Download limit and ad blocking software advice needed!

[QueenOfFlamingEverything]

We live in a rural community and share a broadband connection with 7 other people. Because of where we are, its hard to get unlimited download allowance and atm we have a 20GB limit every month.

Would ad blocking software help reduce the amount of data we are using? If so can anyone recommend any to install? Thank you.

There are free add-ons for Firefox, and yes, that might help reduce the amount of data.

If there are a number of PCs in a single home it might also reduce traffic if 'Flash' was uninstalled. It may still be needed on one PC, just so you can see certain websites, however.

There are some other ways to reduce/remove adverts, but get more technical. On most PCs there is a file called the 'hosts' file which can be used to force a PC to use a particular IP address for a website, instead of doing a DNS lookup.

When you try to connect to some website - for example www.bbc.co.uk - there is a "lookup" (like a directory enquiry call) to find the IP address (in this case the BBC is 212.58.244.142) for the service you want.

In most cases the DNS lookup is done via your ISP, but it is possible to override that by having entries in your PC's 'hosts' file.

On Windows it is hidden deep down with 'internal' parts of Windows (on an XP machine, for example it may be found as C:\Windows\ System32\ Drivers\ Etc\ hosts ) It will be in different places on different systems (Mac and Linux will have different directory names).

Normally the hosts file is fairly empty but by setting IP address of 127.0.0.1 (a special address for your own PC) it would mean lots of adverts would not be shown, and the PC would never send any request for a graphic image or web page off to the internet link (each request is part of your 20 GB limit).

In my hosts file right now I have:

127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com

127.0.0.1 www.partypoker.com

127.0.0.1 promo.clubxlive.com
127.0.0.1 ads.webcamclub.com
127.0.0.1 www2.leadingedgecash.com

127.0.0.1 ads.maroonspider.com
127.0.0.1 view.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 ad-emea.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 smp.adviva.net
127.0.0.1 impgb.tradedoubler.com

127.0.0.1 www.adloader.com

127.0.0.1 track.adform.net
127.0.0.1 statse.webtrendslive.com

127.0.0.1 t.mookie1.com
127.0.0.1 s0.2mdn.net

127.0.0.1 ads.guardian.co.uk
127.0.0.1 adimage.guardian.co.uk
127.0.0.1 hits.gureoi rt.co.uk

and dozens more. There are websites which just track the thousands of advertising sites.

Of course, one problem with this approach is that if you see some advertising text link and click it, you might get a 'page not found' error because your PC will call up '127.0.0.1' and cannot find the web page.

Sorry if that seems too technical... I am sure there are one or two guides about using DNS to block adverts ad will find some for you if you wish.

If you have Firefox (www.getfirefox.com) you would click Tools, Add-Ons, and then there should be a link to 'browse all add-ons'.

If you put in the word 'block' you should get a number of possible add-ons. There are Flash blockers (but I think the Flash data is still downloaded, just that the user has to click to 'play' so it means some noisy promo doesn't wake the whole house at 3am if you visit a 'noisy' website... doesn't stop the download which is what you are after). There are also Ad blockers... some will block adverts from all sites, some within GMail, and there are a few where the user can specify part of a web page and the blocking function will stop that piece from showing.

However, you may also find some which do the 'change your hosts file' as per previous message I posted which would go much further.

By the way, which ISP do you use?

I can recommend PlusNet which has a 60 GB limit on their 'Extra' account (which costs a bit under 20 pounds a month, and should be available on any BT exchange in the country)... if there is a lot of competition at the exchange, then BT offers a lower fee, and then Plusnet charges less too, but I guess it unlikely if you are in a really rural location. I am using Plusnet and have done on and off for 7 years (gap when I had no landline after moving home).

PS they don't count the data between 00:00 and 08:00. The 60 GB limit is only for data during the day from 08:00 up to 00:00.

