Blue Iris Eats Up Xfinity Bandwith -- Solution?

[DroMike]

I've been running Blue Iris since mid-June. Around July 25th Xfinity sent me a notice that I was perilously close to reaching their 1TB (1,000GB) data limit. In the preceding several months I was using only a third of that (300GB or so).

I turned off Blue Iris and squeaked by under the July limit. I didn't turn it back on until after I made a short experiment: At 7am on Aug 13 I viewed how much data I'd used thus far in August. It was 138GB. I then turned on or ran Blue Iris (w/4 cams) before I left for work only, and then turned off Blue Iris after returning from work (making certain I wasn't using any streaming video on my TV or elsewhere). at 7am on Aug 14 (the next morning) I again viewed how much data I'd used and it went up to 162GB. That means BI eats up 24GB of data daily, just during working hours - and explained why I neared my monthly cap in July.

I DO love Blue Iris but can't continue to use it if it causes me to go over my monthly Xfinity data limit (they give you 2 free months of overage; after that it's $$$ each month...). For other options I see there are hardware NVRs or DVR's (I'm not sure of the difference). Would those hardware items free me of chewing up data with Xfinity or are they really only for storage? I'm a novice with this and honestly don't know which is the wisest path. Thoughts?

Thank you for any help. - Mike

 

[fenderman]

I've been running Blue Iris since mid-June. Around July 25th Xfinity sent me a notice that I was perilously close to reaching their 1TB (1,000GB) data limit. In the preceding several months I was using only a third of that (300GB or so).

I turned off Blue Iris and squeaked by under the July limit. I didn't turn it back on until after I made a short experiment: At 7am on Aug 13 I viewed how much data I'd used thus far in August. It was 138GB. I then turned on or ran Blue Iris (w/4 cams) before I left for work only, and then turned off Blue Iris after returning from work (making certain I wasn't using any streaming video on my TV or elsewhere). at 7am on Aug 14 (the next morning) I again viewed how much data I'd used and it went up to 162GB. That means BI eats up 24GB of data daily, just during working hours - and explained why I neared my monthly cap in July.

I DO love Blue Iris but can't continue to use it if it causes me to go over my monthly Xfinity data limit (they give you 2 free months of overage; after that it's $$$ each month...). For other options I see there are hardware NVRs or DVR's (I'm not sure of the difference). Would those hardware items free me of chewing up data with Xfinity or are they really only for storage? I'm a novice with this and honestly don't know which is the wisest path. Thoughts?

Thank you for any help. - Mike

This has absolutely nothing to do with blue iris. Blue iris cannot and does not use up you external bandwith...unless you are streaming cameras from OUTSIDE your network. If that is the case you wont be any better off with an NVR, you would still have to stream the cameras.
Where are your cameras located relative to your blue iris pc?

 

[fenderman]

well the fact that you are using dropcam solves this riddle Nest Dropcam Recent Change?
using those crappy cameras requires uploading and then downloading the cameras feed 24/7 from their servers and then hoping they dont change something that screws your feed. You cant use dropcam with an NVR (and you would have the same issue even if you could)...sell them and buy proper cameras.

 

[DroMike]

I'm quite happy to rid myself of the two Dropcams from BI (I'm actually getting free storage on their proprietary website). Would you think this is the bulk of the problem or the main data hounds - those particular cams?

Actually I didn't see your initial reply. OK, I'll dump those Dropcams and do a test. The other cams I'll have are Amcrest directly connected to my network and in or (later) just outside my modestly-sized home.

Thanks!

 

[fenderman]

I'm quite happy to rid myself of the two Dropcams from BI (I'm actually getting free storage on their proprietary website). Would you think this is the bulk of the problem or the main data hounds - those particular cams?

they are the ONLY source of your problem. When you use true ip cameras on your local network they use ZERO of your allotted xfiniti bandwidth, ZERO.

 

[crw030]

Must be something like @fenderman has identified, because I stream 3 cameras (8.4Mp total) 24x7@2FPS to a remote BI (over VPN) to record the video (and this is exceptionally strange setup).

I only hit 600GB/month on Xfinity, and if my BI wasn't at a different location I would have next to no Xfinity usage.

If you don't have it open for live view the entire day at the office it would have to be something specific to your setup to be burning up your external bandwidth. Also Comcast charges you for upload + download, so if these cameras send it up and then BI brings the video back down, you'll end up paying for that usage doubling eventually. If you stream it also, you might be looking at TRIPLE bandwidth usage!

Be careful overages are like $10 per 50GB (supposedly maxing out at $200 addl per month above your regular bill rate).

 

[DroMike]

I appreciate that CRW. I'll go ahead and delete the Dropcams from BI and use them only the Nest website (I've had them for several years and they've actually served me extremely well) -- since I'm "stealing" my own Dropcam cam feed/data from a public URL maybe losing them in Blue Iris is the ticket. I'm more and more really liking BI. I say that because the other option is to use the Amcrest Surveillance Pro desktop program (along w/their mobile app) but I found that program to be much less cleaner than BI (er, and of course I DID pay the money for BI for the PC and mobile...). But yes, I'm closely monitoring my Xfinity data. I've never come CLOSE to 1TB a month. Thanks too for you input! - Mike

 

[Mike]

I appreciate that CRW. I'll go ahead and delete the Dropcams from BI and use them only the Nest website (I've had them for several years and they've actually served me extremely well) -- since I'm "stealing" my own Dropcam cam feed/data from a public URL maybe losing them in Blue Iris is the ticket. I'm more and more really liking BI. I say that because the other option is to use the Amcrest Surveillance Pro desktop program (along w/their mobile app) but I found that program to be much less cleaner than BI (er, and of course I DID pay the money for BI for the PC and mobile...). But yes, I'm closely monitoring my Xfinity data. I've never come CLOSE to 1TB a month. Thanks too for you input! - Mike

Your next plan on attack should be to drop those dropcams and grab something else. If you like wifi, portability and they are inside then pick up some Hikvision cubes from @RyanODan