I could see a 200GB wireless broadband, but no unlimited plan. We are on month to month so it is easy to exit. There is not going to be fibre laid anywhere near here, and the 12km of old Copper wire between here and the exchange is hopeless - we haven’t had a landline for years, so cable isn’t an option. Given how often the wireless drops out and how slow it frequently is - we often cant watch iview or SBS OnDemand, I think we would really struggle to use anything like 200GB in a month anyway. I only have limited patience with trying to watch sbs at 165K- blurry and continually buffering, I just have to give up trying to watch when it is performing like that.
What we need is the kind of connection that is causing up to 1GB to be added to our usage in an hour! Unfortunately, I cant see that ever happening here with Optus wireless… I’ll have to wait and see what NBN satellite can do.
I’m interested to read this thread, as I have just recently had some trouble with my iinet (which I believe is through Optus) mobile phone download limit, and am wondering whether it could be related.
I switched to their mobile phone plan when they were still Adam Internet (having used them for broadband for nearly 5 years now, no problem), about a year or so ago. 2GB data allowance which I’ve never come anywhere near to using (in fact for many years before that, never came near the 1GB download!).
Then just in recent months started getting messages about having hit 50% and then 85% (at which point I turned on wireless for use at home, effectively reducing my usage to zero until the end of the period). I started looking into it by checking what was recorded as my usage on their website. What I found was just the odd day with big spikes, including 460mb on one day when I was sick all day at home and hadn’t used my phone for anything except perhaps reading a few emails. Other days registered 200-250mb.
Not much help from Customer Service as yet except to monitor my usage (but realistically, who is going to log on every day to check?). I have now installed an app which is supposed to check how much I’m using but this won’t be of much use until I can keep records for at least a few weeks and cross-check it with iinet records of same…
Is there any possibility my phone could have been hacked just to grab a bit of data like this at random times? Any advice welcome!
You dont say if your phone is an Android device but if it is watch this link . The Stagefright and Metaphor link make Andoid smart phones very vulnerable
http://thehackernews.com/2016/03/exploit-to-hack-android.html
Hi Gordon
I had a very similar issue with my Optus home phone which comes with 5G data. For the last 41/2 years I never even reached that level of usage. All I do is emails and searching the web for information. Then I ‘upgraded’ to windows 10 on my home laptop. Unbeknownst to me, my data usage shot through the roof. The result was that I couldn’t connect to the internet because they slowed access (they do not withdraw access just make it very slow for everything). So I called only to be told I had exceeded my data allowance. They could not tell me how or why but insisted I had used the data. They did give me a credit though to allow access for the couple of days of my ‘cycle’.
I knew I had done nothing differently (I don’t stream music, download films or music, play games etc etc etc) so I googled windows 10 data chew and what do you know, It is all Microsoft! You need to read some of the posts because they do tell you how to turn things off that you don’t even know you had. For example, Microsoft are continually mining your data and uploading to the web and other users, they are also downloading to your device not only software updates (which have been extremely large recently) but also from amendments other users across the net. They send this to all devices in your network too, not just one thing. And It is CONSTANT! And all this downloading and uploading chews through your data. You can turn this off and allow updates only when you want them e.g. if you are connected to wi fi for example. You can do this by saying your data is metered. All this and no warning from Microsoft before you upgrade to windows 10. One more thing you cannot choose to go back to say windows 8 unless you do so within one month of the upgrade. Too late for me.
Here is a link for you and others you may find helps you turn things off:
Hi Karen, I’ve always had my computers set to ‘advise me when updates available’ so that I can decide what and when to download, but yes the recent Win10 downloads were huge. My wife’s computer was busy doing it for 4 hours, and I had to leave mine after 5 hours and go to bed. In the morning it appeared to be stuck, so I turned the computer off and on again and it continued after doing a bit of a recovery process. The Optus data monitor showed that the update had used over 1GB for the update, plus the same for my wife, so that’s 10% of the monthly allowance just in a couple of OS updates. MS seem to think everyone has unlimited data allowance!
I have a Win 8 Sony VAIO that is used for data logging of my weather station and off-grid solar, and I imagine there are huge data gobbling downloads to be done on it- it is continually reminding me!, but I have never done an update on it (other than anti-virus definitions), as it isn’t used for anything other than data logging and uploading the weather data to my web page, with no web browsing, so I think the risks are minimal.
If your devices are networked you should check whether they are all being affected by windows 10. It is not just scheduled updates, they are continuously up and downloading from your logged on devices.
Anyway just a thought.
All the ‘send us performance feedback’ etc things are all turned off on all the computers, but I notice there is still some data transferring going on intermittently. However, I know that isn’t the problem, because the extra 4+GB this month (and the 5+GB last month, including ~2GB when the modem and phone were turned off) were accumulated by something other than our computers and my wife’s phone, as indicated by the Optus dashboard summary, which currently shows:
wireless broadband: 5.79GB
phone: 45.4MB
Total 10.22GB
Clearly it doesn’t add up!
