Why has my 4G LTE 890L jetpack started using so much data?

[RichardLA]

I have been experiencing Data Overage on my 890L but have not changed the way I have been using my computer. I am also only pulling 2 bars now on 4G. I have talked to Verizon and they are telling me that there is nothing wrong on Verizons end and that I am just using the data. I have seen where some people have changed the Sims card and it has helped but Verizon have told me that this would not solve any of my problems. Any suggestions. I am getting nowhere with Verizon. Thanks Richard

[vzw_customer_support]

RichardLA,

We are very sorry to hear of your issues with your jetpack. Let's get to the bottom of this asap. How much data were you using previously? How much are you using now? Have you made sure that no one else is connected to your jetpack? We would suggest resetting your device http://vz.to/1n2HxhV and then you attempt to reconnect everything to get your data under control.  Please keep us posted.

Thank you,
RobinD_VZW

Follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

[RichardLA]

Robin:  I was using just under 5GB and now am using between 7 & 8. No one else is using the Jetpack and I have already reset it with no change. Richard

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Message was edited by: Admin Moderator

[vzw_customer_support]

Thanks for clarifying, RichardLA!  Have you had a chance to review your bill details to see if you notice any unusual data connections or long data sessions?  I want to ensure we can pinpoint the cause of the higher than normal data usage.  Keep me posted.

AnthonyTa_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[RichardLA]

There is usage when I am sleeping and even when I am not at home. I turn the Jetpack off. We are at the 19th of April and i am at 90% already. Paying all of this overage is not right. August is when my two years are up and I cannot see me staying with Verizon. This is a big waste of good money.

[John_Getzke]

The only defense against overages is to turn off your Jetpack.  As long as it is online anything can connect to it and start using your connection with or without your knowledge.  It is irrelevant what you are doing at the time of the usage.  The account holder will always be held responsible to pay the bill at the end of the billing cycle regardless of how the data was consumed.

[vzw_customer_support]

We certainly do not want to lose you, RichardLA. Have you adjusted your operating system and anti-virus sync settings? Are you viewing the data records online via http://vzw.com/myverizon?

Thank you,

YaleK_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWsupport

[RichardLA]

Everything is in sync and operating system is adjusted. Worked fine for the first few months then started with the overages. No changes in the way that I am using my system. I turn off the Jetpack whenever I am not using it. This has cost me HUNDREDS of dollars.

[vzw_customer_support]

RichardLA,
Thank you for the additional information. Please view the usage online here http://bit.ly/xB4iTc to view the dates, times and usage amounts when the device is connected to the network. Thank you.

TominqueBo_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[RichardLA]

Just wondering if I might get a reply from my answer. This is the kind of problems I have with Verizon. Seems like nobody takes much pride in customer service. I notice that there are many more people having problems with this item.

[vzw_customer_support]

RichardLA,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I am sorry for the delay. That raise in usage is definitely not typical. Walk us through a typical day of how you use your jetpack, and throw in an outliers (streaming movie here and there). If you feel that a sim replacement may help you are more then eligible to get a replacement at a store. Please fill us in so we can get a better idea of what may be happening.

Thank you,

TonyG_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[RPinFL]

Having a similar problem with a like device.  Been on the 10 gig plan for more than a year and went over a couple of times but thought it was my use and paid.  However, earlier this month Verizon Wireless sent me a bunch of alerts indicating more than 8g of data usage over less than 2 hours.  I didn't think the system was capable of such speed but I know that I wasn't using the device..  Have spoken with with 3 different VW reps.  1st wanted to run tests on the device but I objected since I was in or past 4th overage and didn't want anymore.  Scheduled a call back after the cycle ended but no return call.  Got on phone with another rep.  He was sympathetic, was going to provide a credit (amount unknown), was going to check the data usage and scheduled a follow-up call.  Again, no call as scheduled.  Got on chat with a 3rd.  After going through the whole mess and informed that would not pay for the overages again, he stated that the previous rep attempted to post a credit but it failed.  He said he'd meet me halfway.  I declined and he said he'd have to get higher authority for that.  I guess we'll see.  I asked about checking the device but he just gave me a number to call.  I'll pass on that and take in to an office to see.  Don't know how this will turn out but pretty disgusted with the cost and the service.  A friend of mine from France lives in States half the year.  While here he streams French tv and movies almost every day at less cost than what I pay for my service.

