How the hell do I keep hitting my monthly net cap?

[Bladeface]

Hi I was wondering if anybody could help me figure out how I am reaching my monthly download cap of 300 gigs so fast/often??

I thought i was just watching to many shows on streaming sites but then I realized today while I was streaming on twitch that the backup file of my video that was about 22 minutes long and 720p was only like 50 Mb and considering all the shows i watch are about the same length and are most likely 480p I have no idea what is going on... Does streaming something take up a bunch more space than actually downloading it? I am honestly dumbfounded...

[Stir]

Maybe someone is leeching... Have you checked for that?

[Bladeface]

Maybe someone is leeching... Have you checked for that?

I thought that might be it too but according too my router no other computer has ever connected to our internet besides the laptop... as far as wireless is concerned.

[Deleted]

Try checking how much you're actually using.

There's a good post regarding the subject here:
http://lifehacker.com/5917367/how-ca...-using-at-home

I personally use netlimiter, mainly due to the fact that I found out using spotify would create upload spikes that would increase my ping in games from time to time.

[Deleted]

You should get a bandwith monitor, so you can check what is using your bandwith. Like http://www.bwmonitor.com/ or something similiar.

You could have a virus or trojan that are using your computer to generate spam or something, if you are unlucky.

[Deleted]

I dunno what you been streaming but when I download shows in 720p a 45 minute show is just over a gig in size...

[Deleted]

Hi I was wondering if anybody could help me figure out how I am reaching my monthly download cap of 300 gigs so fast/often??

I thought i was just watching to many shows on streaming sites but then I realized today while I was streaming on twitch that the backup file of my video that was about 22 minutes long and 720p was only like 50 Mb and considering all the shows i watch are about the same length and are most likely 480p I have no idea what is going on... Does streaming something take up a bunch more space than actually downloading it? I am honestly dumbfounded...

A 22-minute 720p video being 50MB means it's hugely compressed.
An average rip of a TV episodes (around 22 minutes, and typically less than 480p) is usually about 175MB.

So yeah, don't use your twitch backup file as reference for the size of videos you're streaming.

[Bladeface]

A 22-minute 720p video being 50MB means it's hugely compressed.
An average rip of a TV episodes (around 22 minutes, and typically less than 480p) is usually about 175MB.

So yeah, don't use your twitch backup file as reference for the size of videos you're streaming.

well even at that size i should get at least 6 episodes a gig or 1800 episodes for my cap but ive only watched 70 episodes total this month so idk how that could put me anywhere near the cap :/

[Crissi]

your company could also be having a royal screw up. I know Hughs net is having measurement issues for their 20 gig plan where they end up trippling the amount we actually use.

Man my dad was pissed...

[Bladeface]

I dunno what you been streaming but when I download shows in 720p a 45 minute show is just over a gig in size...

idk what you are doing wrong then because i downloaded an entire 26 episode season of 30 rock and it was like 3 gigs total o.O

[Deleted]

well even at that size i should get at least 6 episodes a gig or 1800 episodes for my cap but ive only watched 70 episodes total this month so idk how that could put me anywhere near the cap :/

Are you sure it's your download cap you're hitting, and not your upload cap?
(Pardon me if this is glaringly obvious - I've never actually encountered an ISP with hard limits before. The worst I get is having my bandwidth quartered if I download more than 12GB between 5-9pm)

idk what you are doing wrong then because i downloaded an entire 26 episode season of 30 rock and it was like 3 gigs total o.O

At 720p? Doubtful, unless it's 7zip'd.

[Bladeface]

Are you sure it's your download cap you're hitting, and not your upload cap?
(Pardon me if this is glaringly obvious - I've never actually encountered an ISP with hard limits before. The worst I get is having my bandwidth quartered if I download more than 12GB between 5-9pm)

You know what that is a very good question because i have streamed quite a bit this month... I think about 7 hours of gameplay? I'll have to check that...

[rinleezwins]

I am not a big fan of HD videos and I have not been home for several months now, but I still log on the upc website to pay the bills. What I noticed is, since I left home a couple of months ago, the monthly bandwidth usage went down by 150-200 gigabytes and I was hugely surprised. Really have no clue where that was coming from, but my PC was always clean so nobody's leeching.

[smokerings]

He's downloading high quality rips while you're downloading low quality video.
I don't see anything wrong with that.

[rinleezwins]

You know what that is a very good question because i have streamed quite a bit this month... I think about 7 hours of gameplay? I'll have to check that...

7 Hours of gameplay is nothing compared to your limit.

[Deleted]

idk what you are doing wrong then because i downloaded an entire 26 episode season of 30 rock and it was like 3 gigs total o.O

Sounds about right, most shows (high quality) are 200-500 mb depending on lenght of episodes. If you go into HD then anime is 300-600mb and shows are 700-1500.

That's talking high quality and 720p. 1080p episodes can be up to 3GB each episodes.

7 Hours of gameplay is nothing compared to your limit.

Try streaming full HD (1080p) and you will know how fast your net cap is reached.

[Bladeface]

7 Hours of gameplay is nothing compared to your limit.

The 300 gigs is my download limit but I'm not sure how much my upload is.... I think it might be like 20 gigs but I'm not sure :/

[Deleted]

The 300 gigs is my download limit but I'm not sure how much my upload is.... I think it might be like 20 gigs but I'm not sure :/

It's the same where I live, upload counts up to my download cap. It counts even double I think, I live in Belgium.

[BergErr]

idk what you are doing wrong then because i downloaded an entire 26 episode season of 30 rock and it was like 3 gigs total o.O

There is a huge difference between 720p "bluray" rips and some bullshit xvid with less then 1k video bitrate.
Still amazed that ppl can watch someting with such bad quality.


Watching 720p twitch take around 200kB/s so it can take a lot from your monthly limit.

SVTplay here drains 1.2GB per hour, watching a movie on viaplay will take 4GB~ (similar to netflix afaik, possibly higher quality).

[Windfury]

idk what you are doing wrong then because i downloaded an entire 26 episode season of 30 rock and it was like 3 gigs total o.O

Upload usually counts towards the download cap, think of it more as a use cap. and if you're downloading shows depending on what you're using and what your settings are the upload can add up pretty quickly. Bit Torrent in particular with it's out of the box settings will just run itself in the background and can cause huge uploads without you even noticing.