Comcast Users, Don't go over 600GB D/L

Why download 600gigs in a month anyway?
 
TOS/AUP. you agreed to them when you signed up. Welcome to life.

OOL automatically adjusts your upload speed to 28 KB/sec when one uploads more than a certain amount of GB's in a certain amount of time, and it is not even specified what the threshold is. It seems to depend on how much traffic the node you are on is carrying, and if it is having an effect on others on your node.

And there is nothing a user can do about it, as they agreed to the TOS/AUP, which says they may disconnect at any time, or any other measures they feel necessary to keep everyone's speed the same.
 
X-Istence said:
TOS/AUP. you agreed to them when you signed up. Welcome to life.

OOL automatically adjusts your upload speed to 28 KB/sec when one uploads more than a certain amount of GB's in a certain amount of time, and it is not even specified what the threshold is. It seems to depend on how much traffic the node you are on is carrying, and if it is having an effect on others on your node.

And there is nothing a user can do about it, as they agreed to the TOS/AUP, which says they may disconnect at any time, or any other measures they feel necessary to keep everyone's speed the same.
Yeah, I understand that, and have been caught by them before. However Comcast is NOTORIOUS for doing things like this that violate un-published guidelines, that when you call them out on they won't give specifics. All they say is that the 600GB threshold is too high, and when asked what a reasonable use is, they pretty much say no comment.

I just think they should explain and inform their users better.
 
Tittles said:
Why download 600gigs in a month anyway?


I myself alone do around 200 GB a month on my OOL connection when it comes to movies, music, streaming radio, and everything else. I am an avid listener of streaming radio, some of it at 192 kbps, others at higher, which comes out to:

192 kbps * (30 * 12 hours) = 29.6630859 gigabytes

Assuming 20 days, and 12 hours a day, which is about right. Then there is all the legal music I download, and files from school (big video files for projects due in Video Production (1 hr of video is 10 gb)). I am not really surprised people go over 500 GB personally, since that is just me. Then we have my two brothers, my sister, my dad, and my dad's fiancee. The real killer thing for me personally is probably all the Linux ISO's i download for people I do computer repairs for, as well as updates and others.
 
kcnychief said:
Yeah, I understand that, and have been caught by them before. However Comcast is NOTORIOUS for doing things like this that violate un-published guidelines, that when you call them out on they won't give specifics. All they say is that the 600GB threshold is too high, and when asked what a reasonable use is, they pretty much say no comment.

I just think they should explain and inform their users better.


Comcast however is not the only one doing this, all the other companies are doing this as well. It may stink, but live with it. If you don't agree with the AUP/TOS which specifically states that they are allowed to do this, then you should find a different ISP that does not have the same practice (good luck). It is in Comcast's best interest not to tell people what is reasonable, as then people will complain when Comcast shuts them down early because their node is already saturated, and thus they are causing problems for others on their network. That is what it comes down to. 600 GB of transfer is not cheap though. I wonder how much it costs cable companies!
 
Good points all around X, and congrats on your results from that competition btw. I've been tracking your blog, very impressive :)
 
X-Istence said:
I myself alone do around 200 GB a month on my OOL connection when it comes to movies, music, streaming radio, and everything else. I am an avid listener of streaming radio, some of it at 192 kbps, others at higher, which comes out to:

192 kbps * (30 * 12 hours) = 29.6630859 gigabytes

Assuming 20 days, and 12 hours a day, which is about right. Then there is all the legal music I download, and files from school (big video files for projects due in Video Production (1 hr of video is 10 gb)). I am not really surprised people go over 500 GB personally, since that is just me. Then we have my two brothers, my sister, my dad, and my dad's fiancee. The real killer thing for me personally is probably all the Linux ISO's i download for people I do computer repairs for, as well as updates and others.

True...
 
Personally, I don't agree with the imposition of such maximum BWs, and their AUP is one reason I do not have Comcast myself for my Internet, though I do have digital cable through them. I also don't think home users should have to meter, or keep tabs on/worry about their own BW useage on their home computers either. I rather do wish that cable companies were in the same place with telephone companies with having to provide more then 1 ISP over the wire...

