look at this BS !

an email I got from my ISP (beware, those who sign up to Sympatico High-Speed) :

Dear Valued Member,

To keep pace with our customers' evolving Internet usage needs,
Bell Canada, like all Internet service providers, must continually
invest in expanding and upgrading our network.

Effective June 28, 2002, your monthly rate for Bell Sympatico
High Speed Edition(TM) Internet service will increase to $44.95 --
still one of the lowest rates for high speed access in North America.

Also, effective June 28, 2002, your monthly rate for Sympatico
High Speed Edition service will allow 5 Gigabytes (GB) download
and 5 Gigabytes (GB) upload of bandwidth activity. If your
bandwidth activity exceeds either 5 GB download or 5 GB upload,
an additional charge of $7.95 per GB will be applied to your
Sympatico account.

AN EASY WAY TO MONITOR YOUR BANDWIDTH ACTIVITY
To give you the ability to monitor your monthly upload and
download bandwidth activity, we've created a simple tool: the
Bandwidth Activity Tracker. With this tool, you'll be able
to check how much bandwidth you've used. To get your bandwidth
activity update, just click on the link below.
http://memberservices.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/hts.exe?Hit:x=5696&y=356&z=29592420

INTRODUCING OUR ULTIMATE INTERNET SERVICE
At Bell Canada, we are committed to meeting the needs of our
customers. This June, we will be launching a new, premium high
speed Internet service*.

This premium service will be our new ultimate high speed Internet
service and will include speeds of up to 3 Megabits per second
download and up to 640 Kilobits per second upload, and monthly
bandwidth of 10 GB upload and 10 GB download.

For more information on this new service, just click on the
link below.

http://memberservices.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/hts.exe?Hit:x=5702&y=468&z=29592420
Thank you for choosing Bell Sympatico Internet service

Click to expand...

WTF is this !!! they just lost a customer with this crap ! so now what should I do ? sign up to Rogers@Home (cable) ? I would, cuz it's the same pricing as Sympatico, but we have like 3 TVs in the house, all on the cable, so would it slow down the internet a lot ?

I have personally seen this coming for a while and do not really have a problem with it as a 5gb upload or download limit is obviously enough bandwidth for the average person. When you consider that this bandwidth allows somewhere in the region of 1129 mb's each week, which is probably enough to download a new Linux distro each week to try or possibly around 220 mp3's depending upon quality.
What are you doing that makes you so concerned about bandwidth ?

I download lots of stuff (demos, Linux distros, surfing a lot), my sister downloads TV shows, music, ... (all the time, both comps are running, both folding and both downloading doing the above)

Wow, thats some of the biggest BS i've ever seen. ADSL isnt such a bad choice, 34.95/month. I live in British Columbia and my ISP is telus. I have a friend who was disconnected from cable for a couple of weeks because he was "abusing the priveledge of high speed". Ever since he switched to ADSL hes never had a problem. Cable is potentially faster than ADSL tho so 44.95 a month for cable is not so bad as long as u avoid those bandwidth limits

I currently am on ADSL, but cable is cheaper (currently), so should I switch or not ? (the problem is I heard cable is slowed down if you have multiple TVs connected to the cable, and as I have 3, would it slow down or not ?)

Hey you could have mine. Its the only one in town, charges 60 a month, and kicks me when I use to much bandwith(5 min of CS). I am very bitter.

minoukat said:

I download lots of stuff (demos, Linux distros, surfing a lot), my sister downloads TV shows, music,

Click to expand...

Technically and legaly speaking your sister should not be downloading copyright material (IE.. TV Shows and quite possibly Music) and the 5gb limit still allows you to download a linux distro each week.. according to linux.org there are only 143 linux ditros available for the Intel compatible PC. Not forgetting that 85 of these distributions are specific.. ie Floppy Based, CD Business card based, Router, Firewall, Webserver, Mailserver.
This means you can download every linux OS with GUI suitable for running on the Intel/AMD platform in 58 weeks which is just over a year.. I do not however believe that anybody will download EVERY distribution in existence and as such I still believe that this is a reasonable level of bandwidth for the home consumer

UnseenMenace said:

I have personally seen this coming for a while and do not really have a problem with it as a 5gb upload or download limit is obviously enough bandwidth for the average person. When you consider that this bandwidth allows somewhere in the region of 1129 mb's each week, which is probably enough to download a new Linux distro each week to try or possibly around 220 mp3's depending upon quality.
What are you doing that makes you so concerned about bandwidth ?

