My Brother is a Five-Percenter

[Foxbat]

My brother and his wife have Comcast's Xfinity TriplePlay. He called me up the other day and asked me a question about his internet connection. He wanted to know how he could be downloading over 200 GB/month when all he uses the Internet for is surfing and e-mail. He has scanned his PCs and they show no malware. He runs the latest big-name Antivirus and makes sure the definitions are up-to-date. He wanted to know if it was possible for someone to hop on to his WiFi without his knowledge (that was my first thought, too).

Comcast has started billing his account for the exceeding the monthly data cap. He, in turn, unplugs his router unless he needs to connect, figuring that this should disrupt the freeloader(s). Well, after a month of running on an as-needed basis, his account's usage is still over 200 GB/month!

My question to the forum is to seek some opinions on what is going on. My thought is someone has copied his account credentials and have programed their cable modem so it authenticates with the Comcast head-end as my brother's box. I would think that Comcast would be able to detect this (different MAC address of the cable box, for one) and could help find the doppleganger.

All the other scenarios put the data hog coming through my brother's connection, which seems unlikely given the volume of data being downloaded. Given a direct connection, I could see it, but unless one of his neighbors has a WiFi Yagi pointed at his house, I would think he would notice someone close enough to get "G" speeds.

I'm putting this out in the Comcast forum to see if somebody might have experienced a similar issue and how they resolved it. Comcast is in no hurry to reduce their padded bill (and my brother is halfway through his two-year contract) so their customer service hasn't been very helpful.

[berck]

I would have him verify with Comcast the modem ID they have on record for him. I suspect that its more likely that they have this messed up than two people sharing the same modem ID. The same modem ID would results in duplicate IP addresses, which normally means network issues. This also can be confirmed if he disconnects from the network and asked if comcast can still find his modem and IP address.

[Foxbat]

Would it be easier for him to request a new cable modem and see if that stops the "double dip" on his account? I'll pass on the suggestion to verify his Modem's ID with Comcast. Thanks!

[Claude Greiner]

Thats like 6 Gigs a day.

Impossible, unless he is downloading movies all day long or watching streaming video.

I would start by disabling the wireless access point completely, as sometimes changing the WEP code isn't good enough.

I think if you login to Comcasts website they have a usage meter. Unplug the modem and see what the usage is?

I have heard of people getting cracked or hacked modems, specifically for people who go over the bandwith cap. The good and bad thing about Comcast is that if your modem is authorized, it will work several hundred miles away on a different system.

I had an employee who was getting free comcast with a digital box ever since he moved in. Didn't want to call comcast and screw up his free service, so he used a modem I had assigned to my account and it worked.

[berck]

Would it be easier for him to request a new cable modem and see if that stops the "double dip" on his account? I'll pass on the suggestion to verify his Modem's ID with Comcast. Thanks!

I'd suggest he buy his own modem and save $7/month.

[ranmic]

Tell him to unplug his cable modem, then call Comcast and ask them to send a refresh or test it (but don't tell them what he's done) and see what the results are.