Peer to Peer Applications:

The most common misuse of bandwidth is having programs which you or your family may have installed, that allows for file sharing and other people accessing your computer. These are Peer to Peer applications. Many users can exceed their bandwidth limit by using peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing programs without proper configuration and attention, such as Morpheus, Kazaa, Hotline, Gnutella, BearShare, Limewire or BitTorrent. If not set up properly, your personal information is at risk of being sent out onto the Internet or even destroyed.

As an example, if a user is using BitTorrent to download files and forgets to close the application after the download, then the file can still be shared (uploaded) to the Internet using up bandwidth. So this being unknown to the user, that their computer is in fact acting as a file server, open to the Internet and other users to access and copy files. This results in continued network traffic flow. So users that use P2P applications should take extra precautions to ensure their use will not cause them to exceed the traffic limit allowed within a calendar month.

Closing these applications all the way can be a bit challenging. For example, most will not close fully when you click the close box, but instead, they will minimize themselves and hide in your system. To see if you have in fact fully closed an application, look by the clock and hover over each of the small icons there. If you see an icon you know is a P2P application or if the name of the P2P application that you use appears over one of those icons, then right-click on that icon and select ‘Close’ or ‘Exit’. This should shut down the application and stop it from uploading or downloading files.

Streaming Media:

If you use an application such as Youtube or Pandora (being streaming video or streaming music), this can utilize a significant amount of bandwidth. Even though these files are not permanently stored on your computer, the network traffic is still used while you are watching or listening. Downloading and sharing movies over the Internet is an extremely high bandwidth application. The cost of bandwidth to download a movie can be equal to the cost of buying some movies on a DVD.

Streaming Television:

Another device that utilizes a significant portion of Internet bandwidth is one that enables users to send their home cable TV shows to their computer.

Malware:

Malware is any type of unwanted software Virus or Spyware such as a Trojan. A common misuse of bandwidth is if your machine has been infected, which can leave your computer vulnerable to many forms of abuse.

A computer that has been infected can be used, unknown to the computer owner, as part of a 'Botnet', which leaves the machine open and vulnerable. Botnets are typically used by crackers to obtain access to your computer, thereby allowing them to continue using your computer as a gateway and a tool for infecting other computers.

Some sights offering free services and/or software come with a price, as these sights may install unwanted software in the form of Trojans, Dialers, Worms and Spyware (Adware), that will leave potentially any information stored on your computer or your computer itself, vulnerable. Spyware is not always covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing creating a marketing profile for you and transmits without your knowledge this information to compilers (who sell this information to advertising companies). Some symptoms that show probable Spyware infection on your computer are the appearance of a new toolbar in your Internet Explorer (that you did not install) or if your Browser crashes for no apparent reason or if your home page has been changed without your knowledge. See Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware free downloads at the end of this page.

Malware can be very damaging and should be corrected to prevent harm to your computer and information. As a computer virus attaches itself to a program or file, enabling it to spread from one computer to another (leaving infections as it travels), it is very important to ensure you run an active anti-virus program on your computer and to clean up and remove any that are found.

Gaming:

On-line game playing and video/audio chatting also uses higher bandwidth.

Other Applications:

It is a misconception to think that only using P2P applications or directly downloading files from the Internet causes bandwidth to be consumed. Though these utilize a significant amount of bandwidth, any application that uses the Internet will generate network traffic and is therefore counted towards your bandwidth usage allowed in a calendar month.

Some examples of low bandwidth applications are: