No offense taken, and I certainly suspected a possible virus. However, this was on my home PC, the only PC that is on 24/7. I ran Wireshark, netstat, and assorted other utilities to check the activity, the PC is clean. I was occasionally running uTorrent, but the torrents I was seeding were low demand (live shows shared via Dime A Dozen) and that program was throttled.

Now I don't know for a fact exactly how much bandwidth I was using. I am basing the 10 terrabytes on the published news stories. Perhaps I was using nowhere near that, and Verizon has not been forthcoming about the limits (at least not to me) so maybe it really was just about Tor.

The Tor bandwidth chart looked like it was pretty much using 75% of my 100Mbps fiber line 24/7. I disabled Tor and Verizon didn't shut me off so my usage must have dropped. I'm not a computer professional, but I have been maintaining web and email servers for my hardware store since 1995 (BBS systems before that) and I know my PC wasn't a bot.

I'm not a math whiz when it comes to computing bandwidth, but it appears to me that 10tb per month works out to an average of 4Mbps over 30 days so that's definitely something that could come just from Tor relaying when there is no bandwidth cap set up in Tor.

Yes, I'm going to set it up again in a few weeks, as a non-exit relay and with a bandwidth cap. I jumped in with both feet without looking, not usually a good idea. :)

Sorry, didn't post the complete timeline. I ran as an exit node for a few weeks but stopped when I received a couple of letters questioning activity that came through my IP address. That was what probably got me blacklisted with Hulu. I will likely reconfigure Tor with bandwidth limits and set it up again in a few weeks.

Tor was configured as an exit relay for about two weeks. I think that was what kicked in the issue with Hulu. Another user posted in the thread that he ran exit relay and was blocked by Hulu for several years.

FIOS advertises as "No limits", and the tos/aup doesn't specify bandwidth. It does, however, specify that you can't run servers on a residential line so that's the tactic they use. And I knew there were bandwidth throttles in Tor, I just didn't expect Verizon to have an issue with the usage since they had advertised "No limits".

I'm sure my problem was Tor was running at full throttle. I will set it up again in a month or two and throttle the bandwidth to reasonable levels.

Great advice and something I will look at in a few months once the dust settles. I guess I was too eager to do as much as I could with my shiny new upgraded 100mb FIOS connection. :)

I was running as an exit relay for a while. Trying to do as much as I could, but then realized it was not that great an idea to run exit from a home ISP connection. We received several letters about illegal activity so decided to step it back a notch and just run regular relay.

I've been running Tor on my home FIOS connection for about six months in non-exit relay mode. Last month I received a registered letter from Verizon notifying me that I was using excessive bandwidth and that my connection would be terminated in ten days if I did not cease and desist. From what I read there were less than 100 FIOS customers that received this letter, and it was sent to folks who used upwards of 10tb per month. The paranoid conspiracy theorist in me says that the NSA encourages ISP's to crack down on Tor relays, while the annoyed consumer in me looks on it as a ploy by Verizon to sell me a commercial fiber service. Either way, I don't have the inclination or money to fight this battle, and so I shut down my Tor relay for now. Interesting to note that we were blocked from accessing Hulu Plus from our home as they had identified my IP as a Tor relay. Now that the relay has been off for a few weeks I should try connecting to Hulu again to see how long they blacklist IP's for.

The articles so far seem to indicate the card numbers were encrypted.

Not yet clear what system was breached and what platform it was running. Do you have a link to details of the attack vector? I haven't run Cold Fusion in years, once Adobe purchased it and moved it to JRun I migrated my code off Cold Fusion.

I agree...my wording wasn't clear. I meant that the technical musical performance is not the only thing fans consider. The Beatles were certainly sloppy early on, so were Springsteen's early recordings. Their "raw talent" (and Rihanna is another example) shines through. Speaking of Bruno Mars, it will be interesting to see how they pull off the Super Bowl performance. IMHO, that has been a good showcase for live performers, and some (Madonna, Springsteen, Petty) really excelled while others (I'm looking at you Black Eyed Peas) fell flat on their faces.

Professional musicians with record contracts use auto-tune tools all the time, so why can't amateur musicians have access to the same tools? I have no sympathy for the recorded music industry, they have been crooked since day one and reaped plenty of profits off the hard work of underpaid performers and songwriters. Live performance is even changing as performers can have their vocals corrected "on the fly" instead of trying to lip sync as marginally talented musicians did in the past. So the recorded music industry will go the way of the travel agency, which is just economic reality. The record industry was created to get music recorded and out to the people, and they are no longer needed. People will still find music they like, and performers will find ways to make money in local clubs until they build up a larger audience. Quality of the musical performance is not a requirement...look at The Sex Pistols or The Ramones. Interesting that as some industries (retail, banking) become more and more concentrated in the hands of fewer companies (Walmart, JP Morgan Chase) the music business is becoming more eclectic and wide open. Sure, the media companies have consolidated, but any kid with a PC and an internet connection can get his/her music to the world. Seems like progress to me.

I run a Tor relay at home with our Verizon FIOS service and so far no throttling or bandwidth capping. The one issue I've run into is my daughter can't access Hulu via our FIOS connection as they have detected that our IP address has been used for Tor. It likely was because I ran as an exit relay for a month or two, but decided to configure as a plain non-exit relay after getting a semi-threatening email from Verizon.