Xplornet
Now here is a mystery. Someone is surfing the net in the wee morning hours. Someone is using up my limited usage allowance — a miserly 1 GB per day if I want to stay under the cap. Except that it is not possible.
Really.
It is not possible.
I have programmed the router to shut down all wireless access between 12 midnight and 5:30 in the morning. There is only one wired device that connects to the Internet. That device also is programmed to shut down between 12 midnight and 5:30 in the morning. I qualify every MAC that connects to the network. Anyone trying to hack in to my network will not have much fun. Assuming, of course that they can crack the 40-character industrial strength and the fully encrypted password on a wireless LAN that does not broadcast its SSID, then they would still need to have an authorized MAC. I suppose that someone could poke at the router through the front door (192.168.0.1) but then they would still need the admin password. That password is also industrial strength. Living in the country on 7 acres, they would have to get pretty close to snare enough signal strength. But what am I talking about? The signal gets TURNED OFF! No one gets in.
So how to explain the traffic?
I took all of these extraordinary measures to shut down network access because those scoundrels at Xplornet cut off my unlimited bandwidth service and forced me to a 30GB monthly cap. “Faster Internet access you will have.” they promised. “Happier you will be.” they claimed.
They lied. Service is still slow. And happier I am not.
In the first month, my two sons successfully trounced the monthly 30GB cap. They can use that much in an afternoon.
Looking at a year’s worth of Internet expense being consumed in just a few months, I decided to take firm action. Both of their machines were kicked off the network. If they want to pay for an Internet service then they can arrange for their own service — I am such a heartless old dude. Otherwise it is back to the middle ages for my two sons, or the 1970s. I often think they were the same period of time. Life was simpler then. No Internet. No snake oil Internet Service Providers with arbitrary caps and outrageous surcharges and silly traffic management policies. No wires or routers or network hackers.
I digress.
Yes. Xplornet. I had to call them. On a telephone. And wait. Wait for the next available agent. My call was important to them so they thanked me profusely and repeatedly for waiting nearly an hour or so for some agent in a developing economy to take my call.
“Who is using my bandwidth in the middle of the night?” I asked.
She had no idea what I was talking about. More waiting. More people answering the call. More confusion.
Then somebody had the most excellent avoidance strategy. Let’s stall this guy.
“Perhaps Mr. Cleaver the time zone is different in your area. The usage may be an offset. For example, at 8am there was no one using the service.”
“That’s because there was no one home.”
“Well, regardless, you will need to stay up until midnight and then give us a call and we can monitor your modem to see if there is any traffic.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
I hate Xplornet. I really do.
Wait until midnight, and then likely be on hold for an hour! Please, please post the outcome of that conversation, I hate a cliffhanger! 🙂
The plot thickens. Check out today’s post 🙂
I also have explorne & I have noticed that if Im trying to get on line late at night that nothing will load! My computer tells me I have no connection but when I check it , I find that its showing I have connection & a strong signal but I cant load anything! ! So I did some research & found this :The CRTC investigated complaints against Xplornet and found that in degrading the speed of an Internet phone service (or VOIP), they were violating a Net Neutrality rule against slowing “time sensitive” applications. (Incidentally, Xplornet does not degrade the speed of its own Internet phone service.) The CRTC was also on Xplornet”™s case for not properly disclosing its “traffic management” practices to customers.Â
I had the same issue as you….I thought someone was surfing in the wee hours of the morning on my connection…went through the same steps as you. When I called, I was luckier than you, the agent explained that the hours listed are in GMT time zone. So midnight is really 8pm, 2am is really 10pm….
Thanks Loraine! I also thought the same although on my second call the second level support claimed the time was local — not an offset to GMT.
They are simply an infuriating company.
I got capped too without notice – around the same time I’m guessing. I’m still on the search of a buried notice to existing subscribers about the plan changing so I can get the hell out of my contract due to breach on their part…