Dropped connections and mysterious data usage
scifigirl13
Newbie

I have seen many posts in this community about these issues, but I will clarify my own problems.

We installed HF two weeks ago to support my home business which must use voip and video conferencing. About one week after installation, I began to lose connectivity:  the signal looks fantastic (including all green indicator lights) but is no longer connected to my messenger service, phone or outlook. Turning the router off and on helps most of the time, but I cannot perform this action multiple times every day. Besides this, we have seen data usage at times when the router is not only turned off, but all devices are turned off and the antenna is unplugged (nearly always at 3:54 am). It cannot possibly be using data at this point. I am desperately in need of a solution as I have no other options and my employment depends on this. Thank you for your time.

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Re: Dropped connections and mysterious data usage
John_Getzke
Champion - Level 1

Thanks for the attachment. 

I can see what you are saying when you mention usage around 4:00 AM.  It is peculiar how consistent some of your timestamps are through out the billing cycle.  Each timestamp marks the END of a particular data session which means that, if your log is showing activity at 4:00 AM, something may have been leaking data before that and then stopped at that time.

Your early morning activity is accounting for a small percentage of your overall usage.  This combined with how consistent it has been between 12/25 and 12/31 gives the impression there was something left online and chatting with the internet.  This is normally the behavior of automatic updates and backup software, scheduled to check in at late hours when the machine is assumed to be unmanned to perform regular maintenance.  Whatever was searching for updates may have been failing.  It continued to try again around the same time until it was able to complete whatever it needed.  My guess is that it received its update around 12/31 and will not appear back on your data logs until next month at that time.

If your HF router or antenna was truly powered off at all of these times then I have no explanation for you.  It is not possible for a VZW device to consume data while powered off.  Updates to the VZW firmware that are automatically downloaded to the router should not be held against your bill either.  There has to be something else at play or a billing mistake.

What you might want to do from here is enable the connection logging feature on your HF Router.  The logging feature on the router should show when the HFRouter is powered on and off as well as the connected devices at those times.  If you can continue to capture these data usage events and tie them in with the connection logs from the router then you would have a solid case to go to VZW for a better explanation. 

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Re: Dropped connections and mysterious data usage
John_Getzke
Champion - Level 1

The best explanation for the data usage at unusual hours is delayed billing.  Anytime VZW works with a 3rd party to gain tower access to an area they are subject to that 3rd parties data reporting capabilities.  Sometimes that 3rd party does not deliver statistics in real time and bundles your usages into a few large sessions instead of several smaller ones.  VZW consistently reporting usages at 4:00 AM certainly seems to fit that scenario. 

However, HomeFusion is not a product that is normally sold in an Extended Support area or an area owned by 3rd party towers.  Delayed billing should not be an issue for you.  Perhaps VZW is getting its signals mixed up when talking to your device.  You might want to perform the various resets on the HFRouter to reset its connection.  I'd give VZW a call to get this scenario documented incase you get into an overage situation later. 

If you have a connection log from your HFRouter then please post it for us to review.  Perhaps we can find some more clues that will point you in the right direction.

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Re: Dropped connections and mysterious data usage
scifigirl13
Newbie

Thank you for the response. Here is some  of my data log:

The early am hours I can verify that no one was accessing the internet and no devices were connected. As you can see, the data amounts can add up pretty quickly.

I looked at the info on resetting the router, but it looks a bit intimidating. Will Verizon have to re-assign my number or if I follow the directions will it come back up the way it should?

