-PSA-
TL;DR - There's an issue with the RGL pug site that occasionally causes it to download huge amounts of data. I assume this doesn't collect somewhere and is just temp internet files that get purged but I don't know. This is especially relevant to those who have metered internet or just slower internet. I suggest closing the site when you're not using it, even if it's in an inactive tab. Dolphin says he is aware of the problem and is looking into it.
Details:
Unfortunately I have metered internet. I can get unlimited data but that costs even more and it's already pricey. The local company practically has a monopoly here so we're at their mercy. I calculated that 400 gigs a month is more than enough for me and my typical use. End of May I was getting warnings that I was coming close to my limit (at which point it adds more data but for a super steep fee) but didn't look into it. In the first few days of June it got maxed out and I started investigating what the hell was happening since my usage behaviors have not changed.
Some of the days would have massive usage spikes compared to the average. It was all download, not upload. I live alone. It was all from the ethernet connection, so no wifi theft. Windows showed that it was Chrome browser that was the source. My computer is generally always on, Chrome is always open, and I have a ridiculous amount of tabs open at any given time (I didn't think I'd become that guy yet here I am). I needed to figure out which tab(s) was the cause of my problems and this was a lot harder than it needed to be. It's very frustrating that the built-in task manager in Chrome (right click on top bar) does not have a running count on network use, only a live "speedometer" of sorts, despite breaking everything down by tabs and hosts. A friend helped me find a program called GlassWire, the base version of which is free, that breaks down which hosts are causing network traffic. After a few days of running with nothing suspicious one night it finally showed me what I needed. It was the RGL pug site (https://pugs.tf.plus/pug/6s%20open) that was the culprit. The tab open to the site was not supposed to be active. At any given time most of my tabs are not "active" but are just placeholders until I click one to awaken it. I now learned that they can become active via websites doing stuff in the background with no input from me.
Between ~1130pm and 3:03am it ate up 4.7 GB
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/509506719236358144/1116261373375152128/image.png
30 minutes later it was up to 7.4 GB. At this point I'd seen enough and cut it off.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/509506719236358144/1116268561749520454/image.png
Here's what my average daily data usage looks like from a couple months back.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/509506719236358144/1115507226971492462/image.png
Here's late May/early June when I got blown up. Over 100 GB on some days there. It's been expensive.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/509506719236358144/1115507376066412614/image.png
Anyway I'm sure most people have unlimited internet and many here don't pay for it but save your internet if it matters to you and hopefully Dolphin can fix this soon. I don't pug much and while in-houses are nice there's something great about having a proper "public" system that's ready to accommodate pugs if enough people add up. I do miss PugChamp being around. The few games that I did play on this site were super fun and balanced (maybe just luck) so I really want to see this system grow and thrive.