High WiFi consumption

[April1]

My internet service provider reported that I consumed the total monthly allocated data of 1024 GBytes in December. My activities remained the same, almost similar WiFi devices, same streaming. Only difference was that I added RAX80 router replacing my old 6300v2.

Can by just changing the router my data usage jump from 600GB to 1024 GB/ month?

Should I check anything else on the router to limit the data usage?

[plemans · Accepted solution]

Nest aware does constant streaming back to googles servers. The standard features only do it when its activate by live view or motion view. 

Here's an article that talks about it. Basically at lowest settings, nest aware uses around 18gb/month/device. Medium is roughly 120gb/month/device and high resolution is 300gb+/device/month. If you also have nest cam IQ it can by 400gb+/device/month. 

If you've got 2 devices, that's potentially a lot of data streaming. 

https://corpblog.viasat.com/keeping-an-eye-on-the-data-usage-of-all-those-smart-home-devices/

[plemans]

Switching router's shouldn't change your data usage. And there's no way to monitor data by device (one of the most requested features). 

What you can do is look on your attached devices page or access control page. If you're using 1000gb per month that should be 33mbps (ish) gb per day versus your average of 20gb. Disable a few devices that might be the culprit. Maybe one of them is repeatedly downloading the same file or maybe someone else is connected to your network. 

I'd start with if you have any kids. Also 4k can burn 6-8gb an hour if you have an 4k streaming devices. 

[April1]

Thanks plemans.

I turned traffic meter on and realized that my google security cams started uploading huge data to clouds. I believe my earlier router was not allowing cams to go full stream. I have turned them to low resolution now and set the timers to turn on and off at requisite hours of day and night.

As suggested by you, I’m investigating each and every device too for data usage. My kid is grownup and he doesn’t live with us so no need to check on other stuff. We don’t watch 4K tv/ videos so no concerns.

I checked my guests network is off totally and my passwords are not available to anyone else.

Hope cams were the data hogs, still monitoring other devices.

[plemans]

security cams are a good source of data usage. 

Are you using "nest aware"? This runs a constant stream of video to the cloud. The regular setup only streams when you live view it. 

[April1]

Yes I’m using Nest Aware for two cams.

[plemans · Accepted solution]

Nest aware does constant streaming back to googles servers. The standard features only do it when its activate by live view or motion view. 

Here's an article that talks about it. Basically at lowest settings, nest aware uses around 18gb/month/device. Medium is roughly 120gb/month/device and high resolution is 300gb+/device/month. If you also have nest cam IQ it can by 400gb+/device/month. 

If you've got 2 devices, that's potentially a lot of data streaming. 

https://corpblog.viasat.com/keeping-an-eye-on-the-data-usage-of-all-those-smart-home-devices/

[April1]

Great info. Thanks a lot.

Based on your info, my guess that google cams are the culprit appears to be correct. Unfortunately my earlier router Netgear R6300v2 could never upload so much of data and thus my monthly data use was about 600 Gb only but when I switched over to RAX80 Router, data use rose to 1024 GB in 25 days and I got an alarm from Xfinity.

I have now set the cams to low resolution videos with time slots to set them on off. Once I know the real data consumption pattern average per day, I will increase the time slot and also possibly the resolution.

Thanks for your support.

[plemans]

yeah, Xfinity's data cap stinks. I've got the same and anytime we stream videos a lot, we're bumping up against that cap.