I’ve read the current answers and what is close; but I don’t have the
computer at the cottage, just a Rogers Brocket Hub. After four months, something
is using my bandwidth. I have a 30 GB limit. I went to 3.94 on the first six days a month
and only checked cameras for five minutes max. I called Rogers and all they could
say was it’s being used. Cottage is very remote and passphrase protected. Had
the area checked; no tracks in the snow and very remote. I have a static IP
also for remote access. I have a friend unplug; no usage; plugged it back in
and we went to 4.14 in two days with no usage from home in central
Pennsylvania. Any ideas as to how to stop the usage or verify who is using it
up?
In this excerpt from
Answercast #14, I speculate on what might be using up bandwidth in a remote
location that utilizes a camera and give ideas on how to determine what is
really going on.
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Cameras and bandwidth
Yes, so, there are two things that we’ll talk about it.
I do have an article on this subject:”How
do I monitor internet activity and see who is using it?” That will allow
you to download and walk you through the steps of running a program that will
allow you to summarize who is actually doing all that uploading and
downloading. It will tell you what process on your machine, on that remote
machine is actually doing it.
The camera may be constantly connected
Now, here’s my guess: you indicated that you’re just checking a camera for five
minutes max.
My theory (and it’s just a theory… I could be very wrong since there’s not
a whole of information about exactly what camera or what service you’re using)…
My theory is that the camera is somehow associated with an online service and
that the camera is pretty much constantly uploading images or uploading your
information – whether you’re actually looking at it or not.
That would eat up bandwidth like crazy.
Video streaming uses bandwidth
The numbers that you’re throwing at me here don’t surprise me at all.
It’s possible that when you go to look at the camera, you may not be
connecting to the camera directly; you may be connecting to a service. But,
even if you’re connecting directly to the camera, I have a very strong
suspicion that the camera (or software running on a PC somehow associated with
the camera) is uploading the camera stream or snapshots (or however it’s
configured) to an internet-based service whether you’re using it or looking at
it or not.
That is probably what’s eating up all the bandwidth.
I helped a bud install a security system at his house in the boonies after some jerks thrashed it. It’s a motion detection type and is ‘on’ 24/7 but only goes active when there’s activity that goes past a threshhold. It records to a dedicated PC and sends an alert to his cell.
This person might need to reconfigure his setup.