534GB 886MB downloa...
 

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[Closed] 534GB 886MB downloaded in the past 46 hours

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by our Virgin Media home hub and about 2Gb uploaded.

seems rather excessive.

Should I be giving any of the family a Paddington stare until they 'fess up?

Or is that expected with four people 'doing stuff' on the internet including watching Netflix etc?

I would point the finger at my son and his x-box use but not sure how to isolate his activity.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:45 pm
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That's a lot of grumble.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:45 pm
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that's a lot of blue...

edit, too slow by 23 seconds!


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:46 pm
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I would point the finger at my son and his x-box use but not sure how to isolate his activity.

Yeah, [i]x-box[/i]

[anti offence caveat]If your son is ridiculously under age for that sort of thing, I apologise.[/anti offence caveat]

edit: good to see we are all of the same mindset.... 😀


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:47 pm
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Lovely use of the word 'grumble' there, Jamie. I was going to put something about a one-handed-web-bongo-fest, but yours was so much more succinct and pithy.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:47 pm
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For the record, 100mb line could pull that [s]off[/s] down in about 12hrs....although that is assuming maxing out continuously, which is doubtful.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:49 pm
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It's now saying 570Gb.

Maybe it's looking at ethernet and wi-fi traffic over the home network rather than just up Mr Bransons conduit?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:50 pm
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That is a huge amount in 24 hours, I don't hit that much even working from home and streaming music/video all day.

Could be internal network chatter but unless you've been moving big files around still a fair amount of data.

2 Gb up sounds reasonable though.

I did see someone download similar levels and turns out someone on their network was using youtube to stream a constant video playlist. As youtube determines your line speed and sends a suitable quality they had HD everything coming down.

Either that or there is an error in the way they convert from bits to human readable format.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:51 pm
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36Gb in 5 minutes!? 😯

iPlayer is about 1gb an hour
Netflix is about 3gb an hour
YouTube is about 4gb an hour


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:53 pm
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That is a huge amount in 24 hours, I don't hit that much even working from home and streaming music/video all day.

Right. What about in almost double that time? And with 4x more people?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:53 pm
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It does appear that LAN and WAN traffic is included.

Just topped 580Gb.

Something's moving *a lot* of data around the LAN.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:54 pm
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Right. What about in almost double that time? And with 4x more people?

Still wouldn't be near that.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:55 pm
 DrP
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Lift up the 'internet cables' going into each room - if one is heavier than the other, there's your culprit.
Or something like that.

DrP


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:56 pm
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Something's moving *a lot* of data around the LAN.

Time to start unplugging things and see what happens!


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:56 pm
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What tool to see which device is doing what?

It's half term and there's currently 12 devices registered (although 3 or 4 of those are the LAN and WIFI access points).

[edit] [i]Lift up the 'internet cables' going into each room - if one is heavier than the other, there's your culprit.[/i]

I'm worried about just unplugging stuff in case it spills and makes a mess on the carpet.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:56 pm
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Unplug internet connection from router and see if numbers still go up? That would at least let you know whether it stops if it can't find its destination (if the destination is WAN rather than LAN based)...


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:57 pm
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Remove hard wired connections would be my first port, hoho, of call.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 3:58 pm
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going to give wireshark a go and see what it says.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:08 pm
 DrP
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I'm worried about just unplugging stuff in case it spills and makes a mess on the carpet.

As long as you have a rag, and hold the 'open' end of the cable upwards, the gigabyte pressures shouldn't leak too much content on the floor...

DrP


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:11 pm
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What's the model of the router, it may have some internal diagnostics to show which host is most active?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:13 pm
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I still think that's just way too much, even including the internal LAN. I'd be questioning the reporting myself.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:13 pm
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*nods wisely*

We used to have hard drives with removable platters in them 'back in the day'. Like this;

[img] [/img]

They managed to convince a new bloke that all the data would fall off if he didn't keep them exactly level when moving them between the drives and the storage cupboard.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:14 pm
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4K grumble?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:15 pm
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We used to have hard drives with removable platters in them 'back in the day'. Like this;

I saw one of them catch fire once. The good old days!


