I turned on the ReadyCloud service and DropBox access for the NAS, and my ISP bill for metered service went from $90/month to $750. I shut off the ReadyCloud service 3 wks ago (I thought), but that made no difference in my usage. After I got the latest bill, I shut off DropBox access. I hope I'll know tomorrow if that changes anything.
Am I on the right track, or is there something else (malicious?) going on?
I'm close to panic here. Any suggestions will be much appreciated!
Model: RN424|ReadyNAS 424 – High-performance Business Data Storage - 4-Bay
I have Plex installed, but don't use it to stream to remote devices. I am sure the issue is associated with the NAS 424; my ISP is supplying me with hourly graphs of my usage, and I can stop the excessive usage by shutting down the 424.
I am sure the issue is associated with the NAS 424; my ISP is supplying me with hourly graphs of my usage, and I can stop the excessive usage by shutting down the 424.
FWIW, there is also a graph of the RN424's network usage on the performance tab. That shows the full usage (local and remote). If you go to the logs tab and click "connections" you can also see it's current network connections.
Can you provide some more info on how your home network is set up (and how the NAS is connected)? Are there any ports forwarded to the NAS? Is the NAS in the router's DMZ? Is it using a private internet address (10.0.0.x, 192.168.x.x, 172.16.x.x-172.31.x.x)?
You shouldn't need to shut it down. If you aren't using the cloud services or apps that use remote access, the only things it would doing over the internet are
syncing current time (NTP)
sending email alerts
downloading hotfixes
downloading firmware upgrades
The first two are very low bandwidth, the last two are infrequent (and not very large).
Alternatives to actually shutting it down include
blocking internet access to the NAS in your router (if your router has that feature)
setting up a static address in the NAS that has a (deliberately) misconfigured gateway address
Both have the effect of blocking internet access to the NAS altogether (but would allow local access). But it'd be better not to have to use them.
Many thanks, Stephen B. Lots of really useful information in your note, learned a lot. (I just haven't poked around on the 424 enough.) After much back and forth with my ISP, I narrowed down the problem to DropBox access. I have shut that off, and everything is back to normal now. I plan at a later date to see if I can figure out why the DropBox access is such a bandwidth hog.
I appreciate all the interest and help from the Netgear Community. I feel like Netgear gives us, or rather, sells us this great hardware, which includes mediocre software and minimal support, and then abandons us to our own resources, which can be few if you aren't a professional networking expert. Very frustrating.