Click to expand...

I mean no offence (and I have read below this post, but I would like to address this) but you make it sound like by wanting more bandwidth, people are doing something illegal, when that might not be the case at all.

I mean, we don't think people stretching for that extra 10 MHz are evil, why do we think that when people like lots of bandwidth?

I move 5GB on my 56k about every four weeks...

That kind of cap would kill me on DSL.

You say that's more bandwidth than the normal person can handle... usually I upload & download (combined) 40-60+ gigs a week. Unfortunately, I'm out of the dorms, back at home, and now I only have 15k upload, but HEY! I still have download...

How much was the price hike? If it wasn't more than like $5, don't worry too much. My AT&T cost $40 when I started, now it's up to $57... now THAT is a price hike. I'm getting rid of it ASAP (friggin 15k upload).

It's the bandwidth limit that really gets me.

rogers went to 44.95 from 39.95 last month, and introduced "rogers lite" which is 128k down and 3k up (or some small amount) for 24.95. Fortunately they haven't capped downloads yet. I agree it would not be common to exceed 5gig a month but it could happen every once in a while. Last week I got both Mandrake 8.2 and Red Hat 7.3, that's about 3.5gig between the two. It's possible with the audio streaming Iv'e been doing lately that I'll exceed 5 gig this month.

edit: I just checked ted's site, he's still officially offering unlimited volume for both rogers and rogers lite. And the official upload speed of lite is 64k.

I would be more conserned about Mulitiplayer gaming more thin anything. Does anyone know how much bandwidth you use during gaming?

h3h!

5 gigs, I would use that in what, 3 hours?

Thats horrible, and then the "unlimited account" 10GB?!!?!
yeah might be ok if it was 10gigs per/hour

Sheesh I can fill up my 60GB HD in a few....

My isp better not ever do that, I'd be cancelin my service even if i have to go back to 56k

Hey, MinouKat...switch to Storm In Ottawa...tell em Sympatico sent you
Storm is 40.00$...that includes the rental of the modem and the cap is 10gigs!
[email protected]

www.storm.ca

Oni said:

I mean no offence (and I have read below this post, but I would like to address this) but you make it sound like by wanting more bandwidth, people are doing something illegal, when that might not be the case at all.

I mean, we don't think people stretching for that extra 10 MHz are evil, why do we think that when people like lots of bandwidth?

Click to expand...

Offence very much taken.. not once did I suggest that everybody wanting a large amount of bandwidth was doing something illigal. However I am curious as to what people are doing to require such a high level of bandwidth.. I can see no reason why a person who pays for cable should loose bandwidth when a neighbour is running a FTP or webserver from the connection which is shared.. they both pay the same so should they not have the same bandwidth ?
I typically showed what could be downloaded at the level of bandwidth being discussed in this situation, and I consider this to be more than adequate for 99% of people.
This forum is a place of discussion and knowledge and as such I am somewhat interested in knowing what people require over 5gb of bandwidth a month for and even if it is being used for MP3's over 200 a week is 800 songs a month.. is anyone listening to this amount really??? I would like to know
In one of my previous post I discuss copyright material as this was the only explanation recieved at that point and with all due respect I am correct as far as I am aware regarding the TV shows. However I make no such assumption regarding MP3 or any other format of music and use the term 'quite possibly Music' for the simple reason that legal music can be downloaded from mp3.com and similar sites, and as such could be legal or quite possibly not... but no assumption is made.
I am personally very offended by your insinuation that I consider people who want large amount of bandwidth as 'evil' and involved in any activity that is not legal, which was never stated as it is not the case.. however people can read things in anyway they like as you well know

UnseenMenace said:

Offence very much taken.. not once did I suggest that everybody wanting a large amount of bandwidth was doing something illigal. However I am curious as to what people are doing to require such a high level of bandwidth.. I can see no reason why a person who pays for cable should loose bandwidth when a neighbour is running a FTP or webserver from the connection which is shared.. they both pay the same so should they not have the same bandwidth ?
I typically showed what could be downloaded at the level of bandwidth being discussed in this situation, and I consider this to be more than adequate for 99% of people.
This forum is a place of discussion and knowledge and as such I am somewhat interested in knowing what people require over 5gb of bandwidth a month for and even if it is being used for MP3's over 200 a week is 800 songs a month.. is anyone listening to this amount really??? I would like to know
In one of my previous post I discuss copyright material as this was the only explanation recieved at that point and with all due respect I am correct as far as I am aware regarding the TV shows. However I make no such assumption regarding MP3 or any other format of music and use the term 'quite possibly Music' for the simple reason that legal music can be downloaded from mp3.com and similar sites, and as such could be legal or quite possibly not... but no assumption is made.
I am personally very offended by your insinuation that I consider people who want large amount of bandwidth as 'evil' and involved in any activity that is not legal, which was never stated as it is not the case.. however people can read things in anyway they like as you well know

Click to expand...

