Anyone with BT Broadband?

[Hanow]

I have just received a couple of emails from BT telling me that I am about to exceed my monthly usage limit.

Firstly, I didn't know I had one. So hoofed off to my BT account to check it out. I have learned that watching the ospreys and eagles has used up lots of.... whatever it is I am running out of.

Any ideas anyone?

[roachieuk (aka eciggery2011)]

Hi Hanow been a longtime BT BB customer for around 13-14 years now.

you get a 100GB limit on option 3 even tho it says unlimited but you still get a limit.Good luck with their customer services as it can be a nitemare.

Have you ever been warned before?

[vereybowring]

All the ISP's now have "fair usage policy" even on alleged unlimited bandwidth.
What you need to find out is if they are going to charge you more for over usage or whether they will speed limit your account till the new billing period starts - if they charge it can cost you a fortune so be very careful.
Not used BT for about 8 years so I don't know what their current policy is.

[Hanow]

Verey - thanks. I shall give them a ring tomorrow. I have just renewed my contract with them, but had no idea I had a limit. I didn't realising that visiting a video stream was considered down-loading, and nor that it took up so much of my allowance.

[Chrissie]

Hanow, just a thought but are you sure no one is piggy-backing your connection? Liz (Chaldon) is with BT & that happened to her. apparently BT are one of the easiest to hack into

[roachieuk (aka eciggery2011)]

Hanow what option are you on if you dont mind me asking?

As this seems very strange if your on op3 as in this house i have 4 people using my connection.

and i use lovefilm,blinkbox quiet alot and i watch around 3 films daily and i know my bro and sister and her bf use blinkbox and lovefilm as well so proberly get around easily 9-10 films watched daily in this house and then they use tv cathup services and so far never had a warning but im on op3.

bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10495/~/broadband-usage-policy

And thers a link for fair usuage and yes chrissie is right BT are terrible for people piggy backing make sure you use your own wifi key if you use wifi.As i make it a must to change mine every month.

[Hanow]

OMG! Had no idea that anyone could plug into my connection. Nor, Roachie, did I realise that you can change the WIFI Key. I shall have to sort all of this out tomorrow.

I think I am on Option 1 - which is 10 something-or-others. I only use my computer for emails, a couple of forums, and as I say, it appears that I have used up in four days three quarters of my monthly allowance! I have had the eagles and osprey stream open most of the day - not appreciating that they were using so much of the allowance. I am not even sure how much I pay. I have a package that includes 24/7 free phone calls - well, to standard numbers - not mobiles.

[Chrissie]

Hanow, I'll ring my friend Les in the morning (cataquake) she is the one that worked out that Liz had a piggy-backer & helped her stop it.

[roachieuk (aka eciggery2011)]

Jun 5, 2011 22:16:08 GMT Hanow said:

OMG! Had no idea that anyone could plug into my connection. Nor, Roachie, did I realise that you can change the WIFI Key. I shall have to sort all of this out tomorrow.

I think I am on Option 1 - which is 10 something-or-others. I only use my computer for emails, a couple of forums, and as I say, it appears that I have used up in four days three quarters of my monthly allowance! I have had the eagles and osprey stream open most of the day - not appreciating that they were using so much of the allowance. I am not even sure how much I pay. I have a package that includes 24/7 free phone calls - well, to standard numbers - not mobiles.

Ah so your on very light usuage option.Yes streaming can eat up hella of lot of band width im afraid i pay thru the noes really but ive had say 6 downtimes in all the years ive been with them but i hate their customer services as its the language barrier alot of the times and i try and explain things and they just go thru the same procedure.but to change your wifi key is quiet easy once you know

and heres the link where to go bthomehub.home/

Be very careful tho what your tinkering with as it could muck up your connection ok but its pretty straight forward once you know how.

It shuld be under wireless settings and then just change the wireless key to how you want it shuld consist of numbers and letters.

Hope this helps

[roachieuk (aka eciggery2011)]

Oh hanow i also forgot to say before you can do any of that you shall need the admin password which you will find on your bt homehub.

And i cant rember where now you should be able to see somewhere in the settings whats connected to you and if there is anyone piggy backing you.

