Are you worried about data overages with your internet service provider? Often, providers impose overage fees that add significantly to your monthly bill. Online activities such as streaming music and movies, browsing YouTube, and video chatting can cause you to go over your bandwidth limit. You can save money and the headache of dealing with data caps by tracking and changing a few of your internet habits.
Track Your Data Usage
Most service providers with data caps give you a tool that allows you to track the percentage of the data you have used at any given time in the month. Each provider measures data caps using different numbers to indicate your uploads and downloads. However, these tools are not always up-to-date, so it would be in your best interest to have a secondary data tracker.
Multiple free options support Windows and Mac computers. Networx is a free tool for Windows users that allows you to view usage reports for multiple computers. You also have the option to disconnect users if the network activity goes over a certain level. People who own Macs can use a similar program called Bandwidth+, available for free in the App Store. The most reliable solution would be to track the usage on your home router. Because routers do not have a data tracking feature built-in, you will need to install additional monitoring software such as firmware or DD-WRT.
In order to receive reliable usage information, it would be in your best interest to track your data using the provider'susage tool and download an additional one. They often use different indicators of usage, so having both it ensures you know exactly how much data you have remaining.
Change Your Browser Settings
Websites are becoming increasingly larger, meaning it takes more bandwidth to access them. Thankfully, there are ways to scale back the amount to data a large website, such as Youtube, uses. Doing something as simple as enabling click-to-play plugins for flash content can help save your data. Most flash content is advertisements, and by enabling click-to-play, means you will have to click on the content to have it show. You can also prevent images on websites from downloading. Keep in mind Flash advertisements, and streaming videos take up significantly more bandwidth than downloading an image.
Manage Your Downloads
Bandwidth restrictions are often enforced during the daytime, but at night most providers will allow you to download more freely, or some give you unlimited data usage. This is mainly due to the excess bandwidth capacity from day to night. Recently, Netflix started allowing customers to download movies and shows to watch later without a WiFi connection. To save on bandwidth, Netflix customers can now download as many movies or shows as they want and watch them anywhere. You can also install a download scheduler to put off large downloads until nighttime.
Overage fees are a good way to keep bandwidth usage balanced because if you are using a little more, it makes sense to pay a little more. Unfortunately, service providers often charge too much and are just in it to gain profit. Follow these simple tips to monitor your data usage, so you never have to pay another fee again.
FAQ
How can I have unlimited data and data caps?
You can sometimes get unlimited data (or an extremely high data cap of 1 TB or more) if you sign up for a gigabit internet plan, which offers speeds around 1,000 Mbps. Most fiber internet providers also have unlimited data on their plans.
Is 100gb data enough for 1 month?
A data cap of 100 GB per month probably won't be enough for all the activities on your home internet. You can burn through that much data in a matter of days—possibly even hours—if you're not careful. But you don't need to worry as much if you mostly browse and check your email online.
What activities use a lot of data?
High-definition video streaming (900MB per hour) Video conferencing, like FaceTime® and Skype® (480MB per hour) Standard-definition video streaming (240MB per hour) Online interactive gaming (60MB per hour) can be some of the top data usage activities.
How many GP is unlimited data?
The standard unlimited data plan includes unlimited messages, minutes, and high-speed data up to a certain data cap. Usually, this high-speed data cap is about 22–23 GB.
Which apps do not use data?
Here are some of the apps that won't use up your data.
- Spotify. You'll need to keep your offline tunes to 3,000 songs or fewer, but Spotify lets you crank jams without a connection.
- Google Drive
- FeedMe (Android) or Newsify (iOS)
- Dots
- Instapaper or Pocket.
- Pocket Casts.
- The New York Times Crossword. ...
