registered for paperless bills, set up on BT.com with an email address of my choice prim login and primary communication and making payments by Direct Debit. BT cold called me (I am guessing around 12 to 18 months ago) same renew my package.
in December I noticed a £100 excess broadband usage added to my bill. This prompted me to look back over previous months and, sure enough, around £50 per month had been added historically. There is a limit to how far back I can look online and I called BT to complain. I could write a book on the issues and barriers around BT's complaints process but that would distract from my primary concern.
Firstly, I was sold a package I was told was limitless. This was renewed in the cold call mentioned above. It transpires I was placed on a 10gB limit. Conveniently BT have deleted recordings.
That would be manageable as BT has a fail safe (plastered across its web pages) in that they email you when approaching or exceeding limits. Wrong! They didn't send one email to the email address with which I was registered tor my account to warn me. 5 seconds after the 2nd stage of the complaints process is complete (not to my satisfaction) BT sent me may first warning.
The 3rd stage complaint handler acknowledged how a customer could be confused by the above and offered to meet me half way on the overcharge excess costs over that period.
At no point has BT provided the summary history I had clearly requested on several occasions. This must be in the region of £790 as I was offered £395; insulting at best!
How many other customers are blissfully unaware they are exceeding their limits? What controls do BT have in place to identify and alert these customers, or is this a systematic control failure or known source of easy income?
i have been very clear in all calls of my position. I feel ripped off and subjected to poor complaints handling. BT has now acknowledged how I could be misinformed and in this position, yet still think it reasonable not to return a full refund. In a highly regulated industry I hope the regulator, ADR, press, web positings and consumer TV programme routes open to me will highlight and resolve my problem, and potentially who knows how many other customers'.

Suckered wrote:
That would be manageable as BT has a fail safe (plastered across its web pages) in that they email you when approaching or exceeding limits. Wrong! They didn't send one email to the email address with which I was registered tor my account to warn me. 5 seconds after the 2nd stage of the complaints process is complete (not to my satisfaction) BT sent me my first warning.
First email alert received to my registered email account 5th Jan 2013.
If you work for BT but aren't from the customer care team (to which the previous poster kindly suggested I write) please don't get involved unless you can resolve my complaint. This was posted for help and to hopefully alert BT and its customers of a potential problem, not to be "topped".
Have you ever logged into MyBT and checked your usage? If you have you would see when and where to they send the emails, regardless of the registered email address.
Working for BT is not the issue here. Clearly you did not take personal responsibility and refuse to, that is not my fault. If BT are offering you some money back I would take it, otherwise it could cost you more money in the long run.
Taking the attitude of your posts, it sounds like you had a broadband package from BT and now you have found out that you having been paying over the odds for and now you think you are entitled for your money back, well there is a saying "buyer beware".

Broadband usage limit and identifying non-authoris...

Hello
I have read various threads on the topic of usage limits and I am confused. We have been with BT for 2 months and each month have received a "usage nearing limit" email (we are on option 1 with 10Gb limit) When we signed up with BT we described our typical usage and the salesman assured us that 10Mb was plenty for our usage - we don't do gaming, watch movies, just general internet surfing - sending the odd excel or word file to and from work, occasional you-tube and iplayer use - maybe 2 hours a week max. These warning emails have made me wonder
a) which of 3 possible machines in our house is racking up the most usage - when, which sites?
b) might someone else (we live on an estate) be using our wireless broadband connection without us knowing?
I am considering downloading a usage monitor but am a bit concerned about virus infection.
If anyone out there can explain what to do in a non-techy way I would appreciate it - I am not technically aware!
Thanks
Jac in Ciren

Without putting a meter on your machines you wont acutally know which is using more usage. However having been running on a mobile broadband dongle for a couple of weeks now I can easily say that 1-2 hours of Iplayer (depending on quality viewed) could be between 400MB and 2GB. On top of that I've noticed that youtube videos seem to rack up usage so if anything I would say it was the occasional youtube that is the cause of your usage warnings.
One way you might be able to check if anyone is leeching your connection is to go to your homehub page 192.168.1.254 then somewhere on there (as I say im not on HH connection myself atm) in settings devices (might be in advanced settings) there should be a list/diagram of all the things that have connected to your homehub should be 3 headings, Wired, Wireless, Phones (or similar) Under wired you should see a list of your 3 machines along with anything else you wire to your HH, in the wireless section (providing you dont use it) if there is a device name there, chances are someone has accessed your wireless.
Im not 100% but that might help

BT Broadband Usage Monitor- bizarre findings

I check my usage on a regular basis as I have a limitation. I find it bizarre that the usage goes up and down- how can this be?
e.g 7 oct showed 9.18GB used
11 oct showed 7.71GB used.
I have tried ringing to find out- no one seems to care- they just tell me what I have used today, try to sell me an unlimited package and put me through to faults departement of which I spend 20 minutes hanging on and no one ever answers!!!!

