[ubuntu] obsenely high bandwidth usage

[RabbieBurns]

The folks im staying with have a capped internet, and Im doing everything I can to limit my usage. Im just using it for browsing and email, the occasional youtube, and skype once a week for about 10 mins. Wouldnt have thought that would have used much. I tried to use ntop, but it doesnt seem to work here, so I installed vnstat. Ive hardly used the internet in the last couple of days, but here are the stats, and they seem far far too high for me. Is there something on ubuntu that uses up heaps of bandwidth??

 

root@rubuntu:~# vnstat -d

wlan0  /  daily

   day         rx      |     tx      |  total
------------------------+-------------+----------------------------------------
  26.06.    283.95 MB  |   51.48 MB  |  335.42 MB   %%%:
  27.06.    287.93 MB  |   54.32 MB  |  342.25 MB   %%%:
  28.06.      1.52 GB  |  310.47 MB  |    1.83 GB   %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%::::
  29.06.       911 kB  |     436 kB  |    1.32 MB
------------------------+-------------+----------------------------------------

 

Why would it have suddenly spiked on the 28th?

 

Ive got firefox and thunderbird set not check for updates. Im not sure what else would have used all this...

[kmount]

Not aware of anything beyond maybe automatic aptitude upgrades in the background or something?

[SYNACK]

The ubuntu core OS seems to check repositories and upgrade itself every six seconds so I would be looking at the core OS upgrade checker and applyer mechanisum. Edited June 28, 2009 by SYNACK

[RabbieBurns]

it was set to check every 2 days, and to notify only. Do you think vnstat could maybe be reporting incorrectly? Is there something else I could use to check?

 

I have a couple of RSS feeds in my firefox bookmark toolbar, do they use much bandwitdth?