Sky broadband - lite user

[Dotty50]

I have been on the lite user package for at least a year and have never had any problems until December, when I received an email advising that I had gone over my limit however as this was unusal, no action is required.

 

Having been given the link in the email to monitor usage, it seems that I have used nearly 50% of my download limit (2GB) in less than 3 days!

 

I check emails, use facebook and obviously CAG but never download TV or films of photo's.

 

Sky's explanation was that I had probably always gone over but they didn't monitor my usage before!

 

I asked for details of what I had previously used and they cannot tell me.

 

Is anyone else having the same problem?

[sparx]

Do you use iPlayer or Youtube? Sky Go? Steam (games)? Have you had a lot of windows updates in the past few days?

[Dotty50]

Hi Sparx,

 

I have occasionally used iplayer on the TV in the past, youtube, once in a while and certainly not in the last few days and never games. My son uses sky go from another location so I assume this would not count towards my download limit? It was something that occured to me but he doesn't seem to this it should affect it.

Not aware of any windows updates either.

 

I just find it strange that I have had lite user for some time and if I was regularly going over the limit, which I would have been if you go by the last few days usage, why didn't Sky do the auto upgrade which they state they do if you go over the limit more than twice in a six month period?

[locutus]

You could install "du meter" (google it) onto all of your PCs and tot up the amount you actually use in a month. If something is amiss, let us know.

 

2 gig really is small. They offer this "free" as a sales tactic so people will take it then upgrade when their usage is higher than that.

[sparx]

Hi Sparx,

 

I have occasionally used iplayer on the TV in the past, youtube, once in a while and certainly not in the last few days and never games. My son uses sky go from another location so I assume this would not count towards my download limit? It was something that occured to me but he doesn't seem to this it should affect it.

Not aware of any windows updates either.

 

I just find it strange that I have had lite user for some time and if I was regularly going over the limit, which I would have been if you go by the last few days usage, why didn't Sky do the auto upgrade which they state they do if you go over the limit more than twice in a six month period?

 

It used to be the case that programs made sure network usage was small - nowadays with fast and (mostly) unlimited connections, they tend to use more data.

 

You say another location, was he still using your wifi? Is your wifi secured (WPA or WPA2)? Do you download any bittorrents? Do you listen to anything on any mobiles that use your wifi (Spotify for example)?

 

Data can come from anywhere, it's just ruling out any of your devices before complaining to Sky (They probably can tell you what made you go over your usage, but they won't!)

[seanamarts]

Have you checked to see if you have any spyware on your PC/Laptop.

Have you any anti virus/malaware set up on your system,

It is possible that you have something running quietly in the background that maybe using data.

It is worth checking for peace of mind.

[Dotty50]

Hi thanks for the posts, sorry a lot of the things mentioned are beyond my knowledge! I do have antivirus but I don't know how to check if there is anything running in the background.

 

Don't use spotify or bittorrent, whatever they are?

 

My son is a few hundred miles away so assures me that his connection is via his own equipment.

 

I only have one laptop in the house and I used it only once yesterday to download some emails and the usage went from 49% and is now showing at 57%.

 

I think I will have another chat to sky and try and find out my previous usage, I have to cancel my free two month movie offer this weekend otherwise I will be roped into that for a year!

 

I do realise that 2gb isn't a huge amount, maybe sky have just realised they can get the extra revenue from auto upgrading because they are losing money elsewhere!

[Dotty50]

You could install "du meter" (google it) onto all of your PCs and tot up the amount you actually use in a month. If something is amiss, let us know.

 

2 gig really is small. They offer this "free" as a sales tactic so people will take it then upgrade when their usage is higher than that.

 

Just googled this and there are lots to download, do you have any idea which is the best one to go for?

[seanamarts]

Do you know what you antivirus is? and have you updated it recently?

[seanamarts]

Can you hold off from downloading the DU meter, I have just checked some out and they seem a bit iffy on some sites.

[seanamarts]

I only have one laptop in the house and I used it only once yesterday to download some emails and the usage went from 49% and is now showing at 57%.

Thats a tad high if you are just reading emails, Mine is reading between 2% and 15% when I am on here. However when I go to some where like Face book it does go up to about 30% and playing games it can go as high as 50% . The less tabs/windows you have open the less you will use.

Some anti virus software can update daily and depending what other software you have running can also cause a high usage as they connect to various sites feeding back information.

Have you recently downloaded any soft ware to your laptop.

[Dotty50]

It's AVG seanmarts and I haven't downloaded anything recently either.

 

Yes someone mentioned leaving tabs open so I make sure that I close things down now.

 

I will await your advice regarding DU meter thanks

[seanamarts]

Oh dear, not AVG, have you paid for it?

[Dotty50]

No I haven't it's the free one.