Not stated directly, but implied none-the-less.

What are you doing that makes you so concerned about bandwidth ?

Click to expand...

What would you like to hear from me about my cable? That I download 10 albums a day for distribution? That I run a warez FTP? That I download movies all day every day? And while that may or may not be the case, what right do you have to imply that I do these things w/o any proof other than that fact that I find a 5GB download cap opressive?

We are the computer elite, we are not 99% of the population. We are not Joe Sixpack. We like our speed, and we like it unlimited, just like we've had it for a very long time now.

It's not that 5GB isn't really enough. Let me put it this way: You buy a brand-spankin'-new processor. Top-of-the-line and all that jazz (doesn't matter if it's AMD or Intel). You want to overclock it, but the manufacturer says that you can only overclock it 100 Mhz, then you have to pay for every MHz over that. What would you feel? You just paid $200+ for this thing, and you can't do w/ it what you want. It's the same for us. We pay $40, $50, sometimes even $60+ for our Broadband, and we should be able to do w/ it as we please (w/in the already imposed limits).

As for robbing bandwidth from other people. No. Just because I wanna use my imposed 1.5Mb/s down, doesn't mean the person next door suffers. Why would my cable provider even impose a limit if it wasn't supposed to help everybody get a fair share? Just because I use my limit, doesn't mean my neibour can't use their limit at the same time. They won't feel anything. Thats why these limits were imposed.

Oni said:

Not stated directly, but implied none-the-less.

what right do you have to imply that I do these things w/o any proof other than that fact that I find a 5GB download cap opressive?

Click to expand...

Since when has asking question implied anything other than lack of knowledge. All I did was explain why I believed that the limit was reasonable with factual numbers and examples, while asking for someone to explain why it is not.

I think it's pretty lame to assume that everyone downloading tons of mp3s are stealing them. You do realize there are more free mp3s than non-free? I avoid listening to major label music as much as possible, which would mean that 90% of the mp3s I download are free and legal to download.

I have no clue how much bandwidth I use and it varies from month to month. If my cable isp ever limited me to 5gb I would switch without thinking twice even though I don't think I use 5gb every month. The thought of paying $8 because I downloaded 5.1gb is horrible. I might decide to hook up a few computers and do a bunch of net games or what if someone breaks in and uses my comp as a warez dump without my knowledge? I have to pay because M$ had a vulnerability that was exploited? With the code red virus I saw a lot of servers that had been used for this without the server admin's knowledge.

The original posts also asks if having multiple tvs on cable will reduce bandwidth. It doesn't reduce bandwidth, it causes more interference in the signal, which can effect your bandwidth, but it might not. An easy way to avoid this is to split your cable into 2 lines as soon as it comes in the house, then run 1 to the computer and put an internet blocker on the 2nd one and run it to another splitter for the rest of the house. Basically every cable run acts like an antenna and brings in misc waves and crap.

I obviously appear to have started something here that was never intended.. I was just seeking to understand why such levels of bandwidth are required by the home user.
My opinions and questions have been posted and perhaps taken out of context. Rather than get into a discussion on a topic that provides very little information of use to the person who started this thread, I will now bow out

People can read many things into this thread and all the comments, however remain respectfull and try to understand what the user was trying to convey.

No one is entitled to unlimited bandwidth, period. ISPs only have so much bandwidth to dolly out. And no, it isn't easy nor cheap for them to add bandwidth. What they are doing is stopping the bandwidth hogs, and thats a good thing. My node last year was stripped dry of bandwidth by a couple of guys with webservers. Cable isn't so fun with its 30 down, 10 up. You are buying a service, not a product. There is a difference. With a product you can use it on your terms, with a service, you are subject to their terms that you agree to. Don't like the terms, switch. Guys grow up and realize that the internet isn't about getting as much as you want for nothing. That is more bandwidth than many corporate websites use. Whats the big deal here?