[Lilac]

It's under 'attached devices' in my router settings as far as i remember, Roachie ???

[Hanow]

Roachie and others - thanks a million.

Finally got sorted - and I say 'finally'! Two hours - yes two hours - patched through to people in Delhi, Calcutta - all very lovely, but all singing from the same song-sheet, and not appreciating at all my issues. I am still not sure they have.

I was streaming (?) watching the eagle and osprey web feeds for the past 4-5 weeks. I do admit to not appreciating that by doing so it was consuming my bandwith allowance. Novice, numpty, non-techie person here. But ....... once I had understood that - i.e. on 4th June, with a warning that I had already used up 75% of June's allowance - 4 Days???? What happened to May - where I had been streaming/watching both web-cams endlessly?

Anyway, got on to them this morning - and as I say, nearly two hours being bounced around very lovely people out in India, but people unable to ascertain or explain why -as oof this morning - not having accessed the birds/video feeds for two days, my usgae today is 10.5! i.e. now over the 100% allowance. They just couldn't get what I was trying to tell (or better still - get them to understand my dilemma.)

Having lived in the Far East for a while, where I wholly admired their ability to speak my language, with my skills being extremely poor when speaking theirs - I am extremely tolerant when dealing with off-shore call centres. But.............. I eventually began to loose it today, being passed from pillar to post, with people not having a clue what my issue really was. Eventually - by getting far more stroppy than I was happy to be - I got patched to a UK number/voice. Lo-and-behold: 'Totally understand, and we can upgrade your package - from 10 wotsits to unlimited usage for.......... for......... (wait for it) ......... the same price you are now paying!' Excuse me??? Wot-T-F? (and I don't usually swear) but in my head did so when I heard that.

Thus I think I now have it sorted, but my blood is still boiling that it has taken so much of my time today to finally speak to someone who comprehended, and to achieve a satisfactory resolution. Off to take a look at the eagles - and I am going to be even more peed off it they flew the nest during my cyber abstinence! >

[roachieuk (aka eciggery2011)]

Welcome to the wonderful world of the bt call center lol.

I dont like bt call centers for the fact is you go from one person to another and they all read from a script you never get a human response so to speak.Its always from a script i have noticed this on the occasions i have had to ring.

Heres some info what tells you about streaming media which i hope sheds some light on your situtation.

<sup>Streaming media

It's easy to figure out how much bandwidth streaming video takes up - just look at its bit rate. 64 kilobit video or audio has, wait for it, exactly a 64 kilobit per second data rate. That's a bit more than 28 megabytes an hour. 128 or 256 kilobit streams are proportionally more demanding. There may be a bit of transfer overhead, but there shouldn't be much.

Once again, bottlenecks between you and the video server can reduce the data per second you actually get. But if you don't have any such problems, the bandwidth arithmetic is very straightforward.

Voice over IP (VoIP) Internet-telephony software like Skype, including video-phone software, works the same way, but usually has a pretty low data rate. High-quality corporate videoconferencing systems can suck down two megabits per second, but that's for a serious boardroom installation, not a bunch of USB webcams connected to Windows boxes running NetMeeting.

In consumer-gear setups that run over the public Internet, you're likely to have bottleneck problems long before you hit the resolution and frame-rate limits of even an entry-level webcam.</sup>

If this is your first time Hanow then dw BT will let you off if it happens again i believe you will get a phone call offering you a different package.Then the third time they will charge you for the over use of bandwidth.Im not %100 sure but think its something like £1.00 a GB but as i said check the BT website for this information.

Glad you have sorted it and hope this information throws some light on your situation.

[Hanow]

Thanks Roachie. I admit I hadn't appreciate that watching video thingies took up 'space' - but now I do. In a way I am glad it happened now, as I have managed to get a better package out of them for more or less the same money. I now have unlimited whatevers. Dead technical me!

[roachieuk (aka eciggery2011)]

Ah excellent always does good to do some umming and arring on the phone as they reduce the price lol just rember to get a cheaper package just use that magical word.

Im leaving you and then they get panic stricken and go ok we can offere you blah blah hehe.

Im so glad your sorted if you have anyother probs dont forget nothing ever too stupid to ask.