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:16 pm
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A disgruntled forumite lauching a DDOS attack on you maybe? 🙂


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:18 pm
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Wireshark will only be useful if you can deploy it on every device on your network, as the router is likely to switch traffic on the LAN rather than repeat it to every port....


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:19 pm
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Well that's about 390 films (maybe more depending upon the compression/length), so call it 100 films each. That would take over 150 hours to watch (per person).

So something's 'wrong' 😐


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:23 pm
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just ran a short capture on my desktop;

[URL= http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff167/LukeBurstow/oldstuff/Wiresharkcapture_zps41144e45.pn g" target="_blank">http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff167/LukeBurstow/oldstuff/Wiresharkcapture_zps41144e45.pn g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

I'm sure if I understood it enough I'd be worried...

[edit] it's mostly traffic between my pc and the NAS - I presume the Seagate backup software is doing it's thing?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:24 pm
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Hmm, that's quite a lot of traffic. And huge packet sizes too - standard MTU on Ethernet is 1500bytes, so those are jumbo!

EDIT - yep, backup traffic would account for the big packet sizes

Doesn't explain the data coming down from the web though...

Can you get onto the router admin page and check you recognise all the devices connected?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:27 pm
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WTF is causing packet sizes that large?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:31 pm
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I've googled and it seems the 'superhub' statistics either include LAN traffic as well as WAN or are so inaccurate as to be laughable depending on who you read.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:34 pm
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The only thing that can explain those packet sizes are [url= http://granades.com/2007/05/02/loltrek/ ]tribbles[/url] or aliens....

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:39 pm
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I've never come across packet sizes that large. Most specs we get for customer's networks ask for HW to support 1600 or maybe 1700, but no where near 5000....


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:48 pm
 DrP
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I've never come across packet sizes that large

oi oi...

DrP


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:51 pm
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[i]I've never come across packet sizes that large[/i]

They've made a right mess on the carpet too, I expect they'll leave a stain.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:53 pm
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Jumbo frames, my NAS supports it & I have it enabled


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 4:55 pm
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[edit] Lift up the 'internet cables' going into each room - if one is heavier than the other, there's your culprit.

I'm worried about just unplugging stuff in case it spills and makes a mess on the carpet.

As long as you have a rag, and hold the 'open' end of the cable upwards, the gigabyte pressures shouldn't leak too much content on the floor...

😆


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 5:56 pm
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By GB does it mean Gigabits or Gigabytes? Normal for networking is for it to mean bits

So for 534Gigabits you might as well say is 53Gigabytes which over nearly two days with some devices downloading/streaming is likely.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 6:46 pm
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Normal to mean bits when referring to speed, but not when talking about amounts of data transferred, that's bytes


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 6:50 pm
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> 500gig in that length of time is industrial scale pirating.

Have you changed the wireless password on the router from its default.

If not that would be my first port of call as someone may have hacked in to your wireless and is merrily downloading all sorts.

If you have I would still change it as a precaution and set the passwords on each computer / device one by one and see when usage spikes.

You then have your culprit!


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 7:05 pm
 mazz
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Saw similar scary stats on my VM Superhub. Unplugged devices one by one. Couldnt work out what was pulling through so much data. All the devices it could "see" were ones I could ID. In the end stopped worrying about it.

Think also is 'bits' rather than bytes.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 7:13 pm
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I checked the connected devices and they were all known to me.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 7:28 pm
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Theres 4.83 years of internet for me there...


