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When did data plans for internet service become a thing. I've had internet for a long time, and it was always unlimited but now I'm going over data caps that shouldn't even be there. Money hungry &%&*$&!! A flat fee for unlimited internet was perfect. Why change that? Putting a cap on internet is completely insane.
Twice now I've gotten letters about over data usage. Once last year, and once last month. It was always a second letter never a first. Now this morning I wake up to a third letter,but this one says I now have to get a higher service for my internet needs or they cut me off.
I apparently have 300 GB of data. The other notices said I went over 30. This one says I went to 503GB. Apparently those two other times counted for my data overage instead of just this month which made my grand total the above. I've been doing what I've always done since forever,but now its a problem. What kills me is that when I got the other notice I starting doing things that I thought would lessen my data usage.
Examples
I used to sleep with the internet still on all night. However, I've now put the computer in hibernation mode.
I always have multiple tabs open to various webpages Netflix and YouTube included. I stopped doing this.
There's only me and one other person in the house. They're gone most of the day and night,and when they come home they mostly watch a movie on Netflix. However,, they did go to sleep with Netflix still running though. However, i've told them about the overage thing so they now shut netflix down before sleep.
I have wifi,but its password protected and has always been. So i don't think anyone outside my home can access it.
My phone has internet capability,netflix, youtube, etc but I've never used it for that, and I always cut the wifi off on it.
Sims 4. I rarely play it,but when I did I had the internet on. If I play I do it on offline mode. Although updates still need to be done online. Sigh.
I don't know what else to do. I thought I was limiting my usage, and yet the highest I've ever gone over was done with me trying not to do so.
Most of that won't make a difference; Netflix and Youtube are likely the majority of your usage.
I wouldn't worry about the Sims, or putting your computer to sleep / hibernate at night.
With only 300 GB per month, you're only going to be able to stream Netflix between 1.5 - 3 hours a day, depending upon the quality of the stream. I'd imagine that HD quality on Youtube is going to be similar.
I'm in the same boat as the original poster. What about software that is sort of like Zone Alarm used to be and every single time ANYTHING tries to access the Internet EVER it asks you first before doing so, and I mean ANYTHING? (Thus, even Windows 10 updates wouldn't happen without your specific permission.)
But even windows updates aren't that large. Straight up VIDEO is the problem. OP didn't use 500GB from just letting computers or phones autoupdate. The last Windows update was like 3.4GB. And that was one of the biggest since Windows 10 itself (and it's coming out now).
When did data plans for internet service become a thing. I've had internet for a long time, and it was always unlimited but now I'm going over data caps that shouldn't even be there. Money hungry &%&*$&!! A flat fee for unlimited internet was perfect. Why change that? Putting a cap on internet is completely insane.
ISP's were able to offer "unlimited" plans in the past because they knew most people would not actually be utilizing the service. They might of had a handful of people utilizing bit torrent or whatever sucking up a lot of bandwidth. With a lot of legitimate traffic using high bandwidth services that business model is in jeopardy.......
Quote:
I apparently have 300 GB of data.
That might be like 150 hours of very high quality video at least by internet standards. Whether it's excessive for your particular usage depends. If you are watching a lot of Youtube or Netflix try lowering the default video quality settings. If you see a significant drop in the data usage that month then you'll know why.
Additionally while watching a video type task manger in Windows search and open it, on the process tab under network if it says say 4Mbps that's about 1.8 GB per hour, you'd be able to watch 166 hours of video like that.
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