Perhaps a lot of youtube video binges (in HD) and the uploading of dozens upon dozens of Wrectified videos for even the smallest and most trivial of changes?
Well I have noticed that almost every work you post is in the form of a video (stills are almost non-existent).
And when I say trivial, one example is that recent one where you added a sound effect for your metal man and deemed it worthy of a video update (most indie developers will limit themselves to posting weekly or monthly development roundups that mainly focus on the major new stuff).
The videos you post on BA alone would contribute to a few gigs (and I don’t know how many others due to video content not related to Blender). I would also take note if there’s any other high bandwidth activities such as live feeds, long sessions with Skype, heavy multiplayer gaming, ect…
Family of four, with 60GB to share between us. I’d visit the service provider’s website every now and then to check up on how much had been used. When nearly exceeding the limit, we were given the option to order an extra 25GB (from their site) at only 5$.
we watch netflix and youtube a lot
Wouldn’t think viewing Youtube would be the cause, it’s practically harmless at low qualities. (I always watched videos in 144p)
But Netflix… don’t think you can lower the quality of playback, and assuming you’re watching movies with it, (and not shows) it’s gotta be a few hundred MegaBytes per video. Though even shows oughta put a dent in your bandwidth.
In this case, you might want to check for malicious activity that might be contributing to the usage, that might be…
Malware (your computer might’ve been conscripted into a botnet or a hacker has some degree of access, also, downloading any recent version of BitTorrent will hijack your PC to mine bitcoins on idle if you’re not careful).
A neighbor or someone nearby siphoning off of your connection and using it to view or download stupidly huge files.
First thing I would say is if someone has hacked into your WiFi connection, you might want to take some time to address how you can improve the security of your WiFi network. I don’t know your level of experience, so please forgive me if you’re already informed on some of this. I’d recommend looking it up yourself in depth, but SOME of the basic things you could do to secure your home network would be to use WPA2 with AES encryption (never use WEP). This isn’t hack proof, but its one of the better options available for regular home WiFi security. This is just one component of securing a WiFi network, though. I would recommend taking it a few steps further by setting up other layers of security, like enabling MAC address filtering, enabling intrusion detection if your router supports it, changing default router admin login credentials, make sure remote admin access is disabled in the router, and beefing up any other kind of security features that your router has available. On that note, it would be worth investing in a quality router if you don’t already have one. I personally use the NetGear Nighthawk AC3200 router, which has tons of security features and is blazing fast, but that’s on the high end for home routers. Make sure your router’s firmware is up to date as well. Also, change your WiFi password/key on a regular basis. The more difficult you make your WiFi network to infiltrate, the less likely you’ll be hacked. Most hackers, or WiFi leachers, are looking for the low hanging fruit. They don’t want to spend a ton of time and effort trying to get into your system to steal your bandwidth or whatever.
The second thing I’ll say is you could change your WiFi key back to what it was previously to allow the machine to re-connect to your network. Then you can use some network tools to try and find out more information about the device.
I’m not sure what OS you’re running, but here are a couple tools that might be a good place to start your investigation:
Wireshark (packet sniffer - try to find out more about what is being uploaded/downloaded): https://www.wireshark.org/
P.S.
I don’t believe the MAC address is that valuable to you, especially since these can be very easily changed/spoofed. I would try to compile as much info as possible on the device and its activity on your network as you can. You might gain some insights after having more information at your disposal.
Try setting up something to stop torrent ports being allowed through your router.
Try not using the router at all one day and seeing how much data is transfered.
I’ve just browsed the web for about 1/2 hour (since booting my computer). DUring that time I started playing a song or two on InfiniteJuke.com (~5mb per song). Over that half-hour of blenderartists, facebook, gmail etc. I’ve used … 95mb of download, 30mb upload.
No idea where it’s all gone, some into my dropbox probably, but, here it comes: Webpages are big these days. In the days of hand-coded webpages a page was only a couple kb. This blenderartists page is about 100kb. So each time you browse a thread without images you use about 0.5mb or so. (assuming it’s a couple full-ish pages). Add a couple images into the mix and I reckon you’ll top 2mb/minute on a site like blenderartists. In four hours this is ~0.5gb.
Take an image distribution platform like 9gag, imgur, or something like that and you’re bandwidth will go up. If you watch a video in sensible quality it’s about 0.5gb/hour. Four hours of youtube/vimeo etc will get you 2 gb.
Still a long way from 25gb/day.
Let’s add in torrenting. Let’s say some hypothetical user is a software pirate. He downloads Skyrim. In one fell swoop he’s got your 25gb right there. He downloads Matlab, there goes 10gb, he grabs Solidworks, another 10gb. 3 movies he may watch later in HD and you’re another 25gb gone.
Bear in mind that downloading a 25gb file takes more than 25gb of traffic through your router. I’m not to familiar with networking, but I suspect it to be ~10-20% more.
Try a computer-free weekend and see how much data get’s used. If there’s still lots, suspect someone hacking your router.
Try unplugging your router from the wall. If there’s still data-use, then someone’s got hold of your ISP login details.
I’d be more inclined to suspect either you, your kids, your friends etc. for using your data.
Home routers have limited range, so your thief is somewhere close by. Why not try this: print up some notices saying something like:
“Hey, You, With the Mac, trying to use my internet access! Cut it the hell out! …asshole…”
and post them around the neighborhood on utility poles or fences.
::shrug:: Who knows, your hacker might be someone who can be shamed into stopping. At least, he’ll know he’s been noticed. People try to get away with all sorts of shit when they think they are anonymous.
After running an IP WHOIS on those IP addresses you listed, it looks like one of them (31.13.74.1) is owned by Facebook (possibly a crawler?).
Not sure if you saw my post above (had to be approved by an admin), but I listed some things you can do to find out more info on those failed WiFi connection attempts.
I don’t think any of that is something to be worried about. Port scans happen everywhere every now and then, and the WLAN connection attempts were rejected, so someone might have been logging onto your connection previously, but is not able any more.
Given enough time, a wlan password can be cracked without you knowing about it, but it’s not likely that someone will put too much effort into that. You can also probably set up a mac filter in your router that will block all unknown addresses.
Better idea: ditch the cable-company. My local phone-company now offers an optical connection, and thee are no restrictions on the amount of data you are “allowed” to up- or download. I got way too tired at fighting Comcast over incorrect billings every month, and finally just threw them out of my house. (I don’t watch television anyway, and even if I did, the phone-company now offers that, too.)