O Canada! > Canadian > Cogeco > [Niagara] 40gb of "usage" while the modem is unplugged

reply to anonuser1

Re: [Niagara] 40gb of "usage" while the modem is unplu

reply to I_H8_Spam

I have been also hit by a charge of 82 GB in just one day*. I was with Teksavvy for over two years, with barely going over 20 GB a month.

*That day happened to be 'meter maintenance day'. The day before I was at 0.9 GB (one week into the month), the day after 83 GB!

I used to be with Cogeco, always exceeded my monthly limits or came quite close since day one. With the exact same usage now on Bell Fibe I rarely go over 40GB a month and I would probably say it is used more now! This kinda concerns me that I may have fallen victim to this crap without even realising. My parents conostantly pay 50+ I think it is due to overage. I hope Cogeco fixes this issue on their network, I can see the lawsuits happening now as how can you bill someone when techs etc are selling or giving away MAC addresses for others to use. Kinda scary especially since Cogeco's network would let this happen.

reply to Cogeco_Aaron
PM me your Cogeco contact information, I'll forward it to them to contact you if this hasn't been resolved.

reply to theboxjoe

Re: [Niagara] 40gb of "usage" while the modem is unplu

reply to I_H8_Spam
For those that are getting what you feel to be higher than expected usage amounts, are you seeing occasional spikes in your daily usages, or consistently higher usage every day?

I noticed weird spikes on some days and virtually silent on others...

One day 648MB...another 50GB...yep 50GB

Almost as though I was pulling an all nighter with rapidshare downloads...but it has been a looooong time since I did that...so most days should be fairly consistent (IMHO).

Again - has me stumped. Perhaps I am just truly out of tune with what we are using...or is that simply what 'they' want me to think?

It maybe time to get some lawyer's involved with the Cap business and get class action lawsuit going, won't do anything to customers but maybe, just maybe will get Robellus attention.

Never happen.

The solution is political, through regulation. It's the only way. FWIW, it will not happen with a Harper government in power. Not in a million years. The Ministry Of Industry and CTRC are corrupt beyond redemption.

Things are going to get much worse before they get better. Cogeco is just the tip of the iceberg.

Mike

Based on this thread, on a lark I decided to check our usage history. Typically, we used 20-30gig combined total each month. Imagine my surprise, with no usage pattern change, that we're suddenly doing double to triple that - around 60gig per month for the last three months.

The stranger portion is that it seems to be the upstream that's got odd jumps. Downstream, yeah I'm downloading games and patches and updates, some days with a gig or two is standard. Upstream, I imagine that a few hundred meg per day would be standard for us, usual usage.

But when I see days that have 200meg downstream but 1gig upstream, I can't really explain that. I'm not seeing any abnormal activity on our WiFi at all (although I've changed the password now just to be safe).

I'm a little concerned.

I experienced the exact same issue, in month 1 and month 2 of Cogeco's UBB enforcement.

Typical usage was well under allotment, set your watch by it, every month for over a year.

Then, in month 1 of UBB I go over, max overage fee, and month 2 I go over even more, max overage fee. I get a call on New Years Eve telling me I'm about to get billed for 2 months of max overage - an additional $60.

I called them out on their meter accuracy and notifications. I got 1 month reimbursed, but they wouldn't budge on the 2nd. In the meantime, my usage mysteriously returns to normal.

I cancelled Cogeco internet on that basis alone. I did wind up going back to them about a year later. But continued billing shenanigans (with others, not me) eventually saw me cancel that business account, and TV too.

Now... "this house is clean".



I think their network is subject to all manner of UBB abuse. I think their world-class, enterprise quality metering system is for shit, I think their upper management know it and are laughing at us all they way to the bank, because the government lets them.

The Ministry Of Industry and Measurement Canada should be all over this, and if for one second their first priority was to protect Canadians from this sort of behaviour they would be. Instead, the wolves are feasting on us and they turn a blind eye.

Third world internet access indeed.

Get used to it.

In the meantime, I consider it my personal mission in life to get as many people off Cogeco as possible.

The Audet's and their shareholders can eat shit.

Mike
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Cogeco - The New UBB Devil -»[Burloak] Usage Based Billing Nightmare
Cogeco UBB, No Modem Required - »[Niagara] 40gb of "usage" while the modem is unplugged

reply to Cogeco_Aaron

Yes sorry, I've been negligent. I never did get that PM from Cogeco_Aaron But a nice phone support rep took their details and told them not to worry about the warning message.

DCM425 was swapped at Pen Center and the account is active again. Usage has been normal according to the usage page, I'm still advising they swap to Start the basic plan will more then cover their needs.
--
AFK: Attack, fight, kill!! The healer is telling you to go pull mobs.
WTF: Way to fight! The healer is applauding your tactical genius

reply to I_H8_Spam
Hey, sorry about not getting back to ya. I've been logging in just briefly to check for PMs because I've been out of the office. Didn't realize you wanted me to PM you.

I've sent you the PM if your friend needs any more assistance.

reply to I_H8_Spam
So..... Are there crooks out there that are really cloning modems and using others bandwidth or not?
If so, is this investigated?

No need for a specific user to come forward a TON of people know about cloning modems on both Rogers and Cogeco networks. It's not just tech's sharing info, with a hacked modem you can plug into a line on a node and get the information you need to clone. It's also not limited to one mac per city, it's one mac per node as far as I know. There are forums on the internet that exchange information from different cities to make life easier for them. The most common modems do appear to be the Moto Surfboard SB51XX series as they firmware is easily modifiable through jtag access.

I'm sure if you search google a bit you'll find all the information you want on this, it's not exactly a well kept secret. Personally I'm aware of it, and I monitor the usage on my account, vs what the server says. Any serious variations (I'm not with Cogeco fwiw) would prompt me to contact the ISP and change modems. I don't condone doing this especially because you financially harm individuals with this hack, and further just beacause I'm not a crook. The way DOCSIS operates all other modem information is visible on a node which leaves cable vulnerable to attacking if a system is not set up properly. DSL by it's underlying nature does not suffer from this problem, however it does suffer from many other major malfunctions, the least of which is being a Bell product.

I don't know why anyone from these forums is with Cogeco and Rogers now anyways with excellent options like Start.ca, Teksavvy and Ebox just to name a few. Superior service, caps, service options and prices.

While I'm not sure if an associate of mine contacted Cogeco, I do know he did contact Rogers notifying them of this and an exploitable hack in their cell phone service with information about it and how to fix it, which he offered his assistance in fixing. He was essentially told to go pound sand.

They know, it's my opinion that they just don't care since the end result is increased revenue for them as a result of desirable uninformed customers.

So yes it exists, the providers likely know (again I was informed Rogers was contacted about it, but am not certain that Cogeco has been), they don't seem to care and it's now becoming rampant enough that it's "news". I've even met a few people who've "purchased" this hacked setup as a service in Niagara. I suspect many of IKtel's lite tier customers use that to get an active line into their premises and then plug in their "cloned" modem.

If someone from Cogeco is under the assumption that "no we don't know about it" let me know how to get in touch with you. It's very disturbing that you are being stolen from with the direct result of overbilling your customers with fraudulent charges. (I'm anonymous for now, because I don't want to be bothered about it but will happily work with you if their is a willingness to fix the problem). I'm not exactly a Cogeco fan, but this type of theft is as unnaceptable as the fact that this hack exists in Cable Co's network.

Hank