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Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

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Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#181

Post by nitrogen »

cbr wrote: post #126
astrodust wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a 100 amp power feed, then you should be able to use up to 100 amps. If you have a 100Mbit feed, you should be able to use up to 100Mbits. The big difference between electricity and bandwidth is that electricity has to be produced and this involves considerable expense. Bandwidth is always there so long as the equipment is powered on, which ends up being a marginal cost in the scheme of things. Look at ho…

I think you're confused about the difference between Gbit and Gbyte. One Gbyte is eight Gbits.

I think the confusion may actually stem from the fact that the OP intended Gbit to be Gbit/s (a rate, not a quantity).

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#184

Post by nitrogen »

bradleyland wrote: post #167
astrodust wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a 100 amp power feed, then you should be able to use up to 100 amps. If you have a 100Mbit feed, you should be able to use up to 100Mbits. The big difference between electricity and bandwidth is that electricity has to be produced and this involves considerable expense. Bandwidth is always there so long as the equipment is powered on, which ends up being a marginal cost in the scheme of things. Look at ho…

You're confusing the last mile transmission capability with the cost of transferring the data in and out of the network. Let's say you and I go in to business together and build a microwave wireless internet service. There is commodity equipment available that can push 100 mbps pretty easily. We buy a microwave transmission tower and central office from a company that is going out of business at a rate that cannot be…

We have to pay for every single bit our customers transmit.

What about all the bits your customers receive? You sound like you're at least somewhat familiar with peering agreements, so I'd like to know how that part works. If your customers are mostly receiving instead of sending, wouldn't those bits be paid for by the ones sending the bits?

For that matter, why can I get 200GB/mo at 50mbit/s plus a server for $20 from a VPS provider, and $.15/GB beyond that ($.10 if purchased in advance in the case of Linode)? Why do consumer ISPs need to charge so much more?

Based on your arguments in this and other posts, they have caps because they have to pay for the outgoing bandwidth. Why not just charge $.15/GB over the cap? Last mile infrastructure doesn't account for the difference, since it has a mostly fixed cost of construction and operation. Interfering with other oversubscribed customers can't explain it either, since everyone gets a fair and equal share of the pipe when the pipe is overloaded.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#185

Post by CamperBob »

bradleyland wrote: post #89
fr0sty wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. They do? Where is this the case? My water and electricity usage have no monthly cap and are only shut off if I fail to pay the bills.

Your electric utility service is capped, but they use a different method because electric utilities are metered. You have a fixed capacity feed to your house. For example, our home has 150 amp service. I cannot exceed that draw or the main feed breaker trips and everything goes dark. I can request installation of a larger feed, but I have to pay the build-out, and there are hard limits based on my local zoning. One t…

This whole notion that unlimited internet for $60/month is some kind of "right" is just preposterous.

That call is not yours to make. It was Comcast's to make, before they advertised exactly that. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission frowns on false advertising.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#186

Post by [deleted] »

forensic wrote: post #103
joelhaus wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Combined with the power of local carrier monopolies, it's exactly the reason we need net neutrality.

I appreciate your opinion but I downvoted you because you said "This." The "This." meme contributes nothing to the post and is the worst kind of contentless bandwagonism. "This." is lazy and degrades the quality of the site in general.

[deleted]

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#187

Post by fourk »

Interesting. I'm on their 50/20 (mbps down/up) plan and regularly go WAY over the 250GB 'limit' in San Francisco's Mission district and have had no repercussions for doing so. I wonder what the specific conditions are for when/where they choose to enforce this limit, or if it is entirely arbitrary. I've hit a TB down in a single month, and have never heard a word from Comcast about it.

Do they turn a blind eye because I'm on a more expensive plan, or is it because of lack of network congestion in the Mission, or maybe due to the availability of alternative internet service providers?

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#188

Post by FireBeyond »

matwood wrote: post #75
megaman821 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Except if you go over a few times they won't ban you from their service for a year. They just want you to curb your use, which is exactly what this guy was willing to do.

Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Most utilities cannot just shut you off. Many states have laws that determine when and how. The biggest thing about a utility though is that you pay for usage