I don’t know if Optus are still utilising some of Telstras servers and equipment . Recently I had an issue with one of my Telstra Bigpond email address . No emails of that address were being received by me . I also noticed my Data useage for internet seemed much higher than usual . I have 1 TB a month and it was double normal . I phoned Telstra .The problem was their end .They are replacing servers and my email address with Bigpond was lost in a Technical glitch . All good now . I’m just wondering if somehow your Optus accounts may be on leased Telstra equipment and you are being affected as I was .i e increased data usage .
Thanks, vax2000.
Yes, it is an Android. I do remember when Stagefright was first discovered, and there was an update to my phone soon after to prevent it. I also downloaded an app to check for my phone’s vulnerability to it today, and it reported back that it is safe.
If using a WiFi connection to access the Mobile Data plan on your wife’s computer then turn on the setting that tells Win 10 you are using Metered Data this will stop all updates until you turn if off again. To get there go to Settings -> Network & Internet -> WiFi then slide the slider to ON on the Metered Connection slide. Unfortunately you can’t do this if connected by an Ethernet cable. Stopping the updates this way doesn’t stop them from ever downloading because as soon as you turn it off the downloads will start. If you want to download the updates go to a library that has wifi enabled switch off the metered data slider and let the library wear the internet usage.
Also look for a program called “Privacy Protector for Windows 10” from SoftOrbits and try it out as it is supposed to block a heap of the privacy and telemetry hogs that are in Win 10.
If you think someone has your SIM number duplicated then ask Optus for a new SIM and service number for your mobile modem.
If your Mobile Modem Device is one of the Hotspot types (multiple devices can connect) make sure you have turned off the SSID Broadcast and enable the MAC filtering. If you don’t know how to do this get them at the local Optus Store to show you how. MAC filtering will require you to get the MAC addresses of connecting computers/phones and enter them before you enable it so you can allow them but it will ensure only the devices you have allowed will be the only ones able to connect. Use only WPA or better yet WPA2 wireless encryption…Do Not use WEP and Do Not use WPS.
Hope this helps
@grahroll
Thanks grahroll, we were using WPA2 encryption and I don’t think our SIM was duplicated, otherwise the extra data use would have shown up as used by that number, which it wasn’t. It wasn’t shown as being used by anyone, only in the total, which is why the usage per device didn’t add up to the total, as per my earlier posts. We’d notice if anyone else was connected to the Optus modem, as they’d have to be parked in the paddock in front of our house 
Anyway, we dumped Optus for internet a month ago, now on NBN satellite, which is crap also, and we have no idea about data usage, as the our ANT Communications account page has zero information about anything. It seems were are unlikely to ever have decent internet out here in the sticks.
Getting back to Windows 10. Microsoft have made the operating system one where updates are no longer an option. The best you can do in the settings is to stop your computer from restarting whenever it pleases once an update has installed and instead have it notify you that a restart is required. So as long as Windows 10 is being used, all updates are downloading in the background whether you like it or not. This will use data. The only way to avoid it is to unplug the internet from your computer if you don’t want to go online at that time. Unfortunately, once you reconnect to use the Internet, Windows 10 will then proceed to download all the updates available, which could be quite a lot if you haven’t connected to the Internet for a few days or more. Microsoft have already stated that there will be no future versions of Windows. Instead, Windows 10 will simply have major updates whenever they decide to redesign everything. You’ll start at Windows 10.0 and in a few years you could be on Windows 10.7 which would otherwise have been called Windows 18. This will also render a lot of computers useless as they become outdated and are no longer up to minimum specs, forcing people to upgrade their hardware to keep up with the ever evolving OS. If you can avoid a Windows 10 computer, then do it. I’ll be sticking with Windows 8.1 for as long as I can.
As for Internet Service Providers and mobile phone providers, another issue that people aren’t aware of is that some mobile phone/ISP’s have different ways of calculating your usage depending on the plan you use. While some reduce your data on a per kb rate, some will charge you in chunks of Mb. So lets say for instance that your plan has fine print that says you will be charged in 10mb blocks. This means that as soon as the first kb of data trickles through in either direction, you will lose 10mb from your allowance or be charged for 10mb of usage. Once you hit the 10mb of usage, you’ll be charged another 10mb worth of data usage. So if you only use say 1mb of data, you’re actually charged for an entire 10mb chunk. If you use 11mb then you’ll be charged for 20mb. Any usage from 1kb to 10mb will cost 10mb regardless. Any usage from a bit over 10mb to 20mb will cost you 20mb, etc. So have a look at the fine print of your plan for both the mobile phone and your home internet and see if they’re gouging extra data out of you that way.
I once had a prepaid internet plan via Optus which not only took huge chunks of data at a time, but also didn’t stop the Internet from working once you’re prepaid limit had been reached. Instead, the Internet would keep working until midnight and whatever data you’d gone over with would be deducted from your next recharge. None of this was mentioned on the outside of the packet. It was in very fine print that could only be seen after you’d purchased the thing and opened it up. Of course no one actually reads the paragraphs and paragraphs of fine print, certainly not me at the time, so I didn’t actually know what to expect. It was for a prepaid service. You wouldn’t expect it to roll over to be a post-paid service for the rest of the day once your data had been used. The other problem was, Optus only updated how much data you had used once a day, so you had no idea how much you had gone over, let alone if you had gone over, until the next day. No idea how it all works now as I washed my hands of them and never bothered to recharge a second time after finding my first recharge was no longer worth the price I paid for it due to the unexpected over usage being deducted from it.
