[Madison]

Hi everyone,

I already posted this under MacOS, but you guys have always been very helpful here, I figured I'd post it here also.

My mother has a Mac Mini, she lives in the woods of Maine, and uses HughesNet for internet. She gets 500mb of data daily, and it's never been an issue to stay under that cap. She spends what little time she's online browsing for recipes, sewing patterns, etc. Lately, they're telling her that she's exceeded her limit, many times after only 15 minutes online. I suggested she look at Activity Monitor, but I honestly know nothing about understanding what it's saying. Here's what she said when I told her to use it:

"I checked the activities monitor and found there was activity at 2:05 AM .. does this happen automatically? (I had my 100% at 9:12 this morning, and 99% when I logged off at 9:36) ) I UNPLUGGED my HN modem when we left at 10:40 .. when I got back and got online I had 71% .. I asked Bing a couple of questions, got off five minutes later and it was 66% .. I’m wondering if my HN account has been hacked? They swear it’s my computer. How can that be if it’s NOT PLUGGED IN. Is it possible my account has been hacked??? "

Anyone have any ideas? Suggestions? I know virtually nothing about this stuff (meaning bandwidth usage, etc), and she knows less than I do. All help will be appreciated.

Thank you,
Tom

[reader50]

I closed your other post, since it's not clearly an OS issue. This location is the better fit.

Bandwidth meters regularly hit the news for inaccuracy. No government agency monitors the meters for accuracy, or issues fines when they're wrong.

Verizon meter hands out $9,100 overage bill.
Comcast meter serves up $1500 in overage charges.

The companies usually don't investigate unless the press becomes involved, just insisting their meter is perfect. Even if the press gets involved, the companies seldom admit what went wrong with their meter.

If we assume the meter is accurate, then you can try rebooting your satellite modem. Pull its power cord from the wall for at least 10 seconds.

The only other suspect would be Software Update, which can download a new OS in the background around now - macOS Sierra. If that were it, open System Preferences -> App Store. Uncheck everything. In the long run, I recommend you let it automatically "install system data files and security updates", but for now turn it all off to see if the downloading stops.

Next open the App Store, go to Updates. See if anything is downloading. Check the Purchased tab too. In each tab, if something is downloading, you should be able to stop it.

[residentEvil]

anyone get a new cell phone? someone "near by"? if the modem has wireless, could be a cell phone user streaming things.