I KNOW I didn't use that much data!

[blueonblack]

I had a fight with my ISP during this last billing cycle. I have a 5GB cap on my data, with overage costing an arm and a leg. We've never gone over. This last month I checked our usage a week before the cycle was done and we were at 7.5 gigs!! Since we hadn't done anything differently something was wrong.

I got the ISP to remove the overage charges, and started keeping close track of our usage. We are three days into the cycle and already over a gig of usage. ??!!? I checked my PC, normal usage. My wife's laptop, however, has two online sessions that total over 700MB by themselves. This is completely abnormal, neither of us do anything online to gobble up anywhere near that amount of data, and regardless we haven't changed our online habits at all.

The software from my ISP lets me check data usage by date and time (though not source or destination), so I checked the history folder for the day of the largest usage (this morning), and found eleven entries for 183.cim.meebo.com. The initial number is different each time, but the cim.meebo.com is consistent. They all have the same history: one page for "getrotate" and another for "login".

I checked the Meebo website and it claims to be some kind of connection system, for collecting buddy lists from aim, yahoo messenger, msn, myspace blah blah blah. My wife's asleep at the moment so I can't ask but I'm willing to bet she's never heard of Meebo.

Anyone heard of this? If this site is legit, anyone have any idea where all this data is going? I have a wireless aircard plugged into a Cradlepoint router so she and I both access the signal wirelessly. No, I don't have any security set up on our network, but the signal barely reaches my porch and my nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away, so I don't think anyone is piggybacking my network. Any ideas?

[mDust]

Heh, I would start by uninstalling that sh!t now, and inform the wife about it tomorrow. That's crazy amounts of bandwidth for that. I believe it's legit but it's just one more unnecessary piece of software floating around out there. I'd be scanning for spyware and viruses with several different programs just in case. Maybe your computer is one of the millions of bot computers used to distribute spam email and such...although those programs usually only send a few out at a time so the user doesn't notice it happening.

You're 100% right that something is wrong though...good luck in finding out what.:)

[simon275]

Check if windows is automatically pulling down updates and also any other programs.

Make sure your wifi is WPA2 secured with a strong key.

Virus and spyware scan your pc.

If this trouble continues I would suggest either installing advanced monitoring software or even a computer with firewall software and full bandwidth connection monitoring.

Also shut down your pc's when you are not using them. Or just disconnect them from the LAN. You could also just unplug the modem from the phone line to.

Meebo seems legit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meebo

[blueonblack]

Check if windows is automatically pulling down updates and also any other programs.

Will do.


Make sure your wifi is WPA2 secured with a strong key.

Why would this matter if there's no one in range of my signal? (Honest question, don't read any sarcasm into that.)


Virus and spyware scan your pc.

In process


If this trouble continues I would suggest either installing advanced monitoring software...

Can you suggest any? Way outside my area of expertise.


Also shut down your pc's when you are not using them. Or just disconnect them from the LAN.

We disconnect every time, even turn the wifi antenna off on her laptop (which is where all the data is going).

Appreciate the input, +rep!!

I really need to figure this out, it damn near cost me $110 last month and has already eaten up 20% of my monthly data allotment in 3 days.

[crenn]

I've used meebo before while I had crappy computers. It's useful.

[blueonblack]

Ok, mystery solved. It seems our internet usage HAS changed of late, the wife had started watching television shows she missed at the time of the original airing online. :facepalm:

I can't wait until Mediacom gets cable out here or we move somewhere that has it.

[Oneslowz28]

I just want to throw something in here. Meebo is owned by owned by AOL. I know this because the g/f is a big AIM user and she tried installing some meebo crap on my laptop the other week. It threw like 19 spybot flags.