Comcast to start Bandwidth Caps

[hajalie24]

I'm a heavy downloader and uploader, this sucks It makes me think about uncapping my modem lol. I probably won't go over 250gb anyway.

 

[VinnyTAMU]

Why not just block the ports to P2P services? I mean, whenever a friend comes over to my house, as soon as he turns on his computer, it starts torrents. Now, I would be pretty mad if he left it going and I left town. I would come back to dial-up speeds and there would be nothing I could do about it. Lets just hope Cox doesn't do this.

I think Comcast has tried that and a judge ruled it was data discrimination. Don't quote me on that I am not 100% on this issue.

I'm a heavy downloader and uploader, this sucks It makes me think about uncapping my modem lol. I probably won't go over 250gb anyway.

I would be very careful about doing that. While presentations at Defcon have popularized this technique (surfboard modems) if you get caught, I would expect your ISP to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.

 

[Ethre]

If you need a free bandwith monitor to check out your usage, BitMeter works well.

In the right thread this time around

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

I'm a heavy downloader and uploader, this sucks It makes me think about uncapping my modem lol. I probably won't go over 250gb anyway.

you cant, not like back in the days, your speed is not controlled in your modem anymore, it is controlled on their side via gateways and such.

also, you dont think they would not notice it even if you could, to which you would then be facing jail time.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

Why not just block the ports to P2P services?

because there is no 1 port you can change it to anything you want), and then what about all the legit p2p users? just say screw em, sorry too bad! screw you! just cause you pay for a service, you cant use it to do what you want.. sorry tuff!

also, comcast was told they can NOT block people from doing things... as i said in another thread, all that means now is comcast just has to openly admit what it is doing, instead of unblocking everything, which it is doing, taking the cheapest, fastest way out...

i still think it is BS to throttle people using P2P.... why should i be limited to download saying my linux ISO, to crap speeds, just so joe blow can stream stupid videos from YouTube?

 

[smokie mcpott]

i think this is just the beginning of ala carte internet. they will start the cap at 250gb, allow everyone to grow accustomed to it, then start lowering it slowly until you are paying per gb of usage per month

other ISP's will follow suit and some of the smaller companies will likely put smaller caps to begin with. i dont like where this is going. 250gb is a lot per month, but where does it stop? are they going to continue to lower it, considering 95% of their customer base doesnt even see half that amount of usage in a month?

 

[Ethre]

Funny, they're going the other way with cell service.

 

[Shiggity]

Well verizon is starting to build their FIOS around Chicago, I should see if I can get that maybe.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

i think this is just the beginning of ala carte internet. they will start the cap at 250gb, allow everyone to grow accustomed to it, then start lowering it slowly until you are paying per gb of usage per month

other ISP's will follow suit and some of the smaller companies will likely put smaller caps to begin with. i dont like where this is going. 250gb is a lot per month, but where does it stop? are they going to continue to lower it, considering 95% of their customer base doesnt even see half that amount of usage in a month?

So who pays for all the spam and BS ad's on websites?

it wont work for alot of users.

Rogers Canada what they do is with lower packages, you get a lower cap, makes sense - slower speeds, low caps....

And with many places going with online streaming and media.. so once you pay for that tune from Apple, you now might have to pay extra to download it to your computer.....

 

[IntelLoyalist]

If they would invest in the infrastructure the US as a whole wouldnt fall further and further behind the rest of the world.

Ridiculous.

16mbps download speed. Means solid downloading reaches your cap in under a day and a half

If they would just drop analog television they could have a HUGE boost in accessible bandwidth.

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I'm afraid that these are examples of the many misconceptions on this subject; and is part of the reason why we have silliness like "Network Neutrality" causing heartburn.

The US is, has been and likely will be way ahead of the rest of the world in internet infrastructure for a long time. And that's not counting all the dark fiber that's buried all over the continent.


There is a lot of confusion over bandwidth, data rates, throughput, etc.

In fact, it's been my experience that most people (and this includes some very computer savvy people) are blissfully unaware that the Internet and the World Wide Web are two different things.

Try telling somebody that there are no websites on the internet and you're likely to get a blank look at best, or a hostile reaction at worst.


The bottom line, and I realize that some people don't like this; is that the INTERNET is nothing more than the cyber equivalent of pavement. Routers, Switches & Media.

All the DESTINATIONS that people go to, like Amazon, YouTube, This forum, Lesbians in Love, or whatever...
These things aren't on the internet, they are for the most part on privately owned servers. There are some Govt & Non-Profit servers too, but data going TO anyplace FROM anyplace has to cross the internet.

And most of the internet is privately owned.

And it ain't cheap. Not to build, and not to maintain.

The companies that own the copper/fiber/etc have the right to charge for access to their networks and if they get too greedy, someone else will come along and offer a better deal.