Yes I notice MS have now removed almost all chance of controlling downloads and restarts for system updates, which sucks big time! You can now set a periods of no more than 12 hours per day of working time, leaving another 12 hours when your computer might do a restart. The only option seems to be to turn it off if you dont want a restart. I want to say when it restarts, as I often have a number of files open, and I dont like the messy shutdowns involved with an MS induced restart.
However, we don’t generally have a problem with such downloads as far as data usage goes, its the data that appeared on our account that we didn’t use that was the issue. It wasn’t a problem with minimum usage blocks.
Anyway, as mentioned previously, it isn’t a problem any more, as we went to NBN satellite (with plenty of its own problems) in October.
Similar thing happened here. My wife got an SMS to say that she’d used 50% of her Android phone’s data limit on 28th. No problems. On the 29th, with mobile data turned off from the 28th, she got a message to say that she’d exceeded 100% and that another GB had been added at $10.
Something is very, very fishy.
For those struggling with how to block/stop some of the Win 10 Update and telemetry try this program from SoftOrbits called “Privacy Protector for Windows 10” I think Ver 1.6 is free and Ver 2 is trial then pay.
We left Optus after the company disconnected our phone and internet for over 2 months because of its negligence. Optus did not pay the legislated damages and lied about a Mass Service Disruption…for 2 months??? No government help from the Minister’s Office. The Ombudsman is an industry body so no surprises there either.
As I said WE LEFT. I feel sorry for anybody who has to deal with the Indian Call Centre which lies to you and just transfers you around the Call Centre in the hope you will go away. We didn’t and readers should take note.
We are now happily on the NBN with absolutely NOTHING to do with Optus. We do not deal with lying businesses which use their size and industry protectors to avoid accountability and honest behaviour. Good luck to anyone who is with Optus. At some time you will probably need a lot of that. We did.
I think your type of experience is happening more and more and I think you could substitute almost any Telco’s name and have the same issues. The NBN was supposed to be somewhat of an answer to some of this but the MTM NBN has made the system much more complex and more unsatisfactory outcomes have ensued.
Bad outcomes are all but guaranteed when the NBNCo is expected to operate as a profitabe business and the captive ISPs have to buy capacity contracts. The ISPs have all the risk and can fail or pay dividends to their owners by judiciously managing their own problem.
It is in the ISPs interests to under-provision because their customers can only complain or move on hoping their next ISP will provide better service. A league table of how the ISPs deliver puts the onus on each end-customer, as usual to “shop carefully”, ie caveat emptor. A more reasonable approach would be to meter the ISP bandwidth and charge after the fact.
If the NBN backbone then got congested they could increase their capacity and that should be funded or at least guaranteed by government who is ultimately responsible for the white elephant.
Addenda, this thread is also relevant.
To see the extent of the problem google ‘ProductReview Optus’ and look at the broadband comments. Then substitute Optus with other ISPs. Most are the same.
The difference between many bad companies and Optus is that Optus knew what it was doing, refused to transfer me to the Australian office and even when I did arrive back in Oz they played the ‘your fault’ game to hide the company’s negligence and dishonesty. There is a difference!
The wider issue is that the sheer number of complaints on the ProductReview website should result in governments acting. The current coalition governments all appear to have their dirty fingers in the pie and are looking after the negligent telcos. And of course the ‘Ombudsman’, for want of another word, is an unashamed industry body looking after the telco criminals.
My question is WHERE IS THE MEDIA? Missing in action again? The industry needs to be blown apart and the bogus compensation legislation exposed for the sham it is and always was intended to be. We are dealing with corporate criminals who are protected from the top. Good luck if you slip through one of their cracks. Many of us have.
I agree sites like productreview are useful and have similarly referenced productreview in contexts, but they are firstly anecdotal not rigorous posts for the most part; secondly people who are unhappy are far more likely to post than those who are very happy, so there is a natural tendancy for negative bias; lastly, while most of these sites make often valiant attempts to “certify” real posts from fake posts, there are ongoing claims of “review bots” and all sorts of dodgy things.
With that reality no government will proceed using any of those data points as the basis, and as you wrote, once government get their opportunity they will manage the process to help or disadvantage whomever they want, and the outcome will usually be spin and often just circling the wagons.
The same place they have been for decades, mostly in pollies pockets and more so with the pollies from one mob than the other.
Very few of our pollies appear to have a sense of shame for what they do, so what will a vibrant media accomplish? Affecting votes? I guess I am pessimistic this is going to change in our lifetime, or ever, because of party discipline and how “we” vote, and that is the only thing that can cause change. How many of “us” will vote for the “other mob” solely because of the NBN fiasco as compared to looking at health, education, economy, … , …, and chosing who we perceive is the least evil? And so it goes.
