FAP Cap

[cherbs]

We have been FAP'd! on our UPLOAD. How does this happen? We live in a rural ares, no wifi stealers, and normally only use 700MB per month on upload. Our meter says now we are at 3225MB with a 3000MB cap. How could this happen? I don't use P2P stuff and the iMac is off at nights. My wife uses a pc laptop doing work stuff and that is it. The worst part - we are averaging 70kb on a good day. What happened to 128kb? Please advise.

[khardee]

My $.02 worth:
Check for viruses. Also, has your wife sent any large files to clients lately?

[cherbs]

Her files aren't huge, the biggest being 12mb.

[browneyes106]

How often does she sends files?

[MAKAKA]

I can practically guarantee there is no virus in your Mac.

My guess would be "wifi stealers" no matter how rural you think you are.

You could instal MenuMeters to monitor traffic with the Net Meter module. (free)

The Net Meter can display network throughput as arrows, bytes per second, and/or as a graph. Both the arrows and the graph are scaled using a user-selected scaling factor and calculation

For more elaborate monitoring use Little Snitch.

Little Snitch informs you whenever a program attempts to establish an outgoing Internet connection. You can allow or deny these connections, or define rules to handle future attempts automatically. Little Snitch reliably prevents your private data from being sent out to the Internet without your knowledge.

Little Snitch is shareware but has a demo mode that works for 3-4 hrs. at a time.

[equivocal]

Originally Posted by cherbs

We live in a rural ares, no wifi stealers,

Why does everyone say this?

Several years ago PBS columnist Cringely described how he hung a waveguide antenna in a ridgeline oak tree and connected to the wifi hotspot in the downtown of a city the next valley over.

[ddwifeone]

Originally Posted by equivocal

Why does everyone say this?

Several years ago PBS columnist Cringely described how he hung a waveguide antenna in a ridgeline oak tree and connected to the wifi hotspot in the downtown of a city the next valley over.

I have to agree. We too live in a fairly rural area, and didn't think much about securing our wireless network. We know most of our neighbors well enough to not have to worry about them stealing our internet; my husband thought the one neighbor we weren't sure about was far enough away to not be able to pick up our signal. We happened to notice that our usage was shooting up, and we couldn't figure out why. After a few days of that, we finally looked at the router...lo and behold, there was someone else connected to our router. Once we secured the router, our usage started going back down. We learned the hard way that you should never assume that you're too far out in the boondocks to have someone getting a free ride on your signal.

I will also say that we did have another issue with our usage going through the roof, and we never did figure out what was up. We had the router completely secured, so we know it wasn't that. I fought with WB for almost a month trying to figure out what the heck was going on. They had me disconnect the line from the router and run it straight to my computer (cuz the first thing they'll always try to blame this stuff on is the router), and they had me shut off and unplug my modem and computer for three days (then tried to tell me the fact that my usage had gone up in the three days that the modem was unplugged indicated a problem with the modem...huh??). None of it worked. We never did figure out what was going on...the problem kept up until we finally upgraded our package.

[mkbilbo]

Originally Posted by cherbs

We have been FAP'd! on our UPLOAD. How does this happen? We live in a rural ares, no wifi stealers...

I wouldn't assume that if I were you. I live in a very rural area and my lot backs up to a ranch. Don't have a wireless set up but did recently get an iPhone and was mucking around with AirPort to see if I could get the phone to use my Dish/WB connection on the Mac while I was off in the living room.

Turned AirPort on and a network popped up.

Cows got wireless now?

Anyway, I would have said the same thing you did. But I'm in range of somebody's wireless network. Have no idea (and wouldn't try) how secure they are but it was the last thing I expected to see out here in "the boondocks".

So don't assume.

[mkbilbo]

Originally Posted by MAKAKA

For more elaborate monitoring use Little Snitch.