 

Just had a thought although it may not be of any consequence, I changed my phone line rental from BT to Sky in December does that mean they can monitor usage more easily? Or is that a stupid question?

 

The Sky online usage monitor only shows from December!

[seanamarts]

The Sky online usage monitor only shows from December!

It will do as you have only been with sky since December, it wont show the usage from BT as you are only getting your usage from Sky now not BT .

 

are you getting your broad band from sky?

[Dotty50]

Yes it's all with Sky now TV, Broadband, talk and line rental as BT line rental is due to increase and Sky is cheaper atm

[seanamarts]

Then as BT would monitor your usage Sky would now be doing that.

Your usage allowance is very low, I use that in less than a week.

 

How computer literate are you? Sorry if that sounds rude, but I may be able to come up with a solution, that being to get rid of AVG and replace it with Microsoft security essentials

Its less intrusive than AVG and is completely free. To add to that you could use malawarebytes they run good together, that is also free. I use both of these on all my systems and never had a problem. My usage is hi because I have up to 4 laptops at one time some nights, two laptops are playing on line war games which use a lot of data. (not me by the way I hate the war games lol )

[Dotty50]

Then as BT would monitor your usage Sky would now be doing that.

Your usage allowance is very low, I use that in less than a week.

 

How computer literate are you? Sorry if that sounds rude, but I may be able to come up with a solution, that being to get rid of AVG and replace it with Microsoft security essentials

Its less intrusive than AVG and is completely free. To add to that you could use malawarebytes they run good together, that is also free. I use both of these on all my systems and never had a problem. My usage is hi because I have up to 4 laptops at one time some nights, two laptops are playing on line war games which use a lot of data. (not me by the way I hate the war games lol )

 

Right I am back now after trying for the last few days to get some sense out of Sky and I think I may have shot myself in the foot my moving my line rental over from BT as (although they won't admit it!) I believe they cannot monitor lite usage unless you rent the line via Sky.

 

I was told that I had not gone over my limit between April and November last year so I asked for the monthly usage for those months but I am now told that they don't have that information.

 

So do I move back to BT or stay with Sky and pay an extra £7.50? Sky may say I am tied in but I would argue that if it came up. But I just don't want the hassle!!!

 

The Sky person I have just spoken to told me to go to 'Accessories' and then 'Command', typed in 'netstat' and that came up with lots of things, which he tells me are running in the background and to run a virus scan .

 

seanmarts, I don't take offence and greatly appreciate any help with this kind of thing as I really haven't a clue!

 

Locutus had posted a liink to a DU meter but it appears to have been removed? ?

[seanamarts]

Locutus had posted a liink to a DU meter but it appears to have been removed? ?

Those links had to be removed unfortunately.

 

Not a great lover of sky myself but not a great lover of BT either, any way have you added up the pro and cons of both Bt and sky. both have good benefits but it can get costly, depending what you are after. You do have completely unlimited with sky for the extra £7.00 odd, if you have the whole package that should get reduced to £5.00, TV, BB and line.

Also the upside is that you only have one bill. If you go back to BT you may find your self tied in a longer contract. As I said you do need to weigh up the pros and cons.

 

Right on to your virus protection. If you know some one who understand what they are doing when uninstalling programmes then I suggest you get them to do it.

You need to get shot of AVG, especially if it is free. Make sure you/they uninstall everything.

I suggest you get Microsoft security essentials, you need to know what windows you are running, eg: windows vista or windows 7 or older. This is free and excellent, I run it myself, no problems with it at all.

I also suggest running with it is Malawarebytes make sure you download this from their .org site. (free download)

They both run extremely quietly in the back ground and pick up any unwanted traffic coming in and going out. malawarebytes will also let you know when something rogue is going on and will block it.

They are both very easy to use. Im sure you will find a huge difference in data usage.

 

Chat it over with a PC guy, one you can trust who wont fob you off with selling you software.

 

I really hope this helps.. shout if you have any problems.

[Dotty50]

Thanks for that seanmarts, I will probably get my son to sort it when I see him as he is pretty clued up on these things.

 

As expected, I have now been automatically upgraded to unlimited with Sky and that removes the usage tool on their site, so the only way I can check my usage now is to call them and ask!

 

It must have gone up from a fiver as it is now £7.50 if you have everything with them, I know it's not a huge amount and at least I can watch catch up or sky anytime now!

[alan5044]

One update of my sat nav tom tom put me over on the sky 2GB use so now paying £7.50 per month, my problem is the slow speed available.

[Angel Steele]

I had the free BB from Sky and I went over my limit on two consecutive months so they upgraded me and I now pay £7.50 a month.

 

I think it is £12.50 or something but you get £5 off if you have SKY talk which I do.

 

I don't care for SKY but then again I care less for BT. The lesser of two evils I think.