Bizarrely High Internet Traffic Usage?

[Limited]

Okay so my nets been all over the place lately speed wise, so I thought perhaps I'm reaching my caps, so I've been tracking my usage (using their online view usage thing).

So, it says for today (18th), since Midnight till 4pm, I've used 1.5GB on web traffic. Now yes I was up during the time, however all I did was watch a few youtube videos and basic net surfing (email, modacity) so I havent downloaded any thing huge in size like a film or application or game.

This isnt the first occurance either, it says between 16th May and 15th June I used 36.79GB, now I did download a few tv shows, but they are like 100mb each. Theres no way in hell I managed to use 36GB, again the traffic is classed under "Web"..

These are the categories they have:
Web
Email
Broadband phonecalls
Gaming
Streaming
FTP
Peer-to-peer
Usenet
Other

I'm thinking maybe 2 things are occuring, either somehow someone is using my computer in a botnet or one of my neighbours has hacked into my wireless network and is doing whatever.

Note, one of my neighbours does work for MoD doing some computer stuff to submarines, so he does have technical know how but hes a great chap I don't think he'd hack it.

There are other computers on my network yes, but my dad only uses it for email checking. I might have to install one of those net usage trackers on my pc, just to check.

So, any ideas?

[Llama Juice]

Would it be possible to turn off your wireless and just use a wired connection for a day? You'd be able to see if someone outside your network is using your interents that way.

[jcap]

If you're using WPA2, there's no way anyone can hack it.

36.79 GB in a month isn't a lot... I rank up anywhere from 20-40 GB per week.

If you want, set up some bandwidth monitoring software on your computer. If you have an extra computer lying around, setup a SmoothWall box. That can monitor traffic for you and cap it.

[klange]

If you're using WPA2, there's no way anyone can hack it.
False. Given time and the proper attack vectors, aircrack-ng can break WPA2. See here (http://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=cracking_wpa).

[legionaire45]

Could be somebody wardriving - Try to beef up your router security if it isn't already secured.

If you have steam or anything to that affect, it could be automatically downloading large patches, although that probably wouldn't account for 1.5GBs of stuff.

[Limited]

Steam does run, is there a way to check if it is automatically downloading pages? Network is using WEP, my old pc couldnt use WPA2, however since then I have a new linksys wireless adapter.

Edit:
Okay I've changed to WPA2 now, also changed the key in case some arse did have it lol.

Also Jcap I realise 36GB a month isnt alot, however when my monthly cap is 12GB, theres definitely an issue.

They havent emailed us or shown any warnings that we went over. (Minus me looking in the usage history)

[Llama Juice]

What? 12GB? I downloaded more than that just while making my breakfast this morning....

That's rough.

[jcap]

WEP is a joke. Can literally be cracked in minutes.

WPA2 is the most secure for anything, as long as you're using it right. If you use one of those randomly generated extremely long keys, then it won't get cracked. If you're using a dictionary-based key, then it can be cracked just like any passworded system. 63 characters will never get cracked. (http://www.yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/WPA_key/generator.php)

[Limited]

Nah I've used all symbols, numbers, lower and upper case. Same with WEP but yeah that can be sniffed easily too.

I used to have unlimited cap, 50Mbps, probably higher when using the universities network of computers to share files. I filled my 500GB drive up in less than a day. Back here though, its like torture lol.

[Syuusuke]

If your router didn't have WPA/WPA2, wouldn't it be possible to use some Access List to limit connection to only certain devices with specific MAC addresses, or is that still not good enough? =/

You can download some bandwidth monitor thingy to check what's using your bandwidth?