The Google Home Speaker Has Been Secretly Eating My Wi-Fi Data

Close BannerClose 00 Days : 00 Hours : 00 Minutes : 00 Seconds Join us in MiamiSee the full lineup CommentSave StorySave this story CommentSave StorySave this story Google confirmed this bug has only affected some devices and that it has rolled out a solution. A spokesperson from Google told WIRED: “A server misconfiguration caused some Google Home Speakers to repeatedly download a software update. This issue has now been resolved.” Courtesy of Google Looking into this issue made me go beyond just Google's usage, though. My husband and I started reviewing the data usage for all of the individual devices that our router could identify and found some surprising numbers. The weirdest highlight was that Amazon was listed as using 22 GB in the past week with only the Ring smoke detector set up in my house, which was similar to the use of one of the smartphones in my house. There's also a mysterious device just labeled “WATCH” that used about 21 GB in the past week, but no one in my home has a smart watch that's been on in the last year. A mystery for me to solve another day. If you've noticed your home Wi-Fi bandwidth isn't what it used to be, it could be because one of your smart home devices (or possibly something else entirely). Here's how to check your router or Wi-Fi provider for which device could be at fault. How to Check Your Device Usage Courtesy of Amazon You have a couple of options for checking how much data a smart home device has been using. Some routers provide detailed information about where all your data is going, for starters. I have an Eero mesh system for my house, but we don't pay for its subscription fee to access detailed information—so it's fairly limited. The free version of the app lists all the connected devices in my home, but it doesn't tell me how much data each uses. Open the web interface (go to http://www. asusrouter. com/ in your browser) and log in. Click on the Traffic Analyzer tab and make sure it's turned on (data is refreshed every hour). You can top five clients using data listed on the Statistic tab. You can also see live traffic in the Asus Router app on your phone. Folks with a TP-Link router or mesh can also review traffic. Here's how: Open the Deco or Tether app. Tap on the Network tab and select Traffic Usage.