I need to solve why my Aircard data plan is all of a sudden being used up in 4 days ?
My desktop OS is Windows 8.1 Browser is Firefox Quantum V 58.0.1 (64-bit) My aircard plan provides internet service through AT&T. The plan's data limit is 5 GB/month, which serves our purpose for emailing/browsing. [In the past 7+ years, I have exceeded it maybe 4 times.] I accessed our usage after 4 days to discover we had already exceeded the limit, with obvious additional costs to be tacked on??? I called AT&T for an explanation. The rep. I talked to was no help at all, and the AT&T supervisor couldn't have cared less about our problem........with my question being, who or what is apparently using our data? I have not changed any settings that would cause this problem, we don't stream, and we are conservative with our use of the data. We are half way through the billing period, and I'm at 9.2 GB and counting.[$$$] I researched online to no avail. I downloaded a program called Aircard Watcher, which only provides a real-time on-screen data counter, both download and upload. and doesn't report on where the data goes.
Here is a copy of AT&T's usage records to show typical data use, which equates to about 39 MB of data charged every 1/2 hour!! Count/Date Time Usage Type Usage 96 01/21 7:50 PM -- Mobile data -- 78045.0 KB 97 01/21 7:24 PM -- Mobile data -- 39024.0 KB 98 01/21 7:00 PM -- Mobile data -- 39021.0 KB 99 01/21 6:28 PM -- Mobile data -- 39011.0 KB 100 01/21 5:57 PM -- Mobile data -- 39015.0 KB 101 01/21 5:18 PM -- Mobile data -- 38990.0 KB 102 01/21 4:44 PM -- Mobile data -- 38997.0 KB 103 01/21 4:15 PM -- Mobile data -- 38991.0 KB 104 01/21 3:45 PM -- Mobile data -- 38956.0 KB 105 01/21 3:08 PM -- Mobile data -- 38986.0 KB 106 01/21 2:28 PM -- Mobile data -- 38996.0 KB 107 01/21 1:57 PM -- Mobile data -- 38971.0 KB 108 01/21 1:29 PM -- Mobile data -- 39035.0 KB 109 01/21 1:04 PM -- Mobile data -- 38995.0 KB
I've also reviewed the histories to see if an unknown website was hitting my data, see below. There were no surprises except..... the visit counts were incredibly high ?? Name Location Most Recent Visit Visit Count AOL Mail https://mail.aolXXXXX 11:41 am 2457 Mail Outlook https://outlook.live.comxx 10:01 am 1146 AT&T https://www.att.com 9:15 am 41
I'd appreciate if anyone can provide some insight as to what is going on. Thanks.......Jerry
All Replies (3)
Hi,
Sorry to hear that this is happening! To start, can you check that this data usage is actually coming from Firefox? Right-click on the task bar at the bottom of the screen, and choose "task manager". Click on the "more details" button, and then click on the "network" column to change the sorting to highest-to-lowest. If you're not seeing any data usage there, you could also try the same thing in the "app history" section to see what has used data in the past.
Assuming this data usage is coming from Firefox, try closing your tabs one at a time, and watching what happens in the network column.
Also, some general data-saving tips:
- Install an ad-blocking extension like uBlock Origin. This will prevent ads from being loaded, which significantly reduces data usage on most websites.
- Enable the "metered connection" setting in Windows by following these steps: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/configure-metered-connections-in-windows-8/ .
Finally, I wouldn't worry about the visit counts - those numbers count every visit since you first installed Firefox, so if you've been using Firefox for a while, those numbers are probably accurate.
Hope that helps!
User1929, Thanks for your diagnosis suggestions. [I apologize that the formatting of my write-up for not looking like what I posted....see my new attachment]
In Task Manager, the "Network" column showed no data usage. In "App history", the largest data use was a whooping 3.6 MB...........no help.
Regarding ad blocking, I use Adblock Plus. If uBlock Origin is more thorough, I'll certainly try it.
For a metered connection, when I right click on the Mobile Broadband, "AT&T connected", nothing happens to enable a metered connection. Your help is appreciated. jerry
You might want to check if the data usage is actually coming from your computer. One good way to do this would be to turn your computer off for a few hours (shut down, not just sleep), and see if ATT is still recording data usage. For the metered connection setting, you can also try the instructions listed here under "how do I change my current network connection to metered": https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17452/windows-metered-internet-connections-faq .
However, since it sounds like your data usage isn't coming from Firefox, you might be better off posting in a different forum that might have more ideas. I would suggest trying these:
https://answers.microsoft.com/ https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/