New + Idnet Novice + Technophobe + Thick At Anything Technical = Me

[Moonshine]

Hello all.

Well, from the subject title, you will note that I am a complete novice at broadband and Idnet.  I used to be with probably the WORST ISP you can possibly imagine (I know there are quite a few, but I'll bet you guess it within the first three that spring to mind!), and am now enjoying being an escapee.

I have only been with Idnet a few days, so can't really gauge anything nor comment on much, but whereas with my previous ISP my package was for 2mbps with a 2gb per month data transfer, I am now on the Home Lite package with Idnet, which incorporates 8mbps with a 5gb per month data transfer.  Now, here's where I begin to sound completely thick.  I have absolutely no idea what all of that means, nor do I particularly care!!  I mainly use the internet for surfing, checking emails and must confess, I do like a bit of watching some of my favourite old cheesy music on YouTube.  I don't do gaming or anything like that online.  With my former ISP, I never heard from them with a view to knowing whether I'd gone over my monthly limit, so assumed I hadn't.  However, with Idnet I've now noticed that my account provides me with bandwidth statistics.  I've just viewed the first one, and in two days, here are the results:-

1.57 GB download (peak: 1.47 GB/off peak 0.1 GB
0.07 GB upload (peak: 0.06 GB/off peak 0.01 GB

These figures cover 2 days.  If the same rate of usage continues for 31 days then the total for the month will be:

24.32 GB download (peak: 22.78 GB/off peak 1.54 GB
1.19 GB upload (peak: 0.97 GB/off peak 0.22 GB

Now, I have to say, the above statistics really mean nothing to me.  I am just quite happy surfing along with no real input nor interest in what they mean, why, how etc!  What I am concerned about is whether judging by these figures, it is likely I will go over my limits, because I don't understand what mbps is, and whether a GB is lower than that, and I have no idea what upload/download/upstream/downstream etc etc all means!!

So, if anyone can enlighten me in layman's terms, I'd be eternally grateful.  I don't need to know the techie bit.....I just need to know whether me surfing regularly and watching YouTube videos is likely to encounter problems with regard to my useage.  Like I said, I had a far inferior package with my previous supplier, and used the net in exactly the same way then, and never heard from them with regard to useage limits, so I'm hoping it means I've picked the right package for me.

Sorry for this being so long-winded........if you've managed to get to the end of this message without yawning, you're a better person than me, because I'm in danger of boring myself now!!

Thanks for any prospective help, and look forward to my future with Idnet.

Moonshine.

[kinmel]

Those figures put you down as a fairly heavy user.

You need to discover if your use of Youtube is is so heavy that you are actually reaching these download figures.  Find a time  during the day when you don't need to use the internet at all and note your bandwidth figures for the start of that period, then note the figures as soon as you start to use the internet later, the two sets of figures should be almost identical.  If they are not come back here for further advice.

If you continue with the existing bandwidth usage you will incur serious charges and will need to move to another package.

[Philip]

what Alan says really, I'd seriously consider upgrading to Home Max which gives you a 30 gig limit for £24.99

by the way 

[madasahatter]

Hi Moonshine -  to IDNetters.

It does look like you are quite possibly on the wrong package for your usage. Basically, you have 5GB of download traffic allowance per month (that's the amount of data that you can download), and in only 2 days you have already used over 1.5 GB of that allowance (nearly a third). What the bandwidth usage is showing is that if you carry on using the same amount for the rest of the month, you are going to have used over 20GB more than your allowance, and you will be faced with a hefty bill. The amount showing as uploaded is really neither here nor there, as IDNet do not include uploaded data in your allowance.

Really what you need to think about is whether you are likely to carry on using the same amount all the time, ie have your browsing habits over the last couple of days been any different to your normal browsing habits? If not, then I would suggest that you seriously think about either upgrading your package to one with a higher allowance (this would work out a lot cheaper in the long run than paying for excess usage), or changing your usage patterns.

Hope that makes things a little clearer, but if not let us know - everyone is generally very helpful on here, and are happy to answer any questions you may have 

[Moonshine]

Thanks for the quick response.