Message was edited by: scifigirl13 Date     Time     Unbilled Data Usage in Kilobytes(KB)     Unbilled Data Usage in Megabytes(MB)     Unbilled Data Usage in Gigabytes(GB) 1/2/2014     4:55 PM     381553.7     372.61     0.363877971 1/2/2014     10:55 AM     20.1     0.02     0.000019159 1/2/2014     8:50 AM     44612.7     43.57     0.042545978 1/2/2014     6:46 AM     87035.3     85     0.08300337 1/1/2014     7:26 PM     173.3     0.17     0.000165243 1/1/2014     1:26 PM     72195.8     70.5     0.06885125 1/1/2014     11:21 AM     25790.2     25.19     0.02459544 12/31/2013     11:11 PM     154.1     0.15     0.000146979 12/31/2013     5:11 PM     30540     29.82     0.029125198 12/31/2013     11:11 AM     295955.4     289.02     0.282245081 12/31/2013     5:11 AM     86942.1     84.9     0.082914442 12/30/2013     11:11 PM     459.3     0.45     0.000438055 12/30/2013     5:11 PM     472     0.46     0.000450111 12/30/2013     11:11 AM     517419     505.29     0.493449165 12/30/2013     11:06 AM     1     0     0.000000943 12/30/2013     7:10 AM     142707.9     139.36     0.136096836 12/29/2013     9:57 PM     2.4     0     0.000002242 12/29/2013     3:57 PM     367284.2     358.68     0.350269493 12/29/2013     9:57 AM     6.4     0.01     0.000006084 12/29/2013     3:57 AM     31.9     0.03     0.00003038 12/28/2013     9:57 PM     3.3     0     0.000003126 12/28/2013     3:57 PM     43082.8     42.07     0.041086924 12/28/2013     9:57 AM     2980.2     2.91     0.00284215 12/28/2013     3:57 AM     393631.9     384.41     0.375396591 12/27/2013     9:31 PM     10.7     0.01     0.000010235 12/27/2013     3:31 PM     15218.9     14.86     0.014513906 12/27/2013     9:31 AM     1330376.5     1299.2     1.268745866 12/27/2013     3:31 AM     230866.7     225.46     0.220171595 12/26/2013     9:31 PM     197.3     0.19     0.000188116 12/26/2013     3:31 PM     628307.1     613.58     0.599200312 12/26/2013     9:31 AM     1043440.7     1018.99     0.99510263 12/26/2013     3:54 AM     179370.7     175.17     0.171061239 12/25/2013     9:54 PM     1.2     0     0.000001122 12/25/2013     3:54 PM     66991.1     65.42     0.063887727

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Re: Dropped connections and mysterious data usage
scifigirl13
Newbie

Sorry, that cut and paste didn't work.

Message was edited by:  scifigirl13

>>Personal information removed to comply with the <<


Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

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Re: Dropped connections and mysterious data usage
John_Getzke
Champion - Level 1

Thanks for the attachment. 

I can see what you are saying when you mention usage around 4:00 AM.  It is peculiar how consistent some of your timestamps are through out the billing cycle.  Each timestamp marks the END of a particular data session which means that, if your log is showing activity at 4:00 AM, something may have been leaking data before that and then stopped at that time.

Your early morning activity is accounting for a small percentage of your overall usage.  This combined with how consistent it has been between 12/25 and 12/31 gives the impression there was something left online and chatting with the internet.  This is normally the behavior of automatic updates and backup software, scheduled to check in at late hours when the machine is assumed to be unmanned to perform regular maintenance.  Whatever was searching for updates may have been failing.  It continued to try again around the same time until it was able to complete whatever it needed.  My guess is that it received its update around 12/31 and will not appear back on your data logs until next month at that time.

If your HF router or antenna was truly powered off at all of these times then I have no explanation for you.  It is not possible for a VZW device to consume data while powered off.  Updates to the VZW firmware that are automatically downloaded to the router should not be held against your bill either.  There has to be something else at play or a billing mistake.

What you might want to do from here is enable the connection logging feature on your HF Router.  The logging feature on the router should show when the HFRouter is powered on and off as well as the connected devices at those times.  If you can continue to capture these data usage events and tie them in with the connection logs from the router then you would have a solid case to go to VZW for a better explanation. 

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Re: Dropped connections and mysterious data usage
scifigirl13
Newbie

Okay, I will do that and see what happens. Thanks for your help!

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