Further to my post of 17th October. I finally managed to speak to someone from the complaints department about my apparently excessive broadband usage. He was insistent that the broadband monitor was accurate and that my usage must have jumped from the daily average of about 0.75GB (for many years) to a staggering 16GB for a single 24 hour period. When I asked him about the apparent reverse in total usage by 6GB on 8th October (my total-to-date on 8th October was 16.55GB and on 9th was 10.54GB) he said he couldn't see that in the figures. In fact, he sent the month-to-date figures (to 24th October) to me and the figures up until that date are different from the usage figures I logged from the BT website. After the huge jump on 16th October they almost (probably rounding errors) perfectly align with the figures I noted from the BT website. It rather looks like there has been some retrospective massaging of the figures, at least at the beginning of the month, and a fault in the recording later in the month. If there is a surcharge when my bill is due in December I shall be speaking about this again and will be considering moving to an alternative and cheaper ISP.

Monthly broadband usage -- BT knows, how do I find...

ok, so I've been forced back to BT's website again. It took 30 seconds for my blood to boil -- why is it such a poor site? The core issue I have is that I always want to communicate with BT via email, NOT via phone. That way I'm on equal terms and I can ponder the response. But finding somewhere to email is extremely difficult -- I always have to complain, when I just want to ask a question.
Anyway...
I want to know what my broadband usage is. I used to be able to log on and see. But some muppet has decided that I can no longer do this:
"Why can't I check my broadband usage any more?
We don't want our customers wasting time monitoring usage when there's no need to. Having unlimited broadband means you don't need to worry about your internet usage: you won't pay any usage charges no matter how much you use."
Well I DO want to know what my usage is. I am seriously thinking of moving away from BT. If I know what I am using I know what sort of package I can purchase from a competitor. I also don't want to 'renew' a contract so I'm stuck with BT for another 12 months. As long as BT are in the background they are ok. I've had no problem with the service, but they seem to be getting dearer and dearer. (Line rental saver went up by 13.5% -- Inflation was less that 2% so why the huge hike?)
Their scheming, conniving business team who are looking at ways to stop me moving away while still screwing me are finally forcing me to do something.
So can someone please tell me where I can now find my monthly usage? The above response from BT is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
Now to find a cold shower and calm myself down again...
grrrrr
Solved!
Go to Solution.

here is the link https://community.bt.com/t5/Bills-Packages/Unable-to-see-broadband-usage-if-on-unlimited/td-p/136871...
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Very high broadband usage

The first month we got BT broadband was option 1 the 10GB package, I left my house for 2 weeks and the monitor was at around 6/7GB and with no one in the house and no one with access to it i came back to find it was now at 12GB, thought this was a bit odd...
Last month we upgraded to option 2 the 40GB package. Ended up watching lots of videos and things and by the end of the month it was at 45GB.
This month, it's 7 days in and the usage monitor is showing 12.87GB used, I haven't been doing anything other than browsing, no games, no videos, no downloads, nothing...
This surely cannot be correct and I'm still concerned about the first month when it hadn't been used by any one and it was still racking up the data.
One phone call said there was nothing BT could do to check, I think it's a bit odd that I have to pay for usage I haven't even used and for this month that it's so high already and I haven't even done anything!
Forgot to say I had a 20GB package a few years back and I practically used to live on my laptop, used to play xbox live for hours each day, watch a lot of videos, and download a hell of a lot of music and videos and I didn't exceed my limit once in 18 months..
Seems a bit odd to me...

If this is the first month you have gone over, the £5 for an extra unit of 5GB might be waived.
For more information visit www.bt.com/broadbandusagepolicy
The broadband usage monitor is accurate and is updated at 23:59 every night.
Uploads are also counted towards your 10GB allowance.
1) Make sure that you don't have any malware or virus on the computer.
2) Make sure your private Wifi network is encrypted otherwise other people might be suing it.
3) Make sure that there isn't a device in that is using the home that you didn't know was using the internet - Smart phones/portible devices can automatically connet to your wifi (if known) and can update software in the background without you knowing. Some devices will allow phone calls and texts to be recieved over wifi.
4) there are free usage meters that can be downloaded to see when and what is using the 10GB usage on your computer.
cheers
jac_95 | BT.com Help Site | BT Service Status
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Broadband usage not showing on my account for the ...

For the last 2-3 months my Broadband usage has not been showing on my account website. I am on unlimited broadband but would still like to know what I have used. This has happened, for short periods, several times before but usually rectifies itself within a few days.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi pixmate
Please use the 'contact the mods' link in my forum profile under the 'about me' section to send in your details. You can find the link by clicking on my username.
Thanks
Neil
BTCare Community Mod
If we have asked you to email us with your details, please make sure you are logged in to the forum, otherwise you will not be able to see our ‘Contact Us’ link within our profiles.
We are sorry but we are unable to deal with service/account queries via the private message(PM) function so please don't PM your account info, we need to deal with this via our email account :-)
If someone answers your question correctly please let other members know by clicking on ’Mark as Accepted Solution’.

