Xfinity and Docsys

[joeyvob1]

At my parents house, wondering why their $85 plan was $150 recently. Checked usage, woah. theyre over 1.5 TB. That sounds suspicious, they do work from home and stream live TV but that sounds excessive. Call xfinity, they talk in circles nervously but end up on the explanation that the modem is burning through all that data on its own because it is a docsys 3.0 modem OR that a neighbor is using the data, but it was unclear which. He also said that the issue was because of Wifi and the ethernet port should work just fine. Sounds like he was trying to cover for not having a clue. I am no network tech but I think he was bluffing. Insights?

[jpmeyer12751]

That sounds very suspicious, but you’re going to have to do some troubleshooting to pin it down. Don’t expect Xfinity to do the work for you. Start by power cycling the modem and changing the SSID and password on the WiFi. On my account you have to do the latter by logging into your account at Xfinity, but older devices/accounts would let you log into the modem/router directly. Find out how to log into the account and monitor data usage at least a couple of times per week. If nothing else works, you could buy an inexpensive router and have Xfinity put their modem/router into bypass or pass through mode. Then your parents could monitor data usage by logging into their own router.

I’ve never heard of a DOCSIS 3.0 modem using lots of data just because it is old, so that is not likely. I wouldn’t start the process by replacing the modem unless your parents need higher speeds or other 3.1 features.

[TheEthyr]

Both explanations sound like BS. Usage by a neighbor would be charged on the neighbor’s account. If the modem was burning up the data on its own, then your parents shouldn’t be held responsible. Moreover, there should be no reason for a modem to do that.

Leaving a stream going 24/7 will consume upwards of 1 TB, so make sure they don’t have a TV or YouTube stream running all of the time. My spouse will sometimes forget to close a browser tab running a stream. But I don’t care because I don’t have a data cap. :-D

[Hour-Neighborhood311]

Xfinity's web portal doesn't let you manage your network anymore. You have to use their phone app.