GSM WORLD

Ive just been playing with my new O2 datacard, and I have
discovered that, as long as I leave it connected, it uploads
and downloads data totally unbidden.

This seems a bit of a rip-off to me. They charge you so much per
megabyte and then they get their cards to up and download data
to no purpose, clocking up money on your account.

OK, I admit that it only averages 200KB per hour, but its
the principle of the thing that annoys me.

Or am I speaking from ignorance (well, I am, but I mean
some specific ignorance relating to this free data transfer)?

Does the network *have* to keep transferring data in order to
maintain itself even if you are not asking it to transfer
anything.

(Basically, I want the datacard so that I can sit for several
hours working and, every so often, look up something on Google,
so the card is going to be unused 95% of the time, if not 98%,
but the time wasted while waiting for it to connect when you
want to check something probably justifies the outlay of the
free data transfer that O2 take from you.)


All the best,

Paul


Paul Beverley, Editor, Living with Technology & Archive Magazine
-----------------------Phone: 01603-722544----------------------
Freelance editing and proofreading: http://www.archivepub.co.uk/

Paul Beverley wrote:

You are sure that its not your computer?
That it will never generate traffic on its own?
Not to mention, the v word...

Paul Beverley wrote:

It is hardly fair to accuse O2 of ripping you off for the activity of
your computer. If you dont want this to happen, then go offline.

If you dont believe this, then connect via another method and watch
the coneection ticking along a few bytes at a time.

Do you have any anti-vius, firewall, Windows Update, Java, and many
other programs that automatically check for updates when online?
Perhaps this is where your rip-off is..

In message
andy wrote:



Dont know if my two replies that I wrote around 1 oclock
got to you, but they havent arrived at me.

Anyway, they were to the effect that I hadnt really thought
about the idea that it could be the computer generating the
extraneous data traffic.

In fact, Ive connected up today, and its quiet as a mouse!

Dont you just *love* Windows?! :-(

So, O2, please accept my apologies for the unfair criticism.


All the best,

Paul


Paul Beverley, Editor, Living with Technology & Archive Magazine
-----------------------Phone: 01603-722544----------------------
Freelance editing and proofreading: http://www.archivepub.co.uk/

paul@archivemag.co.uk declared for all the world to hear...

Its probably your computer thats doing things because it realises its
connected to the internet.
--
Regards
Jon

In message , Paul Beverley
writes

TCPView from <http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/TcpView.html> might
help you find out why.
--
Martin Jay