that 3 gb on the 10th is about as high as it ever gets, and it's because i was watching the primary. less than 2 is the norm, and that goes back years.
clearly, something very dramatic happened to the connection on the 13th!
further, i turned it off on the 17th (i mentioned that it looked like somebody had come in here and messed with the power bar. now i get it.), and i turned it off for a while on friday to try to clear the ip, after i realized there was something on the usb key.
so, i'm turning the modem off now and taking a nap. i won't be back up until the evening.
there doesn't appear to be an accompanying increase in uploading, so i'm less concerned about surveillance. maybe that's naive. but we're shutting down for hours at a time until i can figure this out.