[#13]

High data use and low bars sound like someone is piggy backing on your hotspot.

Did anyone suggest a firmware update?

Do you turn the hotspot off when not using it (you must)?

[RPinFL]

Are you suggesting that the device can be hacked? If that’s the case, I’ll start pulling the battery. I changed my max connection to 1 and will have to change that when I need more than one device connected. No one suggested a firmware update, the software is up to date.

I’m still not paying for the overages.

[7e18n1]

YES, it can be hacked! Rather than removing the battery and changing Max Connections, simply strengthen wireless security.

1) Power down and remove the SIM card

2) Power up, reset the device and wait a minute or two

3) Power down, reinstall the SIM card, and power up the device

4) Login to the Device’s user interface: example http://192.168.1.1 YMMV

5) Change the default SSID to something that does not identify you or the device

6) Change the default PSK to one with high entropy

PSK is Pre-Shared Key (the correct name for what Verizon calls Wi-Fi password)

Low entropy = Less than 32 characters

High entropy = 32 to 63 random printable characters

Select WPA2-PSK Personal AES

Do NOT select WPA/WPA2 Mixed mode

Avoid MAC filtering

Do broadcast the SSID

You can get a high entropy 63 random printable character PSK from https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm Copy and Paste the key to a text file and move the key between computers with a USB stick. Copy and Paste it to the wireless applet when prompted. For more generalized information, Google how do I secure my wireless network.

[John_Getzke · Accepted solution]

All of this is a little overkill. 

I think as long as you change your WiFi password from the default provided on the back of the Jetpack that you are sufficiently protected from a hacker or unwanted guest.  True hacks are not likely going to brute force your password anyways.  Its much more feasible to find a backdoor to a device and connect without or expose the WiFi password than it is to force it down.  If you are creating a 63 random character pw then you are seriously missing out on one of the advantages of using WPA2 security in the first place.

Normal strong password criteria should be sufficient for WiFi:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/tips-for-creating-a-strong-password

Jetpacks are also not designed to be left online 24/7.  You should be powering it on/off as needed through the day to ensure it has a fresh connection to the local towers and avoids hardware defects.  In regards to security, you cannot break into something that is powered off.

[7e18n1]

You’re right! On second thought, it is overkill! Removing and reinstalling the SIM card is not necessary in most situations. However, a high entropy PSK is necessary in all situations to secure the device from unauthorized users. 

You think… but your actions miss opportunities to tell people to strengthen wireless security. Your thoughts they may be but those thoughts are not representative of your actions which dance around changing the SSID and PSK. Anyone complaining about excessive data usage needs to be told to lose the default red flag that attracts hackers and strengthen the default PSK and no one in these forums is doing that.

An i7 3630 and video card can try all 4.294 billion 8 character lowercase hexadecimal passwords, in minutes. It sounds to me like you have no idea what brute force may be doing to those complaining about data usage.

Find a back door… What back door?  You cannot expose a WPA or WPA2 pre-shared key! This is a primary requirement of the original WPA specification. A WPA or WPA2 PSK that is not 64 characters is combined with the SSID to produce the 256 bit hash used to encrypt/decrypt the data. The 256 bit hash could careless about the PSK’s length. The idea that WPA2 works different with a 63 character key, is wrong.

You haven’t posted this URL to someone that could benefit from it, because…? Not in the times I’ve seen where you could have or should have, but failed too. Never the less, the information contained is dated. A minimum of 12 to 16 characters has been recommended for “passwords” for sometime. However, Wi-Fi does not use a password, Wi-Fi uses a pre-shared key and experience with such is preferable to Microsoft’s basic password advice.

