Saturday, November 22, 2014

Need Help

 

I am going through my gigabytes faster than ever and I can’t figure out why. I have almost given up reading blogs or commenting. Jim hasn’t been on his computer for almost two weeks and yet we are still over 50% of our 8 gigs.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what might be wrong? We got along just fine with 5 gigabytes for many years and now 8 isn’t enough.

Thanks guys.

16 comments:

  1. We started burning through serious GBs all of a sudden and found that Marti's Facebook settings were set for always playing every video in her account every time she logged on, even though she wasn't looking at them.

    She located the settings control and disabled it. Now a video will only play if she manually opens it. Evidently FB made this change in an update without notifying anyone.

    Just a thought.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm. Well, we have years of experience in using cellular internet around the world.

    There are two things that use up a lot of data... program updates, and videos.

    You need to confirm that all programs are set to manually update. That is, only perform updates when you tell them to. Not when they tell you to!

    And, you need to make sure that videos and pictures don't load or play automatically. In Chrome, it's fairly easy to set the extension so that not even pictures download automatically.

    Other than that...not sure what it could be. However even basic internet isn't so basic anymore. I think that all programs simply use more data than ever. If you needed 3 GB's to get by three years ago, you likely need 6 GB to get by now.

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Probably a virus... have your favorite techie check out your computer(s) or take it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Remember Denise saying she was going through data like crazy, and it ended up being a virus? Could that be the problem? I was going through a lot, and ended up putting my phone on "airplane" when I go to bed so nothing is syncing and it just sleeps until I turn the "airplane mode" off. And of course I turn off the laptop when I go to bed. Hope you figure it out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just a repeat of the above - videos on autoplay, virus, updates and the fact that basic use of the Internet does seem to suck up a lot more data than before. Seems like there are so many sites with video these days - even news sites - and that can eat away at data in no time. Is there also a way to see how many connections are active on your system, just in case someone tapped into it?

    ReplyDelete
  6. We too had a bout with usage and concluded it was from automatic updates. Turned that off and only update when free WIFI is available.

    I'm amazed at the number of automatic updates they send out to keep these things running. I also question if they are really necessary. Seems they cause a lot of problems!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I second the automatic updates from apps, programs and windows. We have nothing set to automatically update or even check for those updates.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Also another thought...do you have a smartphone that uploads photos automatically? Or photos that get backed up automatically on facebook or google?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Funny you should mention this, because the same thing is happening to us. Not only our wifi but on my unlimited data (thankfully) smart phone. I made sure the computer doens't update automatically and do not automatically play videos on Facebook. Hoping that will help our situation.

    ReplyDelete
  10. We had a problem and it was with the MI
    Fi. It was replaced and it worked for a while longer.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Sandie, do you have TeamViewer on your computer? If so, I can have a look....let me know, o.k. It's an easy, free download.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Finally getting caught up … glad Aunt Happy is okay! ohhhh Scooter?! glad she’s okay too ~ great reading about your summer summary! AND you met Nancy and Jack … how very cool! hahaa sweet tater treat! he’s soooo handsome, that Jack … great pictures of all of you and the Girls …

    ahhhh, I’m better now after having caught up with you guys … what a busy busy couple you are … love it

    Haven’t a clue about your usage problem … Whatever your carrier is, we have AT&T and I have online everything ~ I view the usage on the bill. It should tell you or contact them and ask them ~ what’s going on…

    I have unlimited with AT&T on my iPhone … they slowed stuff down and well… they’ve been told to stop it… unlimited means unlimited. Joe has an air card and goes over every month … but the additional charge is still less with the plan he has than if he were to buy a larger plan… I dunno ~ drives me insane

    Call your carrier …

    ReplyDelete
  13. I had a verizon mi-fi with 5GB/month for several years. I found I couldn't look at many videos, and You Tube was even worse. I don't think I ever allowed automatic updates, so I'm sure it was videos. I always felt bad when folks included a video clip in their blogs because I just couldn't start looking at those clips - like with YouTube, when you start it's hard to stop.

    Things are so much better now that I have AT&T for my TV and unlimited wireless. Of course I can't take it with me on trips, but nothing bad happens to me when I don't access the internet for a day or a week! I suggest you try avoiding all videos for a month and see the difference. Another thing that burns me up is webites, usually weather or news, that automatically start showing a video. I click it off as fast as I can!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sandie you have a virus on your computer! Get the thing cleaned out a.s.a.p.!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sandie, Several people have mentioned a virus and that's exactly what I had !! I thought it was a Verizon problem etc. etc. and went to their store several times. My data usage was jumping by the GB'S !!! Now that it's been all cleaned up everything is back to normal.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I can't offer any help on the GB problem, but after scanning the comments you received, it seems like some of them had some good advice.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting today. I look forward to reading your comments. Have a beautiful day.