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cookies eats up my data allowance - how to fix ??

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by don_23805

don_23805
don_23805
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I now live too far away to get Comcast and its generous data allowance, so I now pay Verizon (a lot) by the gigabyte, and, if I'm not careful, go over my 30GB package. What I find makes the difference is setting FF to delete all cookies when I close the browser, which I have to do whenever I leave the PC. I used to browse (w/Comcast) at will and used 15-25GB. Now, if I inadvertently leave the browser running, something will eat up 8-10GB even when I'm not actively using it. Any suggestions on what I should pursue? TIA Don

I now live too far away to get Comcast and its generous data allowance, so I now pay Verizon (a lot) by the gigabyte, and, if I'm not careful, go over my 30GB package. What I find makes the difference is setting FF to delete all cookies when I close the browser, which I have to do whenever I leave the PC. I used to browse (w/Comcast) at will and used 15-25GB. Now, if I inadvertently leave the browser running, something will eat up 8-10GB even when I'm not actively using it. Any suggestions on what I should pursue? TIA Don

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox menu button/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox menu button/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

Firefox and extensions may check for updates. There are also extensions that otherwise contact a website for some service.

See also:

don_23805
don_23805 Question owner
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I'm still sort of in the same situation as before, though I'm more judicious in shutting down FF, even to end one session and start another immediately. I tried Safe Mode, but didn't exactly have a symptom to check to look for an improvement, so that seemed like a dead end. Before narrowing the issue down to cookies, I disconnected everything from the outside world: my weather station, my DirecTV receiver, etc. I reconnected the weather station and it doesn't seem to affect data usage noticeably. I track my data usage every morning with Verizon's app, and I'm now only using around 20% of the allotment I pay for. I'd like to try other stuff to try to get back to a more normal life. But I can't get a straight answer on how often Verizon updates its info. If I log into my router I can see numbers that appear to be bytes and/or packets (variable number of bytes) in & out. What I think I need is a desktop widget that shows data usage in real time. Is there such a thing? TIA, Don