Exceeded data plan

[Sherri Tierney]

Yikes! That's a first. I got an email from AT&T saying we have exceeded our 150GB per month data limit. I went to their site to check out my usage and I think most of it is my online backup plan. I'm backing up roughly 5-6 gig a day. Multiply that times 30 and add the extra stuff we do online and it definitely works out to be over the limit. Oy! Sad part is, I've been doing this initial back-up with backblaze for months now and I'm still not done. I need a new solution. If I were all backed up it wouldn't be bad so maybe I'll just suck it up and pay the extra usage for the next few months (or stop my backups after a certain amount per day) and stick with it though.

[Stacey42]

I had the same problem & then once I did get backed up my laptop fried itself & guess what I had to do *again*? So incredibly frustrating! I'm with a local broadband company & the first time I was able to explain to my provider what I was doing & they were kind enough to switch me to the next tier plan for no additional money for 3 months but I had to remember to call & cancel the switch or I would have started being charged the additional money. Not sure what AT&Ts plans are but you might be able to work something out with them.

This time around I had no such luck so I end up turning backblaze off & on every couple of days to stay under the limit. It's probably going to take 6 months to back up the new laptop

[Sherri Tierney]

The email I received stated we could get an extra 50GB for $10. They wouldn't charge us this month (we just ran over TODAY and our billing cycle ends TODAY) and would email us if we got close again and would also not charge us the next time but basically three strikes and you're charged. :D I'll watch it a little more closely. I sure hope to get backed up at some point soon. So frustrating!

[maryinaz]

Wow! I just had to back up my entire computer again with Backblaze because of a trojan I got a few weeks ago, and it took less than 2 weeks. I'm sure you all have more data than me, but months seems extreme!

[marlathrall]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, my monthly limit is 7 GB. Yes, SEVEN. I go over and get charged extra every other month for some reason. Oh and our overage fee? $10 per GB. Our bill last month for internet was $160.

Unfortunately, I live in the boonies and this is the only company available. Oh and our internet is slow too.

ETA- When we originally signed the contract last year we had no limit and then they later added it in. We aren't complete dumb dumbs, but we are pretty much stuck with it until something better comes up in our area.

[Sherri Tierney]

Oh wow, Marla. I can't imagine. :( Your internet plan and your hobby sure don't line up well, do they? I think I download more than that a month in kits.

Mary, I'm backing up over 1TB of data. Even at the fastest backblaze will go its 5-6 gig a day. Crashplan shows they can back up 3 gig a day. I started with a crashplan trial and quickly gave it up because of the whole starting over part. It told me 6 months to back up, assuming I didn't add another thing in that 6 months. I took 200 pictures on Easter...

Actually, now that I think about it its probably the crashplan backup that threw me over. I was doing both. I'm going to cancel my crashplan trial now. I may go back to it later but do the option where they send you the drive to start your files on.

[jessica31876]

OMGosh I have absolutely no idea what my total is every month. Our internet is unlimited and it is relatively fast too. We pay 92 dollars a month though for the fastest internet and phone service from our local cable company. It started out as 60 or so a month for 12 months then went up to 75 and we just got an email saying it is going up to 92. I wonder if I would pay as much for internet if I had a limit because I have no idea how much I actually use.

[Sherri Tierney]

Ours used to be unlimited and was when we signed the contract. They put a limit on it a while back and it has never came close to affecting us until now. I doubt we'll have problems in the future now that I realized I was mistakenly backing up to TWO different online backups. LOL We pay $40 a month for our DSL. It was the fastest AT&T offered at the time but I don't know what they offer now. We used to have dish, home phone, cell phones and DSL through them and we paid waaay too much so we started dropping everything and changing plans and ended up saving $200 a month or more.

[jessica31876]

our home phone service to have all that is offered with our current phone service was close to 75 a month and that was with no long distance calls and we paid 25 or 30 for dialup. Once we had gotten our contract completed with the dialup we dropped them and went with the cable company. We get up to 10 megabytes per second download and 1 megabyte per second upload. So we still pay about the same amount we did before for dial-up and regular phone service.

[disneyaddict]

You guys are so lucky. We have AT&T satellite, pay for 17 gigabytes, and can use 11.8 GB per month before we hit below dial-up speeds. I pay $79 per month for this. Guess what, there is no way to pay for more for overage, period! If we go over three months in a row, we are at below dial up for the remainder of our two year contract. The problem is that it is a 30 day rolling billing period; and it is so easy to go over the limit twice in one week that I have to track it daily and still do most of my downloading at the McDonalds in town. Living in the boonies is no fun when it comes to Internet.

[marlathrall]

Living in the boonies is no fun when it comes to Internet.

Aint that the truth. lol.

One of the backup plans offers a service where the initially send you a hard drive to back up to and you send it back. I'm not sure which one, but I know it is offered.

[KateD]

After seeing this thread I had to check my usage. I went over my limit, too, last month. Oops. I moved all my photos and digiscrap supplies to my laptop and started a Backblaze backup. January and February were both about 50GB per month, but March was a bit over 250 GB (my limit) and I'm at 105 GB for April. Fortunately, I only have about 15 GB to go for my initial backup, so I should be okay for April. I have the Backblaze options set for the fastest backup option and it took roughly 2 weeks to back up about 350 GB. Once I start converting my VHS and Hi8 tapes to DVD, I'll have to start monitoring the backup rate carefully so that I keep it under the monthly limit.

[Sherri Tierney]

Aint that the truth. lol.

One of the backup plans offers a service where the initially send you a hard drive to back up to and you send it back. I'm not sure which one, but I know it is offered.

Crashplan has this option. Its pricey though (like $130) and DH and I are debating it. Part of me says its totally worth it and part of me says I could just buy another EHD for that price and back up to it and send it to my MIL or someone. Of course that wouldn't give me continuous backups of newer stuff though.


After seeing this thread I had to check my usage. I went over my limit, too, last month. Oops. I moved all my photos and digiscrap supplies to my laptop and started a Backblaze backup. January and February were both about 50GB per month, but March was a bit over 250 GB (my limit) and I'm at 105 GB for April. Fortunately, I only have about 15 GB to go for my initial backup, so I should be okay for April. I have the Backblaze options set for the fastest backup option and it took roughly 2 weeks to back up about 350 GB. Once I start converting my VHS and Hi8 tapes to DVD, I'll have to start monitoring the backup rate carefully so that I keep it under the monthly limit.

I wish I could backup 350 GB in 2 weeks. I'm maxing out at about 5 GB a day and I have my settings so that my backblaze is backing up as fast as possible too. I think our internet is partly bogged down by my husband's online games though. He's also been known to pause my backup while he plays his games since he thinks the backup makes his game slower. :glare:

[Sharon Kay]

I hate online backup ... mozy would NEVER finish for me ... so gave up ...

I bought a Drobo and it is a RAID system ... it backs up my data.

I want to buy a Blue-Ray writer and disks ... then back up to that and mail the disks to my sister or brother ... that will be faster than online ... and for now I copy my photographs to 2 additional external storage devices ...