A new Windows 11 HP machine and now internet usage is way high every day...why?

[21rouge]

 A very senior relative had been successfully using a Windows 7 machine for many years. But I made the decision that because of the lack of support for Windows 7 I thought it best that we get him a machine with Windows 10/11.

So we got him an HP machine which I discovered came with Windows 11. As his internet is a lower tier DSL I did all the initial Windows updates at my home where I have a much higher speed and then brought over the HP desktop to his home.

He has been using it now for about a month and a half. He is now coming to the end of his first full billing cycle and he unexpectedly got an 'alert' from his ISP  that he was 80% to the limit of his usage with over a week remaining 😞 (16 gigs out of 20 gigs). Such an alert has never happened to him in all his years of being on line. Looking more carefully I can see quite clearly, logging into his ISPs account, that the vastly different and increased usage corresponds to the time he has had the new new desktop. He normally averages less than 3 gigs a month and now he will be very likely over 20 gigs!

This almost 90 year old has the most basic surfing habits which has changed minimally since getting the new machine (this Windows 11 machine has Windows Defender activated).

- using a web based email address from his ISP he gets video attachments sent from relatives (which he must download before viewing (but I did check and any video is more often than not less than 15 megs.))

- he plays simple card and word games eg solitaire and the like

(It goes w/o saying that he does not download movies or music.)

He is hardwired to the  modem. There is a visible wireless network set up which was password protected. When I visited I checked the modem interface and could see only his desktop and my phone listed. Even so I changed the password but checking it made no difference re his usage i.e. 0.67 gigs yesterday :(.

Could it really be the case that every day his windows 11 machine is getting such large updates?

Could some/much of the usage be downloads due to HP updates?

(January 15 is when I brought the Windows 11 machine over to his home and set it up (See pre Jan 15 and then compare to  Jan 15 and onward). (First column is download; second is upload and the third is of course TOTAL)

I am not sure what else I can do to figure out this continued spike of usage. Thanks for your experience and your advice.

[Prométhée]

hi

Is it possible to change internet service?
if I understand correctly, the main problem is that the use is limited, whereas in many places, we have unlimited access possible, for not very expensive?

Windows 11, has regular updates, but it's not every day, check with history, what has been done
the computer, can be equipped with hp support assistant, but same thing, the updates, do not have to be so frequent
check anyway, and turn off automatic updates to check

HP Support Assistant | HP® Official Site

[WAWood]

@21rouge 

Wanted to add a few comments ...

First, Windows Defender updates frequently but even so, should not use much bandwidth for that.

Second, video attachments can use a LOT of the data allowance.  My wife added a website to her phone that does video streaming and we went through our monthly data allowance in 3 days!!  So, these will really eat into the data allowance.

Third, you can go into Windows settings, Network & Internet, and enable Metered Connection. You can also set a data limit to cap the usage.