The device doesn’t need to be on 24/7, in only needs to be on long enough to capture a couple hundred packets. Any i7 and video card can then determine the default Wi-Fi Password in minutes. So, in effect, it can be broken into when it is off! But since the whole process can be done in less than 30 minutes, off just means waiting longer to verify the found PSK works.

[John_Getzke]

My apologies if you assumed I was some kind of a cryptology or security specialist.  Let me say right now that I am not.  Nor do I have experience at hacking WiFi passwords except to patch up known issues when I hear about them.  Security is simply not my area of expertise.

In my experience with these VZW devices a high entropy password is not necessary and provides more of a burden than a benefit to the end user.  I agree that a basic level of security should be applied when operating these devices.  Anything beyond that is helpful but ultimately not going to be useful.  Regardless of any vulnerabilities I hope you understand that crying hacker should not be used as a cop out instead of investigating into and fixing what may be a real problem.  I see far too many data usage threads to think that a hacker is behind a significant portion of them.

If the default password criteria is such a vulnerability then please provide us all with some documentation to support it.  I'm happy to educate myself and share with others if you are.  I try not to comment on things I do not understand.

[John_Getzke]

I followed up on the advice you shared regarding Googling how to secure your WiFi network.  The results here did not share with me anything new regarding a best practice to configure all WiFi passwords with high entropy.  In fact all of the top links that I found from the search failed to mention anything beyond a 12 character suggestion.  More is always better, but is not specifically stated in any of the resources I found.

A good test to keep password entropy in context would be to test a similar password on this site: https://howsecureismypassword.net/.

Here you can play around and test out a similar password (not your actual) and see how long a brute force attack would take to crack. A basic password with 12 characters, uppercase, symbol and numeric would take 4000 years to crack.  I think that is sufficient for my WiFi security concerns.  Jazz it up and remove common words and you will see your results increase accordingly.

Again, all this password security talk is referring to a brute force attack on a WiFi password.  I mentioned backdoors and other loopholes before which I feel is more of a concern.  For example WEP has a fundamental flaw in it that allows an attacker to crack it within moments.  This is due to the technology involved, not the password entropy involved.  Likewise there was also a large WPS vulnerability exposed a while back.  This allowed an attacker to brute force his way into a router without having any involvement with connected clients at all.  There is also a fairly new vulnerability out there for Linksys routers that exposes the admin credentials when Remote Access is enabled.  If an attacker gets the admin credentials then no amount of password entropy will secure you.

[7e18n1]

Let me see if I understand this, you spent 20 minutes on Google and left with more of the same misconceptions. I got 4 million years with a 12 character password. Obviously, you’re doing something wrong.

In your hast, to make your case, you made mine! 11 minutes, that’s how long your site says it will take to hack the default password on my Verizon MiFi 5510L.

Don’t use WEP! Turn off WPS, and buy another brand router. I wouldn't worry about backdoors and loopholes and turn your attention instead to that slightly better than 12345678 default password on Verizon Mifi devices.

[John_Getzke]

Lets keep this conversation classy and to the facts.  Its alright to disagree but lets leave the personal snipes out of it.

If your opinion is that everyone should have a 64 character password then that is fine.  I am still waiting to see some kind of evidence to support a claim that the benefit of managing such a password out weighs the inconvenience.  A 20 minute Google search should have turned up more evidence to support such a claim if that was necessary or a new security trend.  How come no one else is supporting such a view? Where should we be looking to educate ourselves?  Rather than calling everyone lazy and incompetent here is your chance to show us something concrete.  I already mentioned I am happy to learn and change my ways.

Lets be clear, I do support changing the default password on all MiFis.  That is a basic and simple step everyone can see the benefit of.  Where we disagree is how much more entropy is required to provide acceptable security beyond that.  How about we agree on some kind of a benchmark instead, say 5000 years according to a site of your choosing?  Is the website I linked not creditable enough?  If not then provide us with a better one.

Perhaps we should start a new thread on this subject to get to the bottom of it.  I feel we are no longer addressing the concerns of the OP and other posters at this point.