Little Snitch informs you whenever a program attempts to establish an outgoing Internet connection. You can allow or deny these connections, or define rules to handle future attempts automatically. Little Snitch reliably prevents your private data from being sent out to the Internet without your knowledge.

Little Snitch is shareware but has a demo mode that works for 3-4 hrs. at a time.

I can recommend paying the shareware fee for Little Snitch. I've had it for quite a while now and while it can be annoying the first round when you're setting up to allow your normal connections, it's caught a few things trying to connect where my thinking was, "WHAT? What the bleepity-blonk is THAT? And it wants to talk to WHO?"

It's also surprisingly useful in cases when you're hitting the 80% mark on bandwidth and need to choke things down. It's really surprising (and dismaying) just how many things want to connect to the Internet. So help me, the silly calculator Apple gives you with your iMac connects to the Internet every single time it's started up.

I assume it has to do with checking for updates to the software. Almost everything I have does that automatically. The ones that don't allow you to set how often they check bug me a great deal.

Developers and software companies in general have a bad habit of not realizing that their mega-giga-terra-fiber-bandwidth connections don't apply to all of us outside their buildings. They have a blindspot where they unconsciously assume everybody has a business class connection paid for by an accounting department.

So the amount of software that "phones home" these days is ridiculously large. And a lot of it--particularly some Apple software--does so every time you start it up.

I used Little Snitch to cut off most all of those connections. Like the calculator. I mean, what the blazes does a calculator have to say anyway?

[mkbilbo]

Originally Posted by equivocal

Why does everyone say this?

'Cus when you live next door to a ranch, you just kinda assume the cows don't have laptops.

Several years ago PBS columnist Cringely described how he hung a waveguide antenna in a ridgeline oak tree and connected to the wifi hotspot in the downtown of a city the next valley over.

Really? I have free access to AT&T hot spots on my iPhone. Wonder if I could reach one from here?

[jb00]

Originally Posted by MAKAKA
For more elaborate monitoring use Little Snitch.

I like that! But I run a PC....know of anything like that for my platform?

[Duncan1]

For what it's worth .. I had trouble different times with WB .
I was directly commissioned from them with my account.
Their FAP is NOT perfect .. but if you call Colorado they will tell you it is.
I got a tech one time that told me that it can't be wrong .. no joke ..
I had the meeter go up on two different times that the modem was unplugged
for 5 days while we went on Vaca. to Arizona .
I called in got the same old crap .. then I said .. uhh ..well it's been UNPLUGGED
for 5 days and the usage is higher than when I unplugged it ..oopps .. "yes I see that .... I'll turn it over to tech support ".
Two days later the FAP meeter went down about half of usage over night .
Guess it can be managed / bumped .
Wildblue is a GOD send if nothing else is available . But they don't care about you as a customer ... kinda like wall street ... I to use Mac .. so the virus excuse is out the window .. I have a wirless network in the house .. no
password .. 1/4 mile from nearest neighbor and the ones around here in hickville Nashville Indiana .. some of them think the internet is two tin cans and a string so I know I'm not getting hijacked .. I grew up here I KNOW the people . All their excuses are CRAP .. they have a system that can't readily
keep a count of the bandwidth and they know it .. It's a long story buy I was lucky enough I could get a T1 line dropped in , no cheap cost , and I went with that . Dropped WB . If they would have been able to keep an accurate count on the FAP meeter I 'think ' I could have stayed with them or maybe went with the business / Enterprise program . But you can't trust them ... I don't know if it's incompetence , willful lying , or they shift the data totals around to " feed some big costumers " will holding down the retail purchaser ... but one thing is for sure they ain't square and upfront with the customer.

[Spice300]

Originally Posted by cherbs

We have been FAP'd! on our UPLOAD. How does this happen?

WiFi stealers would most likely exceed your download limit. When a computer is inexplicably FAPed on upload, the two most likely explanations are P2P or malware using your computer to spam others.

Did you use WB to watch Obama's inauguration because CNN used a P2P application to stream presidential inauguration.