Wildblue 10GB limit

[Jaeldawn]

I had Wildblue installed last week. I noticed yesterday and today my internet has been REALLY slow. I logged onto my account and checked my meter and found that I had already reached my 10GB limit for the month. This is the first time I have had a data limit with internet, so I was not sure what to expect, but I really didn't expect to reach the limit that fast. I have been monitoring EVERYTING I have done since installation to get an idea of how much I can do. I have listed my activity below. Could someone please explain to me why I would have reached my limit so fast? I spoke to Wildblue customer service and they just said they are sorry I reached it so fast and just to stick to reading emails.

Here is my activity,

I have downloaded 42.27MB of files from the internet
Checked emails several times a day for the last week, but did not download any attachments (Did not track specifically how many emails I opened)
Did not track how anysurfing I did because I figured this would not use enough memory to require tracking
watched 2 Blockbuster@Home movies

 

[Jaeldawn]

BTW I did not receive an email saying I went over. I called because I noticed a drop in speed and that is how I found out I was over.

 

[Stargazer]

That and speed are the two largest drawbacks to satellite (in the past). With the new systems the caps are the largest drawbacks. Welcome to satellite broadband. I'd install something like netspeedmonitor from download.com and look at how much bandwidth you are downloading each month and/or upgrade your plan to a larger data package. I believe you have to wait the rest of the month in order to get your speed back.

 

[Jaeldawn]

Thanks Stargazer for the info! I just moved to the country and satellite is the only option for me unfortunatly. I read somewhere that I could risk having my service completely disconnected if I go WAY to far over. Should that be a real concern for me?

 

[grohgreg]

watched 2 Blockbuster@Home movies

There's your culprit. Whereas the amount of data represented by a feature length film will vary with run time, the average standard definition represents about 1 GB. Watch it in HD, and you're looking at 2-3 GB.

I also recommend disabling auto-update on your software, particularly Microsoft products and any software that downloads entire updated versions of itself. The only stuff I permit to auto-update on my network are the anti-virus programs. Everything else I set to notify me if/when there's an update available for download. I then check to see how big the file(s) is/are before deciding whether to download then and there, or to give it to my download manager to fetch overnight. If you were unaware, you have an unlimited download window between 0200 and 0800. But since most folks are sleeping through most of that window, they use download managers to do it for them.

Plus - once you've consumed your monthly allowance - you have to option to purchase more bandwidth to hold you over till you get your next monthly allowance. Not sure, but I think it's something like $8/GB

//greg//

 

[KE4EST]

Yeah surprised they didn't offer when called but like greg said you purchase more to get you buy for the month. I would call and add a couple of GBs, I know its expensive but lesson learned and don't watch any movies. You can upgrade your service also if you can afford it.

Sent from my DROID2 using SatelliteGuys

 

[Jaeldawn]

Well I found out it was not my activity that used it all up. I started another thread about this. They are now claiming we downloaded illegal movies and that used it all up. They also locked my service because of it. I have never in my life downloaded a full copyrighted movie, so this has become a way bigger issue than I thought.

 

[DNSTrainer]

. . . . 10GB limit for the month. . . . watched 2 Blockbuster@Home movies

From that information, I'm assuming that you have your service through Dish Network, correct?

watched 2 Blockbuster@Home movies

There's your culprit.

If you were unaware, you have an unlimited download window between 0200 and 0800.

Plus - once you've consumed your monthly allowance - you have to option to purchase more bandwidth to hold you over till you get your next monthly allowance. Not sure, but I think it's something like $8/GB

//greg//

First off, I agree with Greg that movie downloads from BB@H will eat up your data allowance very quickly. If the stored size of downloaded movies is anything like the size of movies delivered via satellite, you are looking at an average of something like 30MB/minute for HD. Therefore, a typical 2 hr. movie is about 3.6GB

If indeed the service is through Dish (as mine is) you will not have the benefit of the Late Night Free Zone. There is also currently no option to add additional gigabytes to your service - at least not yet.

Now, as far as your service being shut down due to illegal downloading, I would look very hard at that. I have never heard of that particular issue resulting in such a penalty. Though I haven't worked for Dish for almost two years now, I was with them from the very first implementation of WildBlue service.

If they have the ability to monitor the content you are downloading, wouldn't it be simpler to just block the illegal content in the first place?

 

[Jaeldawn]

I do have my service through dish. I talked to 3 different people at Wildblue and only one of them knew that they had the technology to monitor. After talking to them all day yesterday and this morning they finally said they had a mistake and the restriction had been lifted.

As far as my data usage, I guess I will have to dI do have my service through dish. I talked to 3 different people at Wildblue and only one of them knew that they had the technology to monitor. After talking to them all day yesterday and this morning they finally said they had a mistake and the restriction had been lifted.

As far as my data usage, I guess I will have to drastically change my internet usage. I disabled all of my extra devices (blu-ray, Hopper & iPad) since everything you do with them is basically streaming. I also am a graphic artist, so I had to tell my web design clients that I will no longer be able to design and maintain their sites. I also canceled all of our online gaming subscriptions. I also disabled all auto updates on everything except virus scan. Is there anything else that I am missing that would such my bandwidth?
rastically change my internet usage. I disabled all of my extra devices (blu-ray, Hopper & iPad) since everything you do with them is basically streaming. I also am a graphic artist, so I had to tell my web design clients that I will no longer be able to design and maintain their sites. I also canceled all of our online gaming subscriptions. I also disabled all auto updtes on everything except virus scan. Is there anything else that I am missing that would such my bandwith?

 

[grohgreg]

Regarding data usage monitoring, Exede hasn't been on the street long enough yet. There are/were some Wildblue usage monitors, but Exede uses a different modem. But rest assured that an Exede monitoring utility will be available in the reasonable future. The acronym for Exede bandwidth limiting is DAP (Data Allowance Policy I think). So put "Exede DAP monitor" or something similar into a search engine and check occasionally for new hits.

Regarding the DAP itself, it shouldn't be necessary to drop your web design clients. Perhaps you're unaware that - at additional cost of course - you can upgrade to a 15GB/month or 25GB/month subscription. Yes, they're more expensive. But when you use your internet connection to conduct your business, it becomes a viable business deduction on your income tax.

//greg//

 

[ZandarKoad]

I wouldn't worry about anything right now except those movies you streamed. Stop streaming movies, and see how far 10Gb will get you. Online gaming is also a no-no, but that's mostly because the ~1000 ms ping time makes it inoperable. Gaming may also use a lot of bandwidth too, I don't know.

 

[KE4EST]

What are the ping times on the new Exede stuff, I hearing 600-700ms on the new Gen4 stuff and gaming works ok.

 

[Jaeldawn]

What are the ping times on the new Exede stuff, I hearing 600-700ms on the new Gen4 stuff and gaming works ok.

I figured we wouldn't be able to play online MMORPGs such as WOW with the data limit, but the one thing that I am going to monitor are games that require you to log into a server even to play the games that are local on our machine, such as Windows Live games. This next month, I am not going to stream any movies and just play the Windows Live games and see how close to the 10gb I get.

I don't want to get the bigger packages for my graphics because I only have jobs occasionally, and the months that I don't have the jobs will probably negate any money I make from the jobs I get. I also use it for bartering, so that will defiantly not work.