[ebonyruffles]

This is a multi-part question. I'm allowed 60 GB/month bandwidth & have never come close to that. I've noticed some sluggishness lately so checked my usage on my ISP's website. Just on Oct 25 & 26 alone, it shows over 50 GB usage for those 2 days.
I'm wondering if Carbonite restoring from a back up counts towards my usage? The dates would be about right, since I installed Windows 7 that weekend, then started the online restore. I was also poking around my router settings & noticed a strange username & password that isn't mine. I've since reset everything.
So has one of my neighbors helped themselves to my connection or was it Carbonite restoring my files that caused me to go over my limit?
I thought I'd locked the router down properly & my bandwidth since then has been fine.

[lunarlander]

Restoring from your online backup will definitely use up some bandwidth.

Do you mean there is an unknown user account on your router? Then somebody else has access to your network and could be using up bandwidth. Use a passphrase instead of a password for your router, eg James T Kirk is the captain of the USS Enterprise becomes the password JTKitcotUSSE. Throw in a symbol and a number and it can become JTK$itcotUSSE55. Length and complexity of this password is important as hackers will throw a dictionary attack at it, so any password that can be found in a dictionary should not be used. The longer the password, the longer it takes to crack.

You should also enable WPA2 encryption. It is the strongest. Don't use WEP, as it is crackable in 5 mins. If your router only supports WEP, then its been a few years and its about time to get a new router.

[ebonyruffles]

I never even thought about bandwidth when I restored from my backup. Too busy that weekend getting Windows 7 up & running. So now I gotta fork over an extra $30 for going over my limit. My fault, but I'll know for next time.
I'll recheck my router & do what you suggested, also heard you're supposed to change your SSID from the generic name to something unique but non-identifying, & don't broadcast the name. Thanks for your help, much appreciated!