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Question

Internet Usage (in GBs)

Oct 28, 2013 2:39AM PDT

Can anyone confidently answer this question?

Q: Is it possible to use .5 GB of data in only an hour of web browsing? No large image, music or video files were downloaded during this period.

Full story: Our current provider is DISH, which sells it's internet packages in terms of GBs. We have the highest tier; 30 GB/month. On their website, they have an active bar chart that's supposed to be recording your usage, so you can monitor it.

When our account began, three months ago, my wife said she didn't think the bar chart was moving at all, and I agreed. She called DISH and explained it to them. Within a couple days, the bar chart was indeed recording some usage.

Well, this morning I was monitoring it, and all I did during an hour's time was browse some websites (combination of text and images). As I mentioned above, I did NOT download any large files of any kind. Actually, the only images I downloaded amounted to nothing more than 767 KB or .0007 GB.

Do you feel that DISH networks usage chart is realistic? .5 GB in an hour?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Yes.
Oct 28, 2013 2:50AM PDT

I'm not going to vet my answer here. Windows Update can be very very large and if you have more than one PC, it will really add up.
Bob

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Answer
Possible
Oct 29, 2013 8:51AM PDT
Q: Is it possible to use .5 GB of data in only an hour of web browsing?

Considering only your original question, the answer is "yes". Data usage of .5GB is equal to 500MB, which can easily be consumed when streaming video (e.g. watching a movie).

The charts you are viewing may not be a real-time indication of data usage. It's possible that it's only updated once daily.

There are some home routers that can record data usage, or if you feel savvy enough, you can load DDWRT onto a compatible router. Otherwise, you may be stuck with what DISH reports for usage.
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Answer
DISH rip off
Nov 20, 2013 2:33AM PST

I just disconnected from DISH broadband. It is a total rip off. They advertise streaming movies, etc. You may be able to stream one or possibly two movies, but they will eat up the 10 GB allocation for prime time I purchased. What good is an additional 10 GB if it's only available 0200 to 0800? I have had DISH network since the early 1990's when it first came out. I think it's video product is great, but they need to seriously revamp their broadband product or shut it down.