USB modem uses data allowance at idle

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ZuniJayne

ZuniJayne

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2005
Posts
334
Location
near Albuquerque, NM
Greetings, gang!

I just got a Verizon UM-175 modem and the $59.99 data plan.  I'm loving it!  I believe I will tell Hughes and its near-dialup speeds to pound sand.

Hennyway, this is just something the rep told me over the phone when I got the modem - that at idle, it does eat up data allowance.  He said always disconnect when you are not using it.  Not sure how much it eats, but it could have a cumulative impact.

I thought this was a good thing to know and to pass on. 
 
I have a tethered RIM 9630 on Verizon and I notice that any program that uses an internet connection (including windows looking for updates) will chew up some data when idle.  If, for example I leave a internet browser window open, even when not actively surfing, small data pings are occurring.

I would estimate my the total idle usage to be in the vicinity of 100-200 kB/hour assuming no windows updates...those can be 30-80 MB/update.  If I have MS Outlook open, that number will jump to 500-1000 kB/hour from junk mail and other garbage.
 
Hi Jayne -

Do you have the VZAccess manager?  If so, just click the Statistics tab for a graph of what is passing through the modem at any given time.  It will also give you a cumulative total for the month, but this tends to lag a bit behind the current session.

I had to go through my machine and disable Windows Update and several other programs that were set to perform automatic updates before I got my usage under control.

I'm using a  Samsung SCH-930A phone and a USB cable (I already had the phone) under the same $59.95 per month plan.

VZAccess is available at http://www.vzam.net/
 
Windows & it applications love to uto-update, so they are always calling home to see what's up. If you have never paid attention to what the software you install is really doing, you may be surprised at the activity on your USB wireless modem. On the other hand, for many people 5 GB is a nearly inexhaustible amount of data.
 
Mc2guy said:
I have a tethered RIM 9630 on Verizon and I notice that any program that uses an internet connection (including windows looking for updates) will chew up some data when idle.  If, for example I leave a internet browser window open, even when not actively surfing, small data pings are occurring.

I would estimate my the total idle usage to be in the vicinity of 100-200 kB/hour assuming no windows updates...those can be 30-80 MB/update.  If I have MS Outlook open, that number will jump to 500-1000 kB/hour from junk mail and other garbage.
Click to expand...

If you have a smartphone that you also use for email, depending on the model and system it uses, let your phone get your email and then sync the phone to your computer. That way your computer won't have to get that data when you connect it.

If you want to get updates, you can also use your smartphone to get them and then just update your PC from the files on the smartphone. This works very well for anti-virus as well as windows updates. If you have more than one computer or laptop this can really save on data downloads.

This works best with Windows based smartphones.

 
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