Emby, the internet, and Data usage

[Joramilea 2]

Comcast pulled something and is costing me more $$ then it did last year.
They have changed their plans to be 1T data per month. Well, it seems with 4 people in the house and a husband that works from home and watches Vudu and  Netflix all day with shows that are on the server.  I have not had Emby up and running for almost a year now.  It went through an update and I never could get it working again. But with unlimited data for the month I wasn't worried about it.

So here is my question.  I have searched for the answer and could not find a direct answer to it.
I have 2 smart TV's that have the Emby app on them.  I have 2 rokus on non smart TV's.

 

If my server is not set up to been seen outside the house will it pull data from my internet connection?

This is the way I had it running before the update and never thought about it using data.  But now my internet bill is almost triple what it use to be.  They charge you $10/50gb over the initial 1T which we hit every month because my husband turns on Netflix or Vudu and watches it all day.  And according to netflix for ever hour of HD you watch you use 2GB.  needless to say almost 700gb right there if he's only watching netflix.

 

If it truly will run without using my internet data I will be happy to go through the hours it takes me to set it up.  If it doesn't...  I will still set it up but not today.  i just won't be in a hurry about it.  Cause most of the stuff he watches is on the server or I can get it on the server.

 

Thanks for you time

[pir8radio 1312]

If your bill is triple just pay the additional $50/month for unlimited data.    

 

But I think you need to put some more info out there before anyone can help you....  What's confusing to me is you say "Cause most of the stuff he watches is on the server or I can get it on the server"  to get anything on the server you have to obtain it and put it on the server meaning download using the internet, or use other emby plugins that pull this content from the internet as well..   which all uses internet..     you could also look at lowering your stream quality on netflix: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/87     turn it back up for movies or something... But emby it self only uses the internet for images, descriptions, and all of the fancy stuff you see in the interface, which is pretty minimal usage.  Again whats going to eat your bandwidth is not emby server itself, streaming plugins, or downloading media content. 

Edited March 19, 2017 by pir8radio

[Joramilea 2]

now for the comcrap issue about data. I did not see anywhere on their website $50 more for unlimited. 

if this is true... do you need to call them?  All I saw online was 1TB a month and my bill gets charged $10 for every 50GB they give over the 1TB. 

And thank you for the netflix link.  I was just coming back to my computer to figure out how to change the streaming quailty so he's not using 3/4gb of data an hour.


so if a movie and all banners and images are in files on my computer Emby will not use 1/4gb to stream a movie.  it just needs internet for background stuff. 
Emby runs in the background and uses just about as my data as surfing the web.?

Edited March 19, 2017 by Joramilea

[pir8radio 1312]

1.) now for the comcrap issue about data. I did not see anywhere on their website $50 more for unlimited. 

if this is true... do you need to call them?  All I saw online was 1TB a month and my bill gets charged $10 for every 50GB they give over the 1TB. 

 

And thank you for the netflix link.  I was just coming back to my computer to figure out how to change the streaming quailty so he's not using 3/4gb of data an hour.

 

 

2.) so if a movie and all banners and images are in files on my computer Emby will not use 1/4gb to stream a movie.  it just needs internet for background stuff. 

Emby runs in the background and uses just about as my data as surfing the web.?

 

 

1.) Unlimited data info: https://www.xfinity.com/support/internet/exp-unlimited-data/

I had it for a while, but moved my server to a different location so my data stays pretty reasonable now.. 

 

2.) if you already have the media on your local server then emby will download (once) images, banners, closed caption...  etc... metadata...    If you are within your home where your emby server is located and you are connecting to your emby server using the local server address (probably 192.168. something) the data never leaves your home...  You can also do things to block external streaming if you so choose to be sure. 

[Guest asrequested]

Another question would be, do you access the emby server when you are away from home? If yes, that will also use your internet data (upload)

[Luke 42077]

To answer the question, if you are only using Emby Server locally inside your network, then it will hardly use any internet data, just for metadata which will only be for text and images. Thanks !

[Joramilea 2]

AWESOME!  And as of April 1st our unlimited will kick in.

Now just to get Emby installed and running again.   

Thank you for all your help!  You have no idea how happy you have made me.

[Luke 42077]

Enjoy.

[JeremyFr79 228]

I feel your pain, Comcast hit us here with the 1TB cap as well, needless to say I was able to finagle my services around to absorb the extra $50 for unlimited data and keep my monthly bill the same cost by moving out of a grandfathered plan I was in before.  Sucks ass they're pulling this shit, but with the new leadership in the FCC I see this only getting worse at least for the next few years anyways.......

[Guest asrequested]

We've become a data dependent culture. If there's ever a celestial EMP big enough, we're gonna be in trouble. Time to build a Faraday cage big enough to live in

[mastrmind11 722]

We've become a data dependent culture. If there's ever a celestial EMP big enough, we're gonna be in trouble. Time to build a Faraday cage big enough to live in

Interesting you mention that... I just did some renovations on my house and discovered it's entirely plaster/stucco w/ a mesh wire lath.  I've always wondered why I couldn't get wifi on my patio.. now I know it's because I live in a giant Faraday cage

[Marc_G 95]

We've become a data dependent culture. If there's ever a celestial EMP big enough, we're gonna be in trouble. Time to build a Faraday cage big enough to live in

I have often pondered about aliens with perceptions other than ours. What if there are some s that can perceive changes in entropy at great distances? When they point their "enteroscope" our way, we will stand out like a supernova would in visible light. All our computer storage and even brain memory must represent a dramatic and clearly artificial decrease in the local entropic gradient.

 

Maybe all of our data as a planetary culture is the equivalent of an all you can eat sign.

 

Makes me want to write random data to all my drives...

 

Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

[Guest asrequested]

I have often pondered about aliens with perceptions other than ours. What if there are some s that can perceive changes in entropy at great distances? When they point their "enteroscope" our way, we will stand out like a supernova would in visible light. All our computer storage and even brain memory must represent a dramatic and clearly artificial decrease in the local entropic gradient.

 

Maybe all of our data as a planetary culture is the equivalent of an all you can eat sign.

 

Makes me want to write random data to all my drives...

 

Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

I think we're too close to have good perspective of ourselves. We think that we're so prominent, but we're ridiculously unimportant. The planet is 70% water, I would imagine that would be the first thing that would be investigated.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Doofus

[Joramilea 2]

I never thought about wire mess in a house causing issues with wifi. I know in one house I lived in had water pipes for heating going through the walls and floor. Wifi in that house sucked! Even in the house in in now it has wifi problems.

[JeremyFr79 228]

I never thought about wire mess in a house causing issues with wifi. I know in one house I lived in had water pipes for heating going through the walls and floor. Wifi in that house sucked! Even in the house in in now it has wifi problems.

Yeah, it's a real issue in older homes with stucco walls, the "chicken wire" that was commonly used to reinforce the stucco wreaks havoc on RF as a whole not just WiFi.