How Many Gigabites?

[smurfchops]

I have been informed by BT that I Have used 6gb of my allowed monthly 10gb over the past couple of days. All I can think of is I downloaded VLC Media Player and Serif. Could it be this ? I never use my monthly allowance up and it is only the beginning of the month. I only use basic internet. Never movies etc. tia

[ukbod2015]

VLC is a 28mb download - Serif about 600mb - so nowhere near.
You didnt download Win 10 did you - thats nearly 6gb

[queen 1954]

i had the same issue 10 days ago.normally use about 7 per month and it shot up to over 12.turned out that windows 10 had downloaded without me realising and i now have the pay the extra charge.to add insult to injury it wont install on my laptop now :(.could it be that?

[ukbod2015]

have you tried the install queen - what did it say?

[smurfchops]

I havent downloaded windows 10, only been using normal ebay, this site , etc. and its so early in the month for this to happen. What is install queen? I will ring bt tomorrow

[smurfchops]

How would I know if windows 10 had downloaded itself?

[ukbod2015]

at the top of your program list in windows explorer there is a folder which includes the letter BT and a ~ in the name cant rememer the name precisely.

[queen 1954]

it just says installation failed and gives an error number but i wasnt going to use it anyway lol,just made the mistake of having automatic updates on which i have now turned off.

[ukbod2015]

Queen was the answer above mine

[queen 1954]

if you go to start and type in windows updates it will tell you if you have downloaded it smurf,mine just did it without me asking.

[queen 1954]

yes ukbod

[ukbod2015]

i`m familiar with that error - if you change your mind let me know - its a 3 line fix.

[queen 1954]

ok thanks will give you a shout if i change my mind.

[smurfchops]

No, still windows 7.

[smurfchops]

Could it be Youtube? I watch the same amount every month, only a couple of things ... Just cannot work this out.

[Buenchico]

The amount of data used to watch Youtube videos depend upon their resolution. (i.e. whether they're 'standard definition' or 'high definition').

As a very rough guide though, watching an hour of SD video uses up about 1Gb of data, while watching an hour of HD video uses up 2Gb.

Remember that anything else you've got connected to the internet (such as a NOW TV box, or similar) will also eat into your data allowance.

I'm amazed that BT, which actively promotes services based upon data streaming, even offers a 'capped' broadband service these days. Many other ISPs did away with caps ages ago and now only offer uncapped services.

[Tuvok]

If you have your computer set to automatically download updates then I would agree you may have downloaded Windows 10.

[jourdain2]

We signed up with BT when we arrived from France. It seemed reasonable and a good start. BT are announcing price rises and this gives us an opportunity to cancel the contract. Thank goodness!

I do not downstream movies etc. (don't know how to) and they keep telling me that I must be doing so and, so, exceeding my allowance. It's you lot that take up my time! We shall probably move to SSE, it seems a much better deal.

[smurfchops]

I watch about ten minutes of youtube a month if that! Nothing else is connected to the internet. Chris you know what I Have been downloading, deleting etc. you helped me!

[Buenchico]

As UKB indicated in the first reply on this thread, those downloads I recommended should only have accounted for a small amount of your total allowance.

As others have suggested, a Windows update might be the cause of the problem. If Windows tries to install an update but fails it then downloads the update and tries again. If that doesn't install properly, it keeps on trying so a relatively small update could actually end up using up a lot of your data allowance.

[diddlydo]

Exactly the same thing happened to me. Windows 10 has downloaded automatically to my laptop and used up loads of my BT allowance. I rang BT but there's nothing they can do about it. Grrrrrrrr!!