How to set PDAnet as metered connection?

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  1. Posts : 56
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #11

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  2. Posts : 56
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #12

    Okay, was able to take a few minutes today and do the regedit. Went smoothly as far as I can tell. How will I know if it's working as metered now? I'm assuming I should check the WU everyday (including history) to see if something is sitting there waiting for my permission OR if something downloaded on it's own meaning it's still not right. So it's possible I may not know if all is metered for a couple weeks?
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  3. Posts : 16,949
    Windows 10 Home x64 Version 22H2 Build 19045.4170
       #13

    Andrea,

    The Registry changes do not make anything work as metered. They only set the default to metered for new connections. Please see my earlier posts beginning
    - To clear the decks before you start,
    - You don’t like just printing to pdf instead then?
    for the actions I suggest you do.

    Check whether the current connection is metered or not at Settings, Network, Status, Change connection properties.

    The property is shown for other connections at Settings, Network, {WiFi / Ethernet}, Manage known networks, {select each network in turn}, Properties.

    If you want a second opinion to make absolutely sure than go to Settings, Devices.
    In the Bluetooth & other devices page and the Printers & scanners page, make sure that the checkbox for Download over metered connections is clear [unset] and you should see your devices with most of the entries marked with the quite spurious & highly ignorable annotation, "Setup incomplete because of a metered connection". That also demonstrates that the current connection is metered.

    When you do run WU, after it has searched online it then displays its list of updates but stops & waits for you to click the Download button before downloading**. This also demonstrates that the connection is metered. Here is an example -

    How to set PDAnet as metered connection?-windows-update-run-metered-connection-build-10240-ready-install.png

    Oh, by the way, there are updates every day because Windows defender definition updates are part of WU.

    ** Once in a while you will notice small updates proceeding at this stage before it then settles down with its list of all the others waiting for you to click the Download button. This is normal. These exceptional updates are classified as of special security concern and they are downloaded then installed despite the metered setting. I have hardly ever seen them and those I have seen completed downloading & installing before I could even get my camera out to record the event.

    Denis
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  4. Posts : 56
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #14

    I made sure there was no downloading going on when I did the regedit, directly before I checked for updates (there was a defender update) and then rechecked after a couple times, there was nothing. I kept unconnected while doing it to be safe (hope that was ok). I did set everything to metered. I checked the ethernet connection in the settings after and it does say metered. I'm wondering if I should uninstall PDANet and reinstall it so windows thinks it's a new connection? I'm going to change my wifi back to unmetered only because there's no doubt in my mind I will forget to check WU/Defender.
    I did look in Devices and both instances are unchecked but didn't see anything about setup being incomplete - could be because I don't have any devices "hooked" up to it - I don't print/scan from it. I saw my phone there under the Bluetooth but nothing next to it.
    I think once I see that it's not updating without me letting it I'll feel better. I know you're busy this week so no hurry to answer. I may go ahead and uninstall/reinstall PDA and see what happens.....
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  5. Posts : 16,949
    Windows 10 Home x64 Version 22H2 Build 19045.4170
       #15

    Andrea,

    It sounds to me that everything is alright but I am not clear about some of your statements -

    About "I kept unconnected while doing it to be safe (hope that was ok). " - I assume you mean while you were editing the Registry. Running WU whilst not connected achieves nothing as it needs to be connected to find out if any updates are needed.

    About "I'm going to change my wifi back to unmetered only because there's no doubt in my mind I will forget to check WU/Defender. " - If you are connected by WiFi then doing this will allow WU to run automatically. Is this your intention? I thought you were always connected through that PDANet thing?

    About "I may go ahead and uninstall/reinstall PDA" - If your PDANet thing's [virtual] Ethernet adapter is showing as metered then that needs to be tested just to provide reassurance. Are the WU tests you ran referring to being connected through this Ethernet? If it finds any update [such as the Windows defender update which is issued a couple of times a day] but then waits for you to click the download button {as shown in the diagram I posted} then that confirms it is being treated correctly as a metered connection. Find out before reinstalling PDANet because if you have it working correctly then you do not want to disrupt it.

    About "there's no doubt in my mind I will forget to check WU/Defender" - Whilst metered, you can still get Windows defender definitions updates running automatically by using Task scheduler as I mentioned before. I set mine to check at 0905 & 1805 daily but you can choose the times that suit you. See my post beginning "I appreciate what a blow Android 7 ...".

    I am spending tomorrow on trains. What fun. I will only have my phone with me and writing anything longer than a couple of words is just such a pain that I know I will not attempt it. I am also spending Friday on trains but will definitely check in on Saturday if not before. [[On 31st July, I had just 12MB left so that was enough to check my email a couple of times - but I had installed the app for this forum on my phone as a test and as soon as I was connected it used up all my remaining allowance in about 10 seconds. Nobody understands us limited-data-allowance users at all.]]

