At WifiAway we offer access to tons of data with our devices, but if you intend to make a very heavy usage of Internet, or watch many online videos, you should keep an eye on your data consumption. Here are some tips that can help you with that.

How can I monitor my Wi-Fi connection?

Unfortunately, Apple’s MacBooks don’t have an internal setting that allows the user to control which apps are consuming the Wi-Fi.

Something we can advise is:

Remember to turn off the automatic system updates on your MacBook. Check this link to see how to do it.
Download TripMode! This software is able to stop the apps and background processes from communicating with the internet. You can choose manually which apps can go online and which cannot. Have a look at this link to have more info.

How can I consume less data with Netflix?

Netflix consumes a lot of data. To keep an eye on it when you are on the road, here are some tips:

Disable the Post-Play of the next chapter to avoid Netflix sucking your data all night long. Check how to do it at this link: How can I prevent the next episode of a show from playing automatically?
Consider lowering the quality of video while watching your favourite show. Netflix explains to you how here: How to control how much data Netflix uses?
Just think this: the lower the quality, the more data you will save!
However, watching Netflix will always use a lot of data. It’s better for you to keep a good track of your data consumption: so don’t forget to read carefully the first e-mail we sent you when you placed your order. There you will find some important information about this matter.

How can I spend less data on YouTube?

If you use YouTube to watch videos or just to listen to music, you may want to lower the quality at which the videos are played. Once again, the higher the quality, the more data is consumed.

Avoid this excessive consumption: click on the little nut symbol and lower the quality as much as you can, without making it annoying. Don’t leave the quality of videos on “Auto” when using WifiAway, our devices have a very strong and fast connection so if you leave it in “Auto”, Youtube will stream contents at their best quality.

Try with WifiAway’s Video now.

Other uses you should avoid:

Massive streaming sessions or downloading big videos (e.g. Torrent)
Video chats on Skype or Facetime may consume up to 1gb per hour. You can still use them sometimes, but keep this in mind!
Making programs backups or security copies (e.g. Dropbox) when creating/downloading heavy files.
It’s better to avoid sharing your connection with friends who haven’t connected to the Internet in a while because their phones or devices will automatically start updating some apps/programs and that may consume a lot of data.
Using streaming devices such as Apple TV or ChromeCast
Letting your teenager nephew or cousin connect to your WifiAway: we still don’t understand what they do, but they always finish all the data!