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 7:48 pm
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It's lonely.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 7:50 pm
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Strangely fascinating


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 7:57 pm
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How many sheets/rolls of toilet paper for 534Gb of aforementioned 'Grumble'?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 8:30 pm
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Has someone got your wifi password?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 9:33 pm
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That's where the Pirate Bay has got to. The film and music industry lawyers will be round soon.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 9:36 pm
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Check the DHCP list, account for all the devices. Round up the kids and ask! If there is something that you don't know then change the WiFi password. Is there an online login to see what Virgin think you have used?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 9:43 pm
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Tivo does like to download HD suggestions though. Mines always downloading crap not that I mind latest seems to be father ted reruns... Ahhh gwan.

Maybe someone cleared out the suggestions folder and its downloaded 50 HD items?


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 11:50 pm
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Tivo does like to download HD suggestions though. Mines always downloading crap not that I mind latest seems to be father ted reruns... Ahhh gwan.
Maybe someone cleared out the suggestions folder and its downloaded 50 HD items?

Doesn't the TiVo box have it's own internet connection that comes straight off the fibre optic cable, rather than via the superhub? Mine does.


 
Posted : 18/02/2014 11:58 pm
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our tivo box has an ethernet cable going to it from the router/modem and appears as an attached device on the hub. Whether it uses that to download everything or just for Netflix type stuff I don't know.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 7:50 am
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Currently;

Session Time 2days 15h:1m:23s
Session Data Downloaded 1983GB 812MB
Session Data Uploaded 3GB 57MB

and 14 devices connected at the moment (all of which I recognise).

I'm surprised the LAN cables aren't melting.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 8:01 am
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How do you even have 14 devices on there?!
I have 8 and thought that was loads (between two of us, granted).


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 8:09 am
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son: phone, tablet, laptop, xbox
daughter: ipod, phone
Wife: iphone, ipad, laptop
me: PC, phone
general: NAS, 2 wireless access points, Tivo box

That's 15, think my wife turned her laptop on since I last looked.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 8:14 am
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The ethernet to the Tivo is so you can control it with an iPhone IIRC.
I think it also gives you the option of setting recordings when you're not in the house.

To the suggestions that someone might have cracked the wifi password, the virgin superhub passwords while of a known format, are long and apparently random. Trust me, I've tried cracking one a using fairly beefy dedicated GPU setup that has been succesful in the past at brute forcing and I got bored after a week of it heating my study up and stopped it. There were much easier targets.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 8:20 am
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So if someone cracked either the wi-fi password or the one I have on the web interface to it (both aren't the original ones) would their device still show on the connected devices list or can they hide them from me?


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 8:23 am
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No they can't hide. The router would show the connected mac address. Easiest way to eliminate this potential problem is change the passwords for both, reboot the devices and watch what connects. Then monitor over 24hrs. I could be that someone in your house likes watching a lot of hd videos..simple as that.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 9:04 am
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The router would show the connected mac address.

Spoofing MAC Addresses is pretty straight-forward, but presumably if someone had done that there'd be all kinds of routing problems if 2 devices had the same MAC/IP...


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 9:11 am
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Have you tried switching all attached devices off for 1 hour and seen what happens to the usage figures?


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 9:37 am
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I'm tempted to switch the NAS off for a bit and see what happens. I do wonder how much of the traffic relates to that.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 9:38 am
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Any automated backups to the NAS from the PC/laptops?

Unplug everything from the router, reset the stats, and monitor what happens when you plug stuff back in.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 10:42 am
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[i]Any automated backups to the NAS from the PC/laptops?[/i]

Running Memeo on a PC and two laptops plus the NAS is used as a music server.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 10:46 am
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As has been said it's likely it's the NAS using jumbo frames that's causing the large average packet size and would also be an obvious culprit for large amounts of data shifting around the network. Rather than kill it to check if it's the case can you throttle the bandwidth used on the NAS device and run your check again?


