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High Data Usage
I've been upset here with the high data usage that is being reported since I had the PureFiber installed into my house. My data usage has come close to reaching the soft cap before I start getting ov...
Solution: Perform a factor reset option on the TELUSTV-21TV digital box.
After and hour and a half with Telus technical support and customer support with no solution, I decided to just wing it and try a factor reset. This did change my TELUSTV-21T digital box’s In Home Status from Not Connected at Home to Connected at home.
I had to sign up for the unlimited usage (@ $20/mo) in order to avoid any overage charges I would encounter going over my 550Gb soft cap limit.
I first contact in this hour and a half was with the technical support and for almost an hour I kept trying to explain that the only needed to change the status for me. He kept thinking I as referring to the Telus TV+ app on my phone and I kept telling him the issue is with the digital box. Well, he indicated that since I could watch the channels on the digital box that this was not a technical issue and passed me onto customer support. After explaining the situation to a lady there she indicated there were no issues with my account and passed me back to technical support. Talking to this next technician, he verified that the status on the digital box was indicating Not Connected at Home and since I had upgrade to unlimited it was no longer an issue... he basically was telling me this status is “working as intended.” He then transferred me to another number that quickly disconnected me from the phone call.
It seems Telus has been removing subscription pages and such from their web site for I’m looking for an actual Telus page that explains PikTV and data usage. All I could find was this in the Telus forum:
https://forum.telus.com/t5/Pik-TV/Question-on-Data-Usage/m-p/70177
I remember information that stated “watching live and On Demand TV content on the Pik TV media box will not contribute to your internet data usage on your home network. “ But no luck in finding this on the Telus sight anymore.
I’ll keep the unlimited going for another month and if the usage drops back to my usual 100-200Gb / month, I’ll be removing that unlimited add-on and saving myself $20 / month.
KHR
TELUS Team Member
TELUS Team MemberThe Pik TV Media Box is no longer supported - and hasn't been for over a year. It was end-of-life due to Google no longer providing security updates to Android P. I would highly recommend disconnecting this box. Are you using the Pik Media Box or the TELUS TV Digital Box (model TELUS TV-21T)? If yes to the TELUS TV Digital Box - any traffic on the TELUS TV+ app does not count towards your home internet usage. However, if you are streaming any 3rd party apps such as YouTube from a TELUS-supplied box, this DOES count towards your internet data usage. The same principle applies to the TELUS TV+ app on any other device.
You mention networking a fair amount - are the devices you access TELUS TV+ from recognizing that you are connected in-home? The quickest way to check is to look at a channel that is only available in-home such as Omni Pacific (119) or Chek (121). Alternatively, you can look at your In Home Status under Account information in settings. If you're showing as out of home - this could explain the data usage and you may need to reconfigure your network so that the TV is connected directly to your gateway.
Okay, I've had some time to do some digging. As you mentioned to check the In Home Status, and I checked the Telus TV-21T box and it does indicate Not Connected at Home. That would explain then the high usage since having the PureFiber run into my house. The usage has been about 3-4 times more than when I was using the T3200M. Since being switched over, I have also noticed that I no longer received any usage warnings or see my usage in detail.
Just for fun, I check the Telus TV+ app on my phone and when connected to my phone's network (Rogers), I had the same indication that of Not Connect at Home. Yet when I switched to my Wi-Fi network (not the Boost device), it indicated I was now Connected at home.
I think the next step is to talk to Telus tech support again have have them debug the issue with the digital box and my account. Thanks for pointing me to the reason for the high usage.
Thanks for your reply,
I am using the Telus TV-21T box (exchanged from the older box) and it's currently on pause and powered off . You indicated that it shouldn't be counted to my internet usage but my stats (and Telus MyTelus) say it is. I still have it powered off and will take another reading in the next few hours and compare that with my local LAN. I suspect it to be roughly the same since Telus can't see what I'm doing on my personal LAN. I'm not turning the Tv-21T back on since I don't want to take the chance I'd be charged for exceeding my soft cap of 550Gb.
When you indicated to check the in-home channel / status, I can't seem to find it on the TV-21T box. Any steps on how to do this would be helpful.
One consideration, could the DNS setting have an affect on this? I have set the Telus modem (NH20A) to the Cloudfare DNS since it doesn't monitor site tracking that Telus would do; Telus would love to know what sites I visit and sell the info to 3rd parties. I don't like big brother/little sister watching over my shoulder. But I'm wondering now, could it be using this alternate DNS that is causing my PikTv device not to think I'm not accessing the Telus streaming server. I was using the Telus T3200M prior to the hardwire (fiber) upgrade and yes I did have it linked to the Cloudfare DNS as well without any usage issues.
I'm going to pull out my old Raspberry PI and have it monitor & log the network usage between my network and the Telus devices. That way I will have a true log file of the upload/download of data which will desperate what I use and what the Telus devices suspect I use. I truely expect that the PikTv box (TV-21T) is adding it's usage to my Telus usage. Sorry, I just got ninja'd into a MMO, 6.5 hrs later I checked the Telus.com reading and it indicated 494.73558Gb used, an increase of only 0.67267Gb for the hours of hard gaming time. So you can see, my data usage is small compared to what the PikTv would have report.
I'd love to remove the Telus controll on the old PikTv box so that it would become a regular Android computer.
