If you're like me, you've often run over your monthly allowance of data because you bought a few too many games through steam that week and been restricted down to dial-up speeds until the month rolls over. (That's if you live in the stone age, like most of us Australians do)
Now most internet providers have certain content that they call the "freezone" or something similar, where anything you download is not counted towards your monthly limit. Some companies, like iiNet, have Steam servers set up that run inside this Freezone network. You can make use of these servers using the steam settings, but ultimately that just sets a preferred server. Steam can still download through a metered server if the unmetered server is busy or doesn't have the content you're after.
I have found a piece of software that allows me to download most things off steam without them touching my monthly allowance of data whatsoever. It's called Steam Limiter and it blocks steam from connecting to any download servers that are not within the Freezone for your ISP. This effectively forces Steam to run only through servers that are not counted towards your monthly allowance of data.
Now there are a few small drawbacks. I have noticed that some content is not available from these freezone servers, so occasionally I have to disable it to install a game, but it happens very infrequently. The software's benefits also depend on your Internet Service Provider having a Freezone Steam server. So if you are with an ISP that doesn't provide one, you're out of luck :/
All in all, it's a very useful piece of software and it has stopped the majority of complaints from my housemates about the data always running out each month, so it has served it's purpose for me. Your mileage will vary, but I highly recommend trying it and seeing if there's a noticeable decrease in your monthly data usage :3
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