I have the super duper Wildblue setup:  1.5 Mbps download, 17 Gb max usage per rolling 30 days.  Last weekend we found out what happens when the 17 is exceeded.  It goes back to 128 Kbps download and occassionally zip until the max goes below the 17 Gig rolling average, which it did within a day or so.  It's painful.

  Ok, so what happened was that I have used WB for 2 years with only minor problems.  It even works fine for AgTalk, (although I still really don't know why it farkled for a couple months, then came back. )  I never came close to using even 25% of the max.

   Anyway, we dug in some Cat 5 cable and added the two computers of my daughter and SIL (both students) to the router.  All went very well until the 6 year old grandson discovered YouTube.  We went from 83% of max to overboard really quick.  We do have plenty of capacity to do what I need plus all their on-line school stuff so all the basics are still in place and adequate.  That's nice.

  Now that that's settled, we're trying to figure out what individual download elements soak up the bytes.  Anyone know how many bytes in a normal internet page?  Average email?  Further, is there a way to decrease the bytes any given internet page downloads by changing some IE browser setting?  Any other tricks anyone knows that'd help?  No, the wireless router is not secured but we couldn't even broadcast to their computers 200' away and the nearest neighbor is 5 miles or so.

  We can read off the bytes on some attachments, and sometimes folks attach large photos or .wmv files that run a couple Megs each.  Ok, so those we know about.  But I'm not even sure what a minute of YouTube runs.

  Any info (or tips on where to find it) appreciated.  Oh, is there a real-time download counter available?  WB only updates once a day or so.  It's not a very sensitive read-out.

Thanks for any help.  Stetts

PS.  Since we have AT&T for wireless phones and there's a line of sight tower, we checked on getting wireless internet from them.  There limit is 5 Gb/mo or so and it's $.0048 per Kb after that.  No thanks.  I understand Sprint has a truly unlimited plan for around $80/mo at 1 Mbps download speed.  I'm on the ragged edge of service for that, though.  I think Hughes is also 5 Gb/mo.