This, in large measure is the reason I have aDSL and not cable modem service; albeit I do live close enough to Qwest's CO (well 1 of 4 in the city here) to qualify... The ISP I have, namely Speakeasy, has no such AUP connected to their service, and is also more liberally minded on that... They also specifically state in their TOS, that routers, servers (on the home circuit), and Internet sharing between multiple comps (aka NAT/PAT) are welcome, and people are free to use them.

They do state that people won't try to hack from their shell account, or break their service, but if one wanted to, they could pull maximum BW off their circuit 24/7, and my ISP doesn't care... They see themselves as more a provider of BW, then as a baby sitter on how it's used...

This is a reason when I moved, I moved my Speakeasy circuit and signed up with them a second time; whereas Comcast, I will not give them my business where I have a choice. In this, I can and have spoken with my wallet :D

Unfortunately however, everyone doesn't qualify for DSL, where there's larger choice in ISPs, due to government regulations wrt competition, via the telecommunications bill of 1996 :)
 
With all the linux and *cough* music and what not i was downloading awhile back I hit almost 1TB on my connection.


Movies and other junk that I could find. WMP streaming music. Gaming.......
 
Be glad none of you are on Rogers Cable in Canada. They are probably the largest cable internet provider here and they have a limit of 60 gigs a month. Up until about 3 months ago the Extreme users also had a 60 gig cap that is now 100 gigs, and download speed is 6 Mbps for them. Think how fast you could hit that.

Matt
 
kcnychief said:
However Comcast is NOTORIOUS for doing things like this that violate un-published guidelines,

How do we know what violations have occurred if these 'guidelines' are unpublished? Could you publish them for us?

How were you 'caught' by them?

600 gigs is a truckload of bits.
 
Racer_600 said:
Be glad none of you are on Rogers Cable in Canada. They are probably the largest cable internet provider here and they have a limit of 60 gigs a month. Up until about 3 months ago the Extreme users also had a 60 gig cap that is now 100 gigs, and download speed is 6 Mbps for them. Think how fast you could hit that.

Matt

I'm very glad. My BF2 buddy pings over 100 on every single server while I ring in at 30, 40, 50s... mmmmm Videotron Fiber.....
 
Mastershakes said:
How were you 'caught' by them?
I was caught by them back in 1998, for something a wee-bit different.

But, that's in the past, and no need to be brought up now :D
 
Fair enough. hehe.


and....
Mastershakes said:
How do we know what violations have occurred if these 'guidelines' are unpublished? Could you publish them for us?
 
Nah, not into the publication business :p

Basically what I meant by this, and it's already been beaten to a pulp, is that specific restrictions, like the alleged 600GB limit, aren't published anywhere. As I mentioned above, and as the guy asked who was caught, if you ask them what "acceptable use" is, they won't tell you.

I know that's "how it is" and that's fine. Thing is for me, I have either Comcast or Dial-up. Frankly, comcast has me by the balls, and not in a good way :s
 
There are plenty of other things in Comcast's TOU that they might be able to pick on. Rather than make up rules, they should enforce their existing ones. I'm sure that somewhere in that 600 GB, there is some copyright violation they could go after and give him a warning for. There's no reason that Comcast should make all their customers afraid of unwritten rules for the sake of one.

If they make him sweat a little about legal entanglements, I'm sure he'll reduce his usage.
 
Hmmm, Comcast going after people for Copyright violoations, that sounds familiar :D
 
Mastershakes said:
How do we know what violations have occurred if these 'guidelines' are unpublished? Could you publish them for us?

How were you 'caught' by them?

600 gigs is a truckload of bits.

That's probably his point... Without it being published, they could do nasty things to one's connection for no stated reason at all. They might not even have a real guideline behind their action, and could be lieing through their teeth (potentially), and people would be none the wiser. They can still say they are doing it per "unstated guideline" and "no we won't tell you", yadda, yadda...

And yes, many people they do have by the balls. I wish the enforced competition of the telecommunications act of 1996 was extended, to place a requirement on cable companies that they have to allow more then 1 ISP (with options to the customer), over their wire; as it's done wrt telephone companies... Probably if the telecommunications act was written several years latter, it might have; but in 1996 and before (when it might have been drafted), people were thinking "communications == telephone companies. I doubt we'd see that with the current leaders in Washington however... Hell, just look at the ease of restrictions for station ownership that occured within the last 6 years by the FCC... The same one's that allowed Clear Channel to grow so large, and for all media to be consolidated into fewer hands...
 

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