God, that's rather worrying!  Could the fact that I download updates from AVG at least a few times a day have anything to do with it as well?  I never used to do this (used to let updates occur automatically once a day), but read somewhere that updates ought to be done more frequently these days to avoid infection. Also, do Ad-Aware and Spybot scans/updates eat into the useage?  Should I cut down on these do you think?  I do these more than once a day too, since my paranoia about viruses got the better of me!

I can't understand why my former ISP never contacted me then??  I am now worried whether I have enough useage to last me the month, and whether I shouldn't go on YouTube until the month is up.

I never would have called myself a heavy user, but because I'm not at all hi-tech, I don't understand what it is that's causing this, or whether it's a combination of different things I'm doing.

[Moonshine]

Thanks for all your responses and help.  Looks like I'm going to have to monitor things very carefully indeed.  I never imagined a bit of YouTube in the evenings could make me a heavy user!!!

Cheers for the advice.

[Malc]

  to the forum  

I would think updates to AVG, Adware and spybot will eat very little of your bandwidth.

Your upload is minimal, so you are not using p2p, I suggest your 1.57gb over two days seems a lot, if all your doing is youtube, surfing and email, it looks like one of two things, how much time were you on youtube over the two days? just one or two clips, or more like all day? And how many do you watch ?

More worrying is, are you using a wireless router? And is someone stealing your bandwidth? You need to do what kimmel says, jot down your Download (actual) figure, and when you go back on line a few hours later, check the same figure again, if it's the same, then it must be something you are doing, if the figure has increased, then you need to cut the wireless supply.

As I'm not the best techy round here, not sure how this is done, but there are many who can help, and will be along at some stage soon.

But first, can you check those figures and let us know what else you Download?


And great to have you here  

Oh and have a karma!!!

[Moonshine]

Hi again.

Well, I don't have a wireless router - it's a D-Link ethernet modem, so I'm assuming someone cannot be stealing my bandwidth usage?

I only use YouTube in the evenings for maybe an hour or so.  However, thinking about it, my son has used it to watch Sonic The Hedgehog YouTube videos the last couple of days.  He is usually on it for around an hour each day, also.  I genuinely didn't think that was a long period of time to be on YouTube (naive, I know!).  Mind you, we've both been doing this for a long time now (with former ISP).  I'm assuming they just didn't get round to doing anything about me using so much bandwidth, then.  At least I got something out of being with them!

I am shocked that I am considered to be a heavy user, since my former package was only 2GB, and my usage pattern was exactly the same then!

I will take all your advice on board and test the statistics.  Your help is much appreciated, and I will get back to you with the results.

Thank you.

[kinmel]

I forgot to add my  , sorry about that       

You will find us all very friendly here and we happily help each other, keep us up to date on what is happening.

[Lance]

Welcome to the forum, Moonshine

[Malc]

Hi moonshine,

I've just watched 4 videos on youtube and have just updated my RSS Download usage, with only the 4 vids and a bit of brousing, its only gone up 0.01gb. So, it's looking likely something else is happening 
I doubt from my simple test it's just youtube.

[Simon]

Hi Moonshine, and 

Give it a few more days, and see what your speculative usage is, say in the middle of next week.  It's just possible, as the allowance runs from the 1st of each month, the readings given are slightly out, being that you joined right at the end of a month.  I doubt you would use as much as has been estimated, going by what you have said you use the Internet for. 

[Lance]

Malc, that is probably because the BT radius server hasn't had a chance to pass on your usage info to IDNet's servers yet. This takes anything from half an hour to a day.

I've just googled and it seems that depending on the quality of the video, they use on average 2.5mb a minute. Assuming that you watch an hour a day, that is going to equate to 150mb (there are 1024mb in a gigabyte, and your allowance from IDNet is 5 gigabytes), but it could be easily double this if the majority of the videos are of a higher quality.

[Sebby]

I think all your questions have been answered, but don't hesitate to ask if there's anything else.

[Moonshine]

My goodness, you've all been so helpful so quickly!  It really is a community here, isn't it?!

I have to say, I panicked and have since completed the online request to upgrade to Home Max for £24.99 per month.  I really am so naive about all this, that I honestly don't know what constitutes as a download from what doesn't!  Therefore, to be on the safe side, I've requested an upgrade, so I'll await to hear back from Idnet in respect of that.  As I was only activated on 28th of this month, I assume my first payment taken will now be £24.99 instead of £17.99?

If the figures are slightly out, and I'm finding I'm not going over the 5GB limit after all, I suppose it's always possible I could downgrade back to Home Lite - but I'd rather be safe than sorry.  However, it would seem that even if the figures were slightly out, I'd still result in being over the 5GB.

I am truly impressed with everyone's help and input.  I only originally posted on here as a bit of a throwaway query, not imagining for one moment that I would be classified as a heavy user.  It's probably a good job I did post, since I certainly can do without being billed a hefty amount at the end of the month!

Thanks again everyone, and for all your warm welcomes.  This is a new experience for me - I never got such personalised service with "The Future's Bright......"!

Moonshine.

[Lance]

Indeed Moonshine, if you do find that you do rarely go over 5GB you can downgrade again at any time

[Sebby]

I think you've made the right move. Home Max gives a lot more room to use the internet freely I think.

See how you get on. If you find it's an overkill, you can always downgrade again.

[Simon]

Yes, it is a real community here, Moonshine, and once you've been around for a couple of days, you'll more than likely be hooked!   

You can upgrade and downgrade as much as you like for no additional charge, so keep a check on your usage until you find the right level, which, unless you spend all day every day on YouTube, I suspect will still be within the 5Gb allowance.

[Rik]

Hi Moonshine and welcome to the forum. It's probably worth mentioning that the projected figures tend to be artificially high for the first 2-3 days of the charging month, which runs from the 1st, regardless of your billing date (if you prefer the two to align, IDNet will change your billing date for you, btw).

Have you found the bit on your accounts page where you can sign up for an RSS feed on your usage and the network status. That's something I highly recommend as it saves you making the effort to check each day.

[Moonshine]

Thanks Rik.

In one day, I have learned a fair bit from this forum alone - it really is a mine of information!!

Having now completed the online form to upgrade to Home Max, I will see how that goes by monitoring it, and if it transpires I'm not hitting the 5GB limit, I will take the decision to downgrade again.

I honestly had no idea YouTube could eat up so much usage!

Cheers for the advice.

[Rik]

I'm told Second Life can be a bit heavy duty too. Glad you're finding the forum useful, it's what we aim for. 

[Dangerjunkie]

Hi Moonshine,



It can be really confusing when you first go online. Don't worry. We were all new once

The terms they're using:

• Download - Information your computer receives from other places.
• Upload - Information your computer sends to other places
• MB - Megabyte
• GB - Gigabyte
• MB - About a thousandth of a GB
• Anything ending PS - Per Second - How quickly you can download/upload stuff

Most people use far more download than they do upload. When you look at a page your computer sends a tiny message saying which page you want to look at and the website sends back everything on the page.

Don't worry too much if you use a bit too much as long as you're not hugely over. I think IDNet only charge £1 a GB if you go over (I'm sure someone can confirm this.) It is cheaper though to be on the right package with an amount that is right for your usage. With IDNet you can always change package and they provide the meter that shows you how you're doing so you know exactly where you stand and whether you should upgrade or downgrade.

Please also bear in mind that most people that go online with broadband for the first time will get "kiddy in a sweetshop syndrome" and use it heavily for a while then settle down to a regular pattern of usage.

Rik used SecondLife as an example of an program that may use more than you think. With its standard settings and no music/video it can consume about 0.1-0.2 GB per hour. If you turn all the settings up to max and music,video and voice on that can go as high as about 0.7 GB per hour. I use it and really like it. The biggest problem is that it's addictive and can cause all-nighters YouTube is another thing that doesn't seem like much but moving video is quite a lot of information.

I think you've done the wise thing by changing to Max. That way you can pretty much use what you want for a couple of months and not worry about it costing until you get the hang of how much you are actually going to use in a month.

To give you an idea, two of us here are occasional SecondLife users, move media files around for my work, download a fair amount and use YouTube. We generally come in at about 25GB per month if we've had a heavy month and about 17 on a light one.

Good luck and welcome again to the gang
Paul.

[Rik]

It is £1/GB for 'overs' Paul.

[Moonshine]

Thanks, Dangerjunkie - that was most helpful.