Internet Problems

It's been a challenge lately to be online, to post anything here, given a new policy at Hughes Net (satellite dish), begun the middle of April, that was evidently created to be fair to all Internet users, but is proving to be a pain to me-- FAP. The gist of it (as I understand and given I am not a techie) is when you go over a certain usage per hour, your speed of access slows down-- way down.

There was no official notification of this. Computers like to surprise you. But we realized finally our speed was sluggish, called to be told a satellite was having problems (one wasn't), called again, and finally got someone who could explain what was actually happening. The second person acted as though we had been deliberately scamming the system and committed a crime-- unfortunately not as yet punishable by jail time or fines-- just slow down.

It took a third call to find someone who actually was helpful-- not that it solved the problem. We had/have no idea how we could be using as much as they claimed we were since we are not game players, don't have a lot of fancy bells and whistles, appear to be always doing about the same level of usage but just once in awhile the jackpot is hit-- in reverse.

There is no arguing with bureaucracy-- at least not yet. They tell you what you used and you have to figure out how the heck that much could possibly get downloaded onto your system in that length of time. No part of a computer system is a democracy.

Although we keep up-to-date virus programs, we immediately scanned our computers again for problems, but since this is something we are supposedly downloading, not uploading (it measures both), it doesn't appear to be virus or worm. Well, at least our virus checkers swear it's not.

So we upped our amount to use and the computer promptly took it all. It's beginning to seem like a demon has hold of these computers, as it recognizes how much it takes to push the system into slow-down and promptly takes it. It waits, however, until I am not there-- which was the case yesterday when it gobbled 461 MB in an hour and a half or so. That is about what it claimed I used while taking a nap. Could it be measuring dreams?

We have learned Hughes Net does multiply the actual amount taken using some mystical formula which so far, as we can determine, only they know about. At any rate, I am trying to figure this out and hopefully will find the magic combination to keep me functioning at a more effective speed.

Incidentally if any readers here have a software program that tracks usage and lets you know what your computer is up to when you aren't there, I'd appreciate the name. :)