Of course you might be locked into some 12 month contract right now, but I thought it would be worth mentioning. When I signed up in March they were doing 80 GB a month - I switched to 60 as I only hit 80+ when I included the night time downloading, and it was cheaper for 60 GB by 4 pounds. They don't do 80 GB any more (they change their products every year or so, and allow existing customers to continue on the older ones, but no new customers can get them).

ATM we are with the Phone Coop and are locked into a contract for another 6 months. We like the ethical aspect, plus they do a phone code system which is essential for a shared landline. But we are looking into other providers just for the broadband as we often go over the 20GB limit.

My laptop is on Windows, some more info on how to block ads from loading would be great, thanks. I am a bit of a Luddite so the simpler the better!

Oh, some sort of 'cost centre' code so different people can identify their own calls and pay their portion... neat, and relatively few companies offer it now. Sounds ideal in a shared house / community setting.

Well, 60 GB would take away the worries! OK, will find a web-based explanation. Is it Windows XP, Windows ME, Vista or Windows 7 ?

(I have mostly worked on XP and Win 98, Win 95 before that, right back to Windows 3.1, 3.0 {showing my age a bit})

Blocking ads is going to help, but I get the feeling that it's probably going to be reasonably insignificant compared to what people are actually browsing and downloading.

You'd also have to get all the users of the broadband connection making the same changes to get the biggest effect.

I think it would be worth having a chat with the other users and seeing if you can all agree to using some ad blocking software, even if it's only "just" Firefox, and checking out even anyone's using things like iPlayer or file sharing software (both of which have the potential to really chew through bandwidth).

(I'll somewhat worryingly admit to having experience of Windows before 3.0 came out...)

My laptop is on Vista. All I do really is MN/email/Facebook, though that seems to take lots of hours a day up somehow

We have an agreement not to use iPlayer or similar as it just eats the download allowance. I think we will have to change the broadband to one with a higher limit though as it doesn't seem to be enough.

The phone code thing is invaluable as otherwise every call on the bill has to be identified and added up, and the Phone Coop seems to be the only company that offer it now.

Some good points there from BP - I don't know how many are running Windows but sometimes an update (like a service pack) can run to 300 MB, so in such an instance it would make most sense to follow the links for someone like IT Support for a firm, as Microsoft allows download of an ISO file to create a CD, so all PCs could be updated from that, not needing each one to download the update.

Some routers keep track of data used by each PC which might help if one person is regularly the highest downloader... either for them to fund any excess charges from their own pocket, or to cut back.

Is there no alternative (eg using Three mobile - only ask because it is possible to get a 3 GB SIM card for under 9 quid, valid for 3 months, thus allowing for the odd month where usage can run to 21/21.5 GB without the Phone Coop charging extra.

We don't get good enough mobile reception to have mobile-type internet - there's no 3G reception on any network here and mobile phones only work in the garden!

I will look into the idea of a router that tracks who is using what as I suspect the resident online-gaming teenager of using rather a lot of the allowance.

Not sure the gaming would do bad things in terms of traffic - lots of them work with minimal amounts of data and even if s/he talks to the others in the online game, that's likely to be much lower than if someone uses iPlayer to download some TV show they missed (300 to 600 MB for some items, 1.1 GB for some other items).

Of course, I'd be casting doubt on the morals of some people but the teenage gamer might have visited xhamster.com {warning this has no age restrictions and is full of porn clips - anything from 4 minutes to 40 minutes at a guess}.

An hour on that site flicking between clips could clock up some traffic. In the interests of research, I could try it myself and report back! (Just so you have some examples of what someone could download, in case you are asked to give some examples. Never know, airing such information might hit someone's conscience and the over-limit traffic could stop overnight!)

What speed is you connection ?

How many people use wireless connections ?

If wireless, is it encrypted to stop any neighbours or visiting friends from downloading while in wireless range ?

Is it www.thephone.coop ? If not, could you post the website detail.

If it is thephone.coop they do an add-on called Broadband Boost which ups the data limit by 10GB for £3 per month. It can be upped to a max limit of 60GB.
see Package Extras That's on Residential package.
That does not solve the problem as there is still going to be a limit but may be lower cost than paying the over limit amount per GB.

