Simviation Forums

I am allowed 250 gigabytes for a 30 day period and recently my gigabyte count is going out of sight. My question is does a laptop use less gigs than a desk top . My laptop is a Dell I5 Sandy Bridge and my desktop is a custom built which does a great job. But it is a little more than a normal desktop. It has a Navidia 650 and other parts to numerous to mention. Thanks for your input. homeboy

I assume by that, that you mean the maximum monthly downloaded data allowed by your Service Provider?

My limit used to be 40 GB per month, but I never, ever reached that amount per month.
(I don't think that I am limited at all now, with my present Service Provider).

To exceed 250 GB per month you must be downloading an enormous amount of data from somewhere!..... ...!

...downloading films, maybe?.... ....!

In practical terms, your only limit is the space on your hard drive, whether it be a laptop or a desktop computer!

Paul.... ...!

I this day and age it is not difficult to believe that we transfer that much data , or more...
I don't know your specific circumstances, but just thinking about my own, my home internet is constantly streaming data to something.
- my PC
- wife laptop
- kids laptop
- 3 smartphones
- 2 tablets
- netflix
- playstation
- wii
- home security system
Plus any devices that my friends or my kids friends are hooking up while they are in my house.

You might want to start by disconnecting you devices from the internet when not in use. Also change and enable your password on your router. Maybe someone else is getting free internet from you.

And what you dl , and upload, will count. Seeding or leeching can add up quickly.
As to whats more efficient? Laptop or pc matters nit. But my preference is on cat5 direct connection. I hate wifi

It is not just the files you deliberately download that are used to tot up your monthly allowance, but ALL the information that passes from the internet to your computer. For instance every time you visit a site its information is downloaded to your computer so you can view it. I have just visited a newspaer online and that ended up with 190 MB of information passing from the site to my computer. The fact that is mostly all deleted when I leave the site is not important, it still counts as download. Watching a movie on the internet is the real killer, several GB of data may be passed through your computer and counted as download. The type of computer you use has little impact on the amount of data dowloaded.

Nobody has mentioned this so I'll throw my two cents in.

First, it would normally not matter whether you used the most powerful desktop in the world or an average laptop. What your internet provider allows you to have is what you have.

Having said that, there could be one reason why one computer or another uses more bandwidth - a virus!


Yeap, the life of a virus is a hard one. Always using your bandwidth to do dastardly deeds.

I know my wife has a few hundred viruses when she starts to complain how slow her computer/internet is.

She thinks that the way people get viruses is by going to bad websites (porn). One time I removed over 300 pieces of malware/viruses from her computer. Love it.


Anyway, there are a couple of ways to keep track of unusual activity.

For your needs the best might be to monitor your bandwidth usage in real time.

A very simple, and low CPU usage, program is Bandwidth Monitor by Rokario Software. There's a free version and a paid version. You'll want the free version.



The scale is relative. With little or no activity you'll just see a bunch of small bumps with an occasional spike or two. BUT check the numbers, those spikes are relative, remember. Start a download and you'll see the scale change.

Watch these two numbers for a better idea of the size of the upload/download sizes.





There are also programs that record the amount of bandwidth a computer uses, but you'd need to keep a running total of all computers on your internet connection.

If you feel tech savvy, you could find some free software such as PRTG from Paessler. It's free and relatively easy to use, but will be far more complicated than "Bandwidth Monitor". It is, however, capable of monitoring EVERYTHING passing through a (home in your case) network.

It's amazing how much you can learn, IF you want to dig deep enough. You will work hard for that knowledge though.



One thing to remember when you see network activity, when you haven't initiated any, is that there are valid causes for that activity (such as programs checking for update) etc. in the background.

Thanks OAM, Paul and all the rest for your wonderful advice, you guys are very kind to assist me . I now have my gigs down to 3-4 gigs a day. I am now back to flying off the grid.homeboy