Summary

Below you fill find some tips and tricks to monitor and track your data usage.

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Wireless Routers:

• Always make sure to have a password that protects your wireless network from unauthorized users. Remember that ALL traffic that passes through your wireless network/router uses data. This can include traffic that you may not be aware of. Wireless routers broadcast a wireless signal for devices to use the internet without the need to connect an Ethernet cable. And if that signal is not password protected, anyone within range of the signal can connect to your network causing data usage that you are not aware of.
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  Monitor what type of internet traffic all devices on your network are using (standard web browsing, streaming video, etc.) Oftentimes, customers are not aware that another family member is watching video online causing them to have higher data usage than normal. Please note that streaming video uses substantially more data than standard web browsing.
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  Be vigilant! Make sure that your wireless password would be difficult to guess. Use capital letters, numbers, and special characters when creating your password. The more characters you have in your password the more secure it will be. It is always helpful to replace letters with numbers. Try to avoid using names and passphrases that others could easily guess.

Streaming Video:
Watching videos online (streaming video) is the main culprit for high data usage. A few common examples of what services are considered streaming video are Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. If you are watching Netflix, which is the most popular streaming service, they have 4 data usage settings to help control the amount of data being downloaded. The 4 settings and estimated data usage are below. Please keep in mind these are estimates only and are not exact.

• - Low (0.3 GB per hour)
• - Medium (SD: 0.7 GB per hour)
• - High (best video quality, up to 3 GB per hour for HD, 7 GB per hour for Ultra HD)
• - Auto (adjusts automatically to deliver the highest possible quality, based on your current internet connection speed)

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