At the moment do you know roughly how much traffic each user is using? If not then using a traffic monitor such as www.bwmonitor.com may help get a better idea (bwmonitor needs to be run on each machine, so won't monitor other types of device).

"I suspect the resident online-gaming teenager of using rather a lot of the allowance."

After NetworkGuy's comments about the teenager game I hate to seem like we've got it in for him/her but I'd also be wondering if they're doing file sharing to download music or games.

Actually, I was sticking up for the gamer, if it is just games play (as many use UDP not TCP and don't re-send any data, but rely on small packets to update status or pass voice traffic).

I'd just be more suspicious of other 'diversions' esp if games player is male.

Some routers allow blocking by name of particular domains so perhaps a block on youtube.com may be useful - I don't know what the person using the browser sees, but it might be possible to test that.

What router is being used ?

"Some routers allow blocking by name of particular domains so perhaps a block on youtube.com may be useful - I don't know what the person using the browser sees, but it might be possible to test that."

Rather than just blocking a site I'd think that the first approach would be just to clarify exactly what each user, including the gamer, is getting up to on the network and explicitly asking if any file sharing is going on (file sharing does have perfectly legitimate uses so it's not like anyone's being accused of anything dodgy).

Then talk about putting a traffic monitor on the network so that you can find out what's going on. People should be notified that someone's going to be looking into what traffic is going on, you might even find that if it is a dodgy use that's causing the traffic it will suddenly and mysteriously stop. Or people might not want the intrusion and agree to stump up for a better package.

I guess stumping up 50p extra per person would mean there's a chance to use iPlayer and YouTube but if one person is heavier than others, they may take advantage.

Certainly worth asking, and talking about need to monitor traffic to determine which people are heaviest users. Infortming them it could be done is perhaps enough to achieve restraint.

However, also worth knowing (if info available) whether the traffic level has been steadily increasing, or was near to 20 GB mark from early on...

Looking into it some more it seems that normally playing something like Call of Duty 4 online takes up about 20mb an hour. So with a 20gb cap that's about 1000 hours of gaming a month.

If the gamer's gaming an average of an hour a day then they're going to use about 600mb a month, so not even 1/20th of the capacity.

However Call of Duty 4 has a nasty trick up it's sleave. The game will choose one of the players to be the "host" of the game, and that player's bandwidth will shoot up about 10 times.

So suddenly 100 hours of gaming is going to break the 20gb cap.

So while online gaming is usually "OK" it's quite possible for the game to do something "clever" that will immensly ramp up the bandwidth consumption.

Also if they're into their online gaming they might be downloading patches, updates and new maps to play on that could also be chewing up the bandwidth.

I do hate to point the finger at the gamer but it is worth finding out what they're up to....

Hmmmm, Pokemon games mainly I believe!

Will try to answer some questions - the wireless is on and is not password protected, however we live over a mile from the next house the same distance from the nearest public road. Plus, the walls of the house are so thick you cannot get wireless signal in the front garden, so I doubt anyone is managing to use it without us knowing.

The usage was ticking along at around 11-15GB a month until a couple of months ago when it started going over the limit by 5GB or so. Now this could in part be down to my MN habit but surely only partly?

We do have an agreement not to use iPlayer/Youtube though I suspect the teenager of doing so anyway. Plus a couple of people use Spotify quite a bit if that is relevant?

Think we are going to add another 10GB to the limit for now (thanks for pointing that out!) and see how that goes. All the advice is much appreciated as I know nothing about how this kind of thing works!

Doubt your MN habit would clock it up anything like 1 GB, let alone 2,4, or more. Some Mobile users with iPhones who use Facebook, MN and Twitter, yet few seem to expect to go over 100 to 200 MB a month. A few might use YouTube to hit the 200 MB end.

Personally, my mobile dongle gets hit for nearly 15 GB a month from just me on one PC, but I do stream radio and download TV using iPlayer, to get moneys worth.