My PROFESSIONAL advice is to not worry about this cap unless and until it interferes with what you are doing. And if it does, you can either take your business elsewhere (Get Bent Comcast!), or you can buy a "bigger" package.


And in case anyone feels that this is unjust to those of us who are used to spending hours on our high speed connections, I'll leave you with this thought...

My Mother has Road Runner broadband and she uses her Mac for some minor web browsing and e-mail.

Why should she pay a price for her cable connection that essentially subsidizes people who download twenty movies a week?

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

The US is, has been and likely will be way ahead of the rest of the world in internet infrastructure for a long time.

Since when? most of Europe and Asia is far ahead of the U.S in so many ways mainly due to their newer systems as they adapted internet later, and smaller size.....

why do you think the U.S ranks beyond, even costa rica, for high speed Internet...even in major rural areas.

 

[IntelLoyalist]

why do you think the U.S ranks beyond, even costa rica, for high speed Internet...even in major rural areas.

That question is so silly, I don't even know how to respond to it.

You want to believe that we're an internet backwater, you go right ahead.

 

[Ben333]

This ****es me off... I don't think that I use that much bandwidth now but the limits scare me. As if comcast's service didn't suck enough already in my area. If most people REALLY do only use about 3 GB / month then why do they need these limits? Won't it just even itself out?

 

[mbentley]

This ****es me off... I don't think that I use that much bandwidth now but the limits scare me. As if comcast's service didn't suck enough already in my area. If most people REALLY do only use about 3 GB / month then why do they need these limits? Won't it just even itself out?

i imagine that they are just trying to weed out the people who do have high usage. to be honest, i have all sorts of services running on my internet connection and i don't even come close to the 250 GB limit. however, i do not use torrents or p2p.

 

[Oni]

That question is so silly, I don't even know how to respond to it.

Well, you could respond to it with a link from a reputable source that backs up your previous statement. I think that might be pretty ok.

That's just me though, being all narrow again . . . Why wouldn't somebody take what somebody says on the internet at face value. Nobody is ever wrong on the internet, right?

 

[Shiggity]

Yay for ISP monopolies enforcing w/e they want and pretty much saying screw you if you don't like it.

People abusing P2P / torrents ruin it for everyone because there is no legal way for comcast to weed them out atm.

Not to mention comcast says they can downthrottle anyone they want now. When downloading large files from fileplanet, I get downthrottled all the time now I'll be going along at my max avg of ~750KB/s then all of a sudden it'll drop to less than 10KB/s then go back up. So dumb.

What's even worse is that I usually download these files late at nite, when no one else is using the network anyways....well besides the P2P people who never turn utorrent or w/e off.

 

[jmh547]

Honestly I think it is great, I grew accustom to bandwidth caps... I lived 2 1/2 years with a bandwidth cap of 2 gb up and 2 gb down per week... that could easily be exceeded in a couple hours. At this rate it ment budgeting gaming, web browsing, and downloading (i had to go else where to down load debian) The first time you exceeded it in the given year your where reduced to something like 25 kb down for the remainder of the week. if you exceeded it again then you lost service no if ands or buts.

If Comcast offered a lower cap for less money i would probably take it. I think MOST people using more than 100gb month are probably up to no good. The only thing that irritates me, i wish they would have mentioned this when i signed up for their service a couple days ago.

 

[gangaskan]

That question is so silly, I don't even know how to respond to it.

You want to believe that we're an internet backwater, you go right ahead.

haha, you do know the US's infrastructure is poop compared to other places right? as guverment stated. we kinda created it ...., we patched it with band aids the best we can and honestly, its not enough with the invention of myspace, youtube, and mostly p2p(either legal p2p or illegal p2p in this sense)

as hardware matures and gets cheaper, when other countries deploy the technologies it "may" be a ton better than the US its kind of hard to say, i think i read some stats somewhere that most Web service servers are most likely hosted in Germany, or somewhere around Europe, i'll have to dig that up.

take a quick look Here for a good read

 

[burningcpu]

Of course the first step is a "perfectly reasonable" cap. They don't want everyone up in arms, do they?

This was a clever piece of progaganda, "people abusing P2P / torrents ruin it for everyone." Sure, people actually using their unlimited plan like it was unlimited..those are the ones to blame. Divide and conquer.

There are a lot of people to blame for this big stink, but I think piraters and other large downloaders are just scape goats. They are just targets to take your anger away from Comcast.

If you let monopolies call the shots you get injustices like $0.019/KB and a $20,000 overage bill.

 

[IntelLoyalist]

Well, you could respond to it with a link from a reputable source that backs up your previous statement.

The operative word is "COULD".

Frankly, as a network engineer with one of the largest providers in the world,; I AM a reputable source.

But the fact is, I REALLY don't want to have that debate. So ANYONE... you, him or anyone else who wants to believe that particular bit of silliness...
You will not find me trying to stop you.