Wifi at home/Broadband usage allowance

Can anyone tell me if when using a wifi device AT HOME does the usage come off your allocated broadband usage allowance?

johnfraser wrote:
Thanks for that but I am still not entirely clear. I have registered for bt wifi so does this mean unlimited usage even at home?
There is a fair usage policy here
http://www.btwifi.com/terms-and-conditions/fair-use-policy.jsp
You have to actually connect to your BT wifi SSID, and not the normal home hub one, to take advantage of this.
You can tell if you are connected to BT wifi, as it will ask you to login using your primary e-mail details.
There is a general info page here.
BT wifi help (was BTOpenzone)
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Increase in broadband usage

I have been using BT Infinity 1 since July last year with no problems.
For the last two months I have been warned that I am using more than my allowance of 40G incurring extra charges.
I have no explanation for this.
Is it possible to retrieve my usage stats (as a graph) for the last twelve months from the BT billing platform.
Kathy

This link may help.
Why is my broadband usage so high?
I don`t think BT keep your usage stats for that long. Its best to check it on a daily basis, using the usage monitor on MyBT.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Broadband usage monitor

I have also experienced the excessive BT broadband usage. I opted for option 1 because I have no interest in downloading Video's/music, apart from reading both BBC and Sky news the only other use is my wife using the online facebook game.
I received an email from BT last month saying i had reached 7GB of my 10 GB usage and just cant figure out why
I have downloaded a usage monitor which greatly differs from BT's own monitor,
What I would like to ask is, does the monitor I downloaded only monitor what is open on my desktop, 2 whould there be a differnce between High Speed Broadband and those who's broadband is connected via telephone line.
if this is the case as i suspect, then someone downloading a file on high speed whould use less bandwidth than someone downloading on slow speed. look at it as sending a fax, it may cost 10p to send a fax on a cheap machine but to send the same sheet on a quality machine may cost 6p, I dont no?

Deke wrote:
I have also experienced the excessive BT broadband usage. I opted for option 1 because I have no interest in downloading Video's/music, apart from reading both BBC and Sky news the only other use is my wife using the online facebook game.
I received an email from BT last month saying i had reached 7GB of my 10 GB usage and just cant figure out why
I have downloaded a usage monitor which greatly differs from BT's own monitor,
What I would like to ask is, does the monitor I downloaded only monitor what is open on my desktop, 2 whould there be a differnce between High Speed Broadband and those who's broadband is connected via telephone line.
if this is the case as i suspect, then someone downloading a file on high speed whould use less bandwidth than someone downloading on slow speed. look at it as sending a fax, it may cost 10p to send a fax on a cheap machine but to send the same sheet on a quality machine may cost 6p, I dont no?
Hi. Welcome to the forums.
You say you received an email last month for reaching 7GB - that was for April.
May I ask what usage monitor you are using, and how does it compare with your current May usage online meter from BT ?
The downloaded monitor will only record what that particular computer is using (won't include other computers, games consoles, mobiles and TVs etc). And then there are various settings in different programs to cater for usage within a home network etc.
What Facebook game is being used may I ask? Some of these applications can use many 100s of MB per day, so this alone could account for a lot of the usage.
There should be no difference between any "high speed" user and standard ADSL in terms of usage. In your example of downloading a file. The high speed (e.g. fibre) user will use exactly the same data content as a person on a slower connection. The speed is irrelevant with regard to how much is being used.
You can't compare with a fax machine, because typically these used normal phone lines which are charged on a timed usage - so the longer the call, the dearer the cost. In your example it could actually be dearer to use a quality fax machine, because it may take longer to send a higher quality copy.
http://www.andyweb.co.uk/shortcuts
http://www.andyweb.co.uk/pictures

Broadband Usage

I have just had infinity installed for BT TV. My broadband usage averages 28gb a month but in 2 days since installation my usage has rocketed to 18gb. We have not watched any films or used our pcs any differently. I got through to India and was told it was uploads and i would be put through to billing. By the time i had waited on the phone it had gone flat so I am none the wiser. It must be a mistake, can someone help?

Hi Cheryl111,
Welcome to the forum, I can check your usage here if you use the 'contact the mods' link in my forum profile under the 'about me' section to send in your details. You can find the link by clicking on my username.
Thanks
Neil
BTCare Community Mod
If we have asked you to email us with your details, please make sure you are logged in to the forum, otherwise you will not be able to see our ‘Contact Us’ link within our profiles.
We are sorry but we are unable to deal with service/account queries via the private message(PM) function so please don't PM your account info, we need to deal with this via our email account :-)
If someone answers your question correctly please let other members know by clicking on ’Mark as Accepted Solution’.

Broadband Usage Meter unavailable

The broadband usage meter on the BT website refuses to show my usage, on the basis that, as I have unlimited broadband, I don't need to know.
Is there any way I can find out my usage? Just because I'm on an unlimited contract does not mean I am not interested in my usage.

Follow the instructions in message 47 in this thread , you will only be given total usage with no analysis https://community.bt.com/t5/Bills-Packages/Unable-to-see-broadband-usage-if-on-unlimited/m-p/1400811...

Broadband usage limits

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