Preventing Internet Usage Abuse

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Casscat
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Preventing Internet Usage Abuse

Post by Casscat »

I posted earlier about the fact that my last guests at the finca gobbled up an entire month's data allowance in the space of two weeks leaving the next arrivals with no internet. I had to run around like a demon taking MY SIM up to them so they could use my data and then arranged a temporary SIM for my own use at my apartment. The data limit on each of my contract SIMs is 200Gb per month, and I have never had a month when I have exhausted my own so god knows how people on holiday in the sunshine can do this in a fortnight. But anyway, I do ask guests not to download films, large game files etc. because there is a data cap. I figure they're okay streaming TV because how much TV are they going to watch realistically? I'm told an hour of standard TV streaming uses about 1Gb of data, but perhaps up to 3Gb in HD.

My question is, is there any software or gadget I can employ to block large downloads? I don't want to cut teenagers off from Instagram or whatever, but I don't want people abusing my data to download movies etc. that they should have downloaded at home before they came over to Spain. Suggestions?
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

Unfortunately, a lot of devices now automatically download software updates. If you have a family and they each have a phone and a tablet/laptop that adds up to quite a lot of data.
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

It's a real problem then newtimber. Unlike the UK there is no such thing as 'unlimited data' here in rural Spain. I did have an unlimited 'line of sight' based system, but my line of sight was not up to it and the service barely worked so I have to rely upon 3G/4G mobile internet. Again there were unlimited data contracts offered, but the providers have all pulled them off the market in favour of capped contracts which is where I find myself now. I honestly don't think that a family of four had colossal automatic software updates to the tune of 200Gb though :(
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

would it be a problem to provide each rental with PAYG sim with a fixed amount of data for the duration of their stay? You could leave the new SIM there at each changeover and any remaining data on the SIM from the previous guest. Then if they know there is a limit, they can be prepared? 200Gb is a hell of a lot. We have a house of 4 adults, one is home most of the time, we are all heavy users of internet, computer, TV downloads etc. I have only used 111Gb since we installed a new router in June.
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

HelenB wrote:We have a house of 4 adults, one is home most of the time, we are all heavy users of internet, computer, TV downloads etc. I have only used 111Gb since we installed a new router in June.
We are a house of 4 - 2 adults & 2 kids - and we use about 150Gb a month - and that's when the kids are at school so not there during the day. We don't watch anything in HD - speed too slow - nor do we download films/tv though our kid does like Minecraft Utube videos.

With 6 adults in all day, I can see the usage going higher that 200Gb a month - especially if people take lots of photos on their holidays which are then automatically uploaded and stored in the Cloud.
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

Use a router which can throttle your bandwidth. No one will download big files or stream content if it's slow :lol:
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