View My Broadband Usage

The View My Broadband Usage tool allows you to check how much data you transfer using your broadband connection.

1. Finding the View My Broadband Usage Tool
2. Summary View
3. View Internet Activities
4. Background Traffic and unexplained usage
5. This week's usage in detail
   
   
   

1. Finding the View My Broadband Usage Tool

1. Log into the Member Centre with your username and password.
2. Click on Connection Settings, found under My Account. (This is on the left-hand side of your screen).
3. Click on the View My Usage icon.

Visit the View My Broadband Usage Tool
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2. Summary view

The key to the bar chart is as follows:

Purple - Peak-time Usage that counts towards your monthly peak-time allowance.
Orange - Off-peak Usage that does not count towards your monthly peak-time allowance.
Blue - Usage that must be paid for on a Pay As You Go basis (Pay As You Go Broadband products and Broadband Basic only).

Please note that the usage shown on the View My Broadband Usage tool includes both uploads and downloads.

Find out more about peak-time, monthly allowances and what happens if you exceed them by reading our guide on how PlusNet guarantees quality broadband.
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3. View Internet Activities

Follow the View Internet Activities link to see a more detailed breakdown of your usage by type of Internet activity.

Please note: the View Internet Activities feature is not available on Pay As You Go accounts.

The Summary of Internet activities graph shows your current month's usage, and indicates both peak-time (red) and off-peak (orange) usage. Below the graph, your usage statistics are provided in a table.

There is an explanation of the different types of Internet activities on the Broadband Bandwidth Usage Guide.

4. Background traffic and unexplained usage

You may see records of activities that don't match your usage, such as gaming usage, even though you don't play online games. This is background traffic that our monitor has classified incorrectly. You should only be concerned if you see a lot of usage of an unexpected type. This could be caused by one of the following -

Unauthorised access of your wireless network
If you use a wireless network without the correct security measures, it's possible that someone else could be using your connection. By setting up wireless security you can prevent this from occuring.

Computer virus infection
Your computer may be infected with a virus that is using your broadband connection. This can appear as unexpected traffic on your usage graphs. You should update your anti-virus software and perform a full scan of your system - find out more in our security guide.

You can reduce your background usage by making sure that you switch off your router when you are not using your broadband. This is particularly important if you have a Broadband Basic product that is charged per megabyte (MB) of usage.
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5. This week's usage in detail

If you want a more in depth breakdown of your usage, including exactly how much usage you've used on a particular day, then you'll find it with This week's usage in detail.

Broadband Pay As You Go customers only

'This week's usage in detail' also lets you know of any alerts that have been on your account, for example if you have used more usage than comes as standard with your Broadband Pay As You Go package.

If you are seeing a lot of blue when visiting View My Broadband Usage you might save money by changing your package to include a higher peak-time usage allowance. You can change your package by upgrading at the Member Centre.

Please note that the View My Broadband Usage tool may run up to two hours behind your current usage - you should bear this in mind if you are approaching your included monthly usage.
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This page last updated 8th January 2008

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