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 10:49 am
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I think you've accidentally hit the "download all the totally uninformed advice and bullshit ever posted on STW" button. 🙂


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 10:51 am
 Ogg
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the VM super hubs do not accurately record bandwidth - it's a 'known' problem http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Up-to-30Mb-Setup-Equipment/Super-Hub-reports-huge-usage-figures-for-Session-Data-Downloaded/td-p/2084844

--edit though I may have misread the OPs problem...


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 11:12 am
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Discount the xbox (unless your lad is downloading whole games & films) when online they sip data - yes this did surprise us too when we discovered this.

Our data hogging culprits was one kindle fire, an iPod and a daughter that lied through her teeth (that cost her every electronic device she had).

Trace it using ip addresses and disconnecting devices from network, log into your router diagnostics to achieve this. Institute a rolling password change every week too.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 11:39 am
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As someone ^^ there said, a strangely interesting post. Will pop back later to see if any Russians or the like have knocked on the door..


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 12:11 pm
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All I have done while reading this is laugh at DrP's comments. Top effort!

Some mega traffic though, but as has been said,

VM super hubs do not accurately record bandwidth

I would take that in to account mostly, plus having a NAS will up the number as will an xbox.
I wouldn't worry too much... Costs you no extra right?
As long as you know nobody is leeching from you..?


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 12:52 pm
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FWIW, my NAS reports I have downloaded (from the web, not internal) 4.6TB of data so far since Sep 2013 (install date). 8Mb Sky ADSL and then Virgin 100Mb was installed in Nov 2013.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 3:23 pm
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Ive persisted reading for 70 posts, despite only understanding the ones about making a mess of carpets 😳 🙄


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 4:19 pm
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Ive persisted reading for 70 posts, despite only understanding the ones about making a mess of carpets

Same. Seems I know more about grot and mess than I do about IT.

Just a thought, could it be because of the ads on the forum. try logging in as a P and see if that makes a difference.

Failing that, I blame Nick Clegg.


 
Posted : 19/02/2014 4:27 pm
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Quick update on this for those vaguely interested...

79580GB 473MB

after 7 days connected.

Regardless of it's accuracy it's an impressively large number 🙂


 
Posted : 24/02/2014 9:51 am
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footflaps - Member

I've never come across packet sizes that large. Most specs we get for customer's networks ask for HW to support 1600 or maybe 1700, but no where near 5000....

Are you saying you're working for a company involved in networking and never been asked for kit supporting jumbo frames?


 
Posted : 24/02/2014 10:00 am
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Can't you just pop a Linux machine on your network and run etherape, you would see in a heartbeat where the traffic was from/to? Is what I do ayt work to identify which machines on the router are hogging the bandwidth.


 
Posted : 24/02/2014 11:22 am
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coffeeking - Member

Can't you just pop a Linux machine on your network and run etherape, you would see in a heartbeat where the traffic was from/to? Is what I do ayt work to identify which machines on the router are hogging the bandwidth.

Not much use on a switch though if it's LAN traffic, or am I misunderstanding etherape?


 
Posted : 24/02/2014 11:26 am
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Not sure, I've just never found a network it couldn't apparently see all traffic on, be it switch or router based? May be my misunderstanding, docs certainly suggest you can't see switched traffic with it.


 
Posted : 24/02/2014 11:38 am
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79580GB

80 TB?????? Jesus!


 
Posted : 24/02/2014 12:01 pm
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If those figures are anywhere near correct I'm amazed that your ISP hasn't been in touch, or even just throttled the connection.

Maybe they've got you down as something to do with GCHQ.


 
Posted : 24/02/2014 12:07 pm
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Spoke to Virgin media.

In past 30 days we've managed

Download: 168Gb
Upload: 23Gb

with a suggestion that there may be some traffic management going on at peak times (although that only seems to be a 10% penalty on a 30Mbit connection).

They did a line test and have made a change and I'm getting a fairly consistent 30Mbit download 2Mbit upload speeds now so hopefully that's fixed it.


 
Posted : 25/02/2014 11:31 am

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