Understood about the wireless - would be a bit concerned but it does allow any visitor to use the link (assuming gamer teen to have a friend or two round now and then).

Spotify is a different matter - it's possibly higher than some radio stations, but depends on what type of accounts they have... one version (Spotify Open) allows 20 hours of listening per month (I assume that is 20 hours music plus 1+ hour of adverts!!)

Adding 10 GB will help, but with a number of people, unless you identify who uses how much, you run the risk of getting back to similar situation in 3 to 4 months time.

The jump from 15 GB to 25 GB is significant.

I don't know if Spotify run by 2 people could clock up the extra 10 GB, but to do so they may have needed either to pay 10 pounds a month (which would allow storage of thousands of tracks and Spotify could then play them without being 'online')

The Spotify Premium account allows for up to 3 mobile devices to have tracks but I don't know whether each must have the same 3,333 tracks or whether each device can have different tracks (ie 9,999 total possible). The devices may need no active 3G mobile connection, just downloading via wi-fi and then going online once a month to keep them 'live' (else Spotify won't play the saved tracks). So not really a problem if there's no mobile signal indoors, or even if a dead SIM is in the phone.

Not sure whether the two are individuals or a couple (if sharing a single user/pass login then only one copy of Spotify could be active online at a time). The 10 quid a month account allows audio at 320 kbps (compared with DAB at 192 kbps for Radio 3 and 128 kbps for other BBC music stations), so whether playing or storing the tracks, could use up significant quantities of your monthly allowance.

At 5 quid a month, with Spotify Unlimited there'd be unlimited playing without ads but not storage, so music would be played via the ADSL connection.

So yes, there's a chance Spotify would chew up your allowance.

Given the distance from neighbours, what sort of speeds do you get (to see whether the gamer situation BP has indicated, of your gamer teen being 'host' for a game, is actually possible).

I'm meaning the router connection speed to the exchange (in my case, for example, right this minute, is 448 kbps from me to exchange (upstream), and 160 kbps from exchange to me (downstream)).

Yes, my downstream speed is poor, much less than in any other location I have seen, and not even the 576 kbps I had nearly 10 years ago, let alone 2 Mbps or 6+ Mbps I have had before now... but it is partly down to an old, poor line, which lost dialtone and broadband for several days in each of the past 3 months.

I need to move sometime, to get reasonable speed, if not 20+ Mbps

Spotify apparently streams at about 1mb per minute, so about 60mb (5% of a GB) per hour.

If there are two people using it for on average 2 hours a day then they're going to be using up about 7gb of your monthly allowance, which is not insignificant.

However there are some things to be aware of with these calculations....

Firstly in addition to the accounts that NetworkGuy mentions you did used to be able to get unlimited free accounts which let you listen to as much music as you like, I've got such an account. So without paying someone could in theory be on it all the time....

Secondly Spotify caches the music you play, so if the people keep playing the same tracks then they're not going to be using as much bandwidth as the figures above suggest.

Which version of Spotify are you indicating?

Since Spotify Premium offers 320 kbps (AFAIK close to lossless) then it would have some impact).

It really comes back to what 'changed' 2-3 months ago, I think. Whether it was a new PC, a new game (perhaps) or just someone spending a lot more on something (such as Second Life).

I doubt Second Life actually generates enough traffic to account for the change that was seen, it was really an example that doesn't fall into the category of streaming media.

Incidentally, does The Phone Co-Op offer any analysis of traffic ? Only ask because it is something provided by Plusnet:

Web ......... 30% 8% 38%
Email ....... 0% 0% 0%
VoIP calls... 0% 0% 0%
Gaming ...... 0% 0% 0%
Streaming ... 23% 13% 36%
PN FTP ...... 0% 0% 0%
Peer-to-peer. 9% 15% 24%
Usenet ...... 0% 0% 0%
FTP (non PN). 0% 0% 0%
Other ....... 2% 0% 2%
Total usage so far 64% 36% 100%