    Denis
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 56
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #16

    See below:

    Try3 said:
    Andrea,

    It sounds to me that everything is alright but I am not clear about some of your statements -

    About "I kept unconnected while doing it to be safe (hope that was ok). " - I assume you mean while you were editing the Registry. Running WU whilst not connected achieves nothing as it needs to be connected to find out if any updates are needed. I meant that I had no internet connection while I was editing therefore WU or anything wouldn't try to download.

    About "I'm going to change my wifi back to unmetered only because there's no doubt in my mind I will forget to check WU/Defender. " - If you are connected by WiFi then doing this will allow WU to run automatically. Is this your intention? I thought you were always connected through that PDANet thingI have wifi available every once in awhile and I want that connection unmetered so that WU will check and download (in case I forget when I'm on my usual PDANet)
    About "I may go ahead and uninstall/reinstall PDA" - If your PDANet thing's [virtual] Ethernet adapter is showing as metered then that needs to be tested just to provide reassurance. Are the WU tests you ran referring to being connected through this Ethernet? If it finds any update [such as the Windows defender update which is issued a couple of times a day] but then waits for you to click the download button {as shown in the diagram I posted} then that confirms it is being treated correctly as a metered connection. Find out before reinstalling PDANet because if you have it working correctly then you do not want to disrupt it I haven't tried it out yet as I have wifi today, I won't uninstall until I know it's not working. Before I changed the registry even though the ethernet showed as metered it still downloaded WU while connected to PDA, I'm hoping the regedit fixed that but you had said that the regedit would only recognize NEW connections as metered so that made me assume that my old PDA connection wouldn't be fixed with the edit.

    About "there's no doubt in my mind I will forget to check WU/Defender" - Whilst metered, you can still get Windows defender definitions updates running automatically by using Task scheduler as I mentioned before. I set mine to check at 0905 & 1805 daily but you can choose the times that suit you. See my post beginning "I appreciate what a blow Android 7 ..." I will probably do that at some point (very swamped at work so don't have a lot of time to set it up right now).

    I am spending tomorrow on trains. What fun. I will only have my phone with me and writing anything longer than a couple of words is just such a pain that I know I will not attempt it. I am also spending Friday on trains but will definitely check in on Saturday if not before. [[On 31st July, I had just 12MB left so that was enough to check my email a couple of times - but I had installed the app for this forum on my phone as a test and as soon as I was connected it used up all my remaining allowance in about 10 seconds. Nobody understands us limited-data-allowance users at all.]] I agree, no one (including microsoft) understands how limited we are when all we have available is phone data. Because I tether here at work I pretty much have no data left to use when I'm on the go with my phone which is ridiculous....have a phone but can't use it. Don't worry about checking in, I probably won't tether until tomorrow and then will try to "check for updates" to see what happens. And yes, I agree, I limit using my phone to type emails and such, it's too hard to do anything too long....I don't know how some people survive with only a phone, I can't see the dang screen, lol!!!!

    Denis
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 56
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #17

    Hi Denis, I connected to my phone this morning and went into WU and checked for updates....it started downloading them right away. I'm stumped. Ethernet says metered but when I went in to look at all networks it showed PDA as eternet2 if that makes any difference. I DID uninstall and reinstall PDA, didn't help. I have emailed them to ask for help but I'm at a loss. In the middle of all this my laptop is acting super temperamental, I'm in the process right now of doing a system restore back a few weeks. After I tried using the phone ►laptop to connect and saw that updates were downloading I disconnected, then reconnected after a few minutes to the wifi I had available, internet is barely working, chrome keeps freezing (I tried reinstalling), firefox was just going around in circles yet also had my phone connected to the wifi and it was fine. SO, think there's something wrong with my laptop which irks me because I barely use it for anything besides email and facebook.
    BTW, I went into check what the data usage was for the last month in settings and see that Windows used almost 2 gb's, would that all be for updates? Seems crazy.....off topic but any idea how to find out what the heck is eating up my data? I've shut all windows tiles off, what else could it be? I looked in processes but alot of that is jibberish to me. Did see that there's some McAfee in the processes but I uninstalled all of that when I first got the laptop, apparently it didn't uninstall, would that be using anything? It won't let me delete it out of processes OR explorer. NO HURRY on an answer....
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  8. Posts : 56
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #18

    Denis! Good news! This morning after fiddling around with my laptop trying to fix the unrelated issues (all fixed), I decided to tether my phone again and check for updates. It said there were some available and then sat at 0% for probably 10 minutes (weird) but, after that, it finally popped up the message that there are updates and as soon as I'm not on metered data they will download so I think we finally have success!!!! YAY! Now, if I can figure out what else is sucking my data I'll be happy. Gonna take a lot of looking around to find it but I'm resourceful and won't give up!
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