Forum Discussion

Rdcotton's avatar
Rdcotton
New Contributor
2 months ago

Excessive Data use numbers

Is anyone else seeing huge data usage numbers recently? Somehow, I DOUBLED my usage numbers in March when I haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary. In fact, I supposedly used more in March than I did in January and February combined. Got charged for extra usage in March. Received notice that I've already used 50% for April. These numbers should not be as high as they are. I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary that warrants these numbers. I spent a good part of this morning with support and they were absolutely no help.  

Is anyone else having these issues? Anything you've done to resolve it?

 

 

  • Jbnorton's avatar
    Jbnorton
    New Contributor
    2 months ago

    Mine also seemed to jump an insane amount. I hover at 1750gb month in and out but last cycle it jumped up to 2200gb for no apparent reason. The only difference I had was the majority of one day not having service via an outage. 

  • ColleenD's avatar
    ColleenD
    Moderator
    2 months ago

    Rdcotton 

    Thanks for your post! I would have the same concerns if I saw a big jump in usage. I know you've said that you are not doing anything out of the ordinary, but I'm curious to know if any new devices have been added to your home network, or if any configuration changes have been made to things like home surveillance or other smart home devices. Continuous vide recording can be a data hog. Ort could be something as simple as a new smart car, hybrid or EV uploading data to the manufacturer, or a new 4k capable TV, phone or tablet, etc. where a streaming service video resolution is set to the high end.  Hopefully our community members can join the conversation and make other suggestions on what to look for on your end that we wouldn't be able to see from the provider side.  If you need to discuss your account in detail please email us at cox.help@cox.com with your full name, complete street address, details of your concern and a link to your post.

    • Rdcotton's avatar
      Rdcotton
      New Contributor
      2 months ago

      Thanks Colleen,

      We haven't added any new devices. I went ahead and disabled almost everything hitting our WiFI and re-linking them as we use them to see if that has any impact. It's hard to believe the data numbers when we just routinely connect to WiFi as we have in the past. Usage should actually be lower since I no longer work from home and I don't spend as much time on the computer hitting the internet as I have in the past.  

      • ColleenD's avatar
        ColleenD
        Moderator
        2 months ago

        Rdcotton 

        I totally understand how confusing this could be, and I'm glad to hear you are being proactive in checking the connected devices. Are you using any new apps to performs backups, or new streaming services?  

        You can use the Panoramic Wifi app to configure profiles and monitor time online to see if it can help narrow down anything unusual. This won't give a usage breakdown of actual usage by profile or device, but might help you gain insight into how your data is being used based on the activities you'd use devices for. You can learn more about Active Time Alerts and Active Time Details at https://www.cox.com/residential/support/cox-panoramic-wifi-app-features.html. You can also reference your Data usage meter under and click the Data usage activities button to see how your usage is being categorized to see if this information helps narrow things down for you.