Cox data usage is wack

Hi Dale777,

You can log into your Cox account on our website and view your Bandwidth Usage Meter. Click here for more information on what could be using your bandwidth and tips on how to manage it. Let me know if you have any other questions. 

I keep wondering if they're having a problem with their monitors that they're not ready to talk about. Several posts have been opened about this and they all get locked very quickly. I had something similar happen to me. As you can see, our usage was pretty stable for 7 months then BAM! More than 300% spike with no change in our habits. We're already at 274 gb with 12 days left in our bill cycle. Its just my wife and I and she doesn't do anything intense. We went from using 75gb a month to 20,30, and even 50 gb a day! Something definetly isnt right. Ive run all kinds of antivirus and malware programs. Of course, the typical tech support response has been "I cant offer any advice other than to monitor your usage." Either there is something wrong on their end, and they dont seem in too much of a hurry to fix it, or there's something seriously wrong with my account/computer, and again, they dont seem to eager to provide any assistance other than "please consider upgrading to larger cap plan"

Edit* Its worth mentioning that I work in healthcare and work extremely long days. So for example, on 4/29 when I "used" 20 gb of data, I was at work from 8am to 9pm. Someone smarter than me please tell me how i used 20 gbs when I was at work for 13+ hours in a single day.

Before you can criticize the accuracy of the data meter, its best to first measure the data yourself to compare. There can be all kind of things eating up the bandwidth that your not directly using. Are you sending large attachments via VPN? Do you have backup software that updates automatically? Either way most higher end router will have some method to monitor at the router level. There is also certain software that does the same thing.

There was a huge thread on this around a year ago, where it was confirmed there was some problem with the data usage meter. It took awhile, but eventually it was fixed as I noticed my usage was not going way over what I usually do.

It seems to have suddenly started again, though. Here is my daily use from last month and this month:

Last month I used on average about 7gb a day, with some much lower and some higher. So far this month I apparently haven't used any less than 15gb a day, and the 70gb seems a bit off as well. I downloaded two 25gb games, but they weren't both on the same day.

Here's my monthly usage as well:

It was July/August of last year that the meter was screwed up. My downloading habits are always the same, and nobody else on my connection downloads anything, yet all of a sudden in those two months it spiked to almost double what my average download is. I'm pretty sure it's the same thing happening again.

I am having similar issues with our high speed internet. Back in December we noticed that our data usage all of a sudden doubled. At the same time as this we noticed connection issues so we went through the normal troubleshooting guidance, including having techs come out. We changed the router/modem..twice. After multiple techs looking into the issue, a few changed cables and connectors on cables, we started doing trace-routes to look for anomalies in the traffic. We then started doing ping tests with any areas that looked like they were having traffic delays.

 One of the main issues was network traffic to my wife's office in another town that she remotely accesses. The network traffic was being routed through Dallas and we were dropping packets at a very high rate. These dropped packets were specifically between some Cox ip address hops. Now, after numerous complaints, her network traffic has now been re-routed through Atlanta and the issues with her connection to her office have stopped. 

We have suspected that the jump in usage was due to dropped packets being counted towards bandwidth usage as they are being resent so just for fun we did a trace route on Netflix and lo and behold the traffic goes through some of the same Cox ip addresses we showed having trouble in Dallas.

Overloaded backbone perhaps? It certainly seems like that is the case.

I am also got a letter saying i went over my data cap. Nothing has changed on my end i use around 100-150 gigs a month consistently now all of a sudden there saying i used close to 300 gigs i dont know how my data can double without changing my usage at all.

I am very tech savy and i will be monitoring my bandwidth independently this month to compare to cox data i have a feeling there is a problem with there data monitor.

Either way i cant wait till google fiber arrives in phoenix no data caps!

Nobody else in my house downloads anything, they just browse Facebook. My router is as secure as it's going to be, if someone gets in at this point then congratulations to them. I can also guarantee all computers in my house are secure, I'm not technologically impaired like most people these days.

http://forums.cox.com/forum_home/internet_forum/f/5/t/2220.aspx It was confirmed here several months ago that there was in fact an issue with the data meter incorrectly measuring your bandwidth, showing that it was too high. Many people confirmed that what was being shown was roughly 2x what their actual usage was. It was fixed after a few months and my bandwidth usage has been very consistent since then, until now all of a sudden it's spiked to 2-3x the average daily use.

I don't have any logs of my bandwidth, but I can monitor it for the next few days and compare the results.

something seems wonky with my "metered usage" too.  I rarely go pass .75gig a day. usually in the .5 range, however, this cycle alone, there are days with 1.50 to 2.5.  I find that hard to believe with just internet browsling/email/light youtube viewing, NO movie/tv streaming. no new devices or users here either. guess it's time to change wifi password?

I can see all devices connected through my router and there are none out of the ordinary, I can't think of anything else that would cause such a drastic increase in my data meter.

Exactly! - me too.  that's why I'm wondering how could my "usage" have tripled the last few days with no changes on my end?! weird.

Hi rhsortho ,

The amounts displayed for the data usage accounts for the upstream and downstream usage amounts.  If you feel as though you were not responsible for that amount of data, I would recommend changing the router password to secure your network.  Continue to monitor the usage and if anything changes please let us know, we'll be happy to assist you.

Erionns,

You also want to see if your router has a bandwidth calculator. If not, you can use a third party software to identify which device is using the bandwidth. We would not be able to support either of these options but someone in the community can come back and offer any other assistance. 

Tiffany,

Lately I've been experiencing a similar issue with data used. You'd previously mentioned saving router settings and now suggest the forwarding of logs. Cox had provided me with a Cisco Gateway DPC3825. Would you enlighten me as to the wheres/hows of creating and saving this router information?