Cosmote greece

[sailaboutvic]

For some reason we finding of 5 GB isn't lasting as long as before , we alway manage to get throw a month in past year before running out , now it's less then three weeks I started to wonder if we not getting our full 5 GB .
Or our we just using more ?

 

[Carmel2]

Do you have any other devices such as a smart phone or tablet that you didn't have before? If so, make sure they are not connected to your network and doing upgrades on apps.

 

[Tony Cross]

Is this a MiFi? If you logon to the MiFi's admin pages you should be able to see how much data you're using. 5GB doesn't sound like a lot, we get through almost 30Gb a month......

 

[sailaboutvic]

Is this a MiFi? If you logon to the MiFi's admin pages you should be able to see how much data you're using. 5GB doesn't sound like a lot, we get through almost 30Gb a month......

Hi Tony
Yea our mifi showing just about 4GB that why I wondering where the our 1GB going .

 

[Tony Cross]

Hi Tony
Yea our mifi showing just about 4GB that why I wondering where the our 1GB going .

In that case I have no idea. The MiFi reported usage isn't completely accurate, but a 1GB difference is a lot I'd think. It might be worth asking in a Cosmote shop.

 

[miyagimoon]

If you are using windows 10 make sure that it is set for metered connection otherwise it will continuously be checking for and / or doing updates. Switch off all auto updates on every device. You will be surprised at how much data updates for apps etc uses. Uploading photos to Facebook etc uses more these days as the size of photo files are much bigger with modern camera's & phones.

 

[sailaboutvic]

If you are using windows 10 make sure that it is set for metered connection otherwise it will continuously be checking for and / or doing updates. Switch off all auto updates on every device. You will be surprised at how much data updates for apps etc uses. Uploading photos to Facebook etc uses more these days as the size of photo files are much bigger with modern camera's & phones.

No Albert we not , we using the same PC and iPad we used the last three years and last year we got through the month with 5 Gb , and No before you ask we not watching porn

 

[RichardS]

No Albert we not , we using the same PC and iPad we used the last three years and last year we got through the month with 5 Gb , and No before you ask we not watching porn

Maybe it's Eddie watching pussy-porn when you're ashore?

Richard

 

[Tony Cross]

Maybe it's Eddie watching pussy-porn when you're ashore?

Richard

 

[miyagimoon]

Maybe it's Eddie watching pussy-porn when you're ashore?

Richard

Now that one did make me laugh.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Now that one did make me laugh.

You know very well Eddie been done as a small kitten .

 

[tedgorton]

I have noticed that too, but realised that a crew member was listening to streaming radio news. Ex-crew member!

 

[Flica]

Last year, I too, found that I sometimes ran out of my 5Gb allowance, and there's no one else using the internet but me.
As far as I could check, I was getting my full ration of Gb.
I then found that the overflow coincided with being in a 4G area (of which Cosmote have quite a lot).
This year I've signed onto a 6Gb/month contract with another 6Gb/month outside working hours. This is between 22:00 and 06:00. This new contract costs €30/month full price with a reduction to €21.30/month for long-term contract (2 years).
The €15/5Gb/month contract and all its associated range have been superseded (since April 6th, I believe).

 

[miyagimoon]

Last year, I too, found that I sometimes ran out of my 5Gb allowance, and there's no one else using the internet but me.
As far as I could check, I was getting my full ration of Gb.
I then found that the overflow coincided with being in a 4G area (of which Cosmote have quite a lot).

Typically, 3G data is cheaper than 4G, with most networks charging a premium for the latter. 4G does not use more data than 3G, a file of 100MB is still 100MB whether it's via 3G or 4G. Chances are that because of its speed you will want to use data more and consequently will hit your allowance faster.

 

[Tony Cross]

One possible explanation that comes to mind, and I have no knowledge of how 4G works or whether this is likely, but since I know how TCP/IP works it's a possible explanation.

TCP (the end to end flow control and reliability part of TCP/IP) checks whether data that has been transmitted has actually arrived. The mechanism by which it does this isn't important here, but if the sending node believes that a packet of data has not arrived (because it was not acknowledged by the receiver within a particular time) the TCP function in the sending node will send it again, and it will keep doing that until the data is acknowledged (or the sending application gives up).

Thus it might be possible (and remember I don't know how 4G works, or 3G for that matter!) that if you are in an area of poor signal quality some (or even many) of your transmitted packets are not received properly (or at all) and they have to be re-transmitted (possibly many times). Each re-transmission uses your 4G bandwidth so it might be that the 1GB of data you seem to be missing was actually used by TCP re-transmissions when you were in poor signal areas.

Just thinking aloud...

 

[miyagimoon]

One possible explanation that comes to mind, and I have no knowledge of how 4G works or whether this is likely, but since I know how TCP/IP works it's a possible explanation.

TCP (the end to end flow control and reliability part of TCP/IP) checks whether data that has been transmitted has actually arrived. The mechanism by which it does this isn't important here, but if the sending node believes that a packet of data has not arrived (because it was not acknowledged by the receiver within a particular time) the TCP function in the sending node will send it again, and it will keep doing that until the data is acknowledged (or the sending application gives up).

Thus it might be possible (and remember I don't know how 4G works, or 3G for that matter!) that if you are in an area of poor signal quality some (or even many) of your transmitted packets are not received properly (or at all) and they have to be re-transmitted (possibly many times). Each re-transmission uses your 4G bandwidth so it might be that the 1GB of data you seem to be missing was actually used by TCP re-transmissions when you were in poor signal areas.

Just thinking aloud...

Surely, this would apply whether you are on 3G or 4G.
However, any media such as music or video will stream at a higher bit rate and eat up your data. YouTube, Netflix, Pandora etc...there is no way to control most of these apps or sites to use lower quality streams. As the Internet and all the web 2.0 sites have media, you will burn thru data faster because it higher quality being sent to your device. Take Facebook for example, adverts all over it. Usually running a small video which is being sent in HD hence more data.

If a site can auto detect resolution it is going to load higher res images, which in turn are larger files. Since 4G is so fast we not only browse more, you use more data in the same amount of time.

I have another theory in that "Dinosaurs are thin at one end, fat in the middle and thin at the other end"

 

[Flica]

Well I didn't want to get into a techie discussion of the reasons for Cosmote 4G using data faster that 3G - I just wanted to point out the corroborative evidence.
OK it's all my fault, and Cosmote could be considered definitely inferior to WIND or Vodafone - all because of my greed...
Messengers with forked stick are definitely more "green"...

 

[sailaboutvic]

Well something going on , we are two week into an new 5 GB monthly amount and we have 1 Gb left .
And after last time we topped up we been careful what we been using.
As we going to be around the Ionian for a while and wind seen to work here I shall move to wind ,
if Cosmote offers the summer deal as there have for the last two years , 10GB for the price of 5GB then I move back .

 

[TonyMS]

I was told by someone who claimed to a guru that 4G carries a significantly higher overhead that 3G. All our equipment is elderly/cheap 3G. So far this year we have burned 4.3GB in 3 weeks. We listen to BBC radio most evenings, and have downloaded several chart and map updates.

In my experience, Wind is cr@p. Only works near centres of population. Low bandwidth. Anywhere near Albania it connects to some Albanian ISP and runs out of something, so you have to find a Wind shop and give them 5 euros to reset.

 

[tedgorton]

My problem with mobile internet on my boat is that crew arrive with 2 or even 3 devices, all auto-updating or with apps running in the background. to be fair I have several as well. so now I enforce a strict policy of no streaming, 1 device at a time each and apps tidied up, works much better. monthly contracts don't work in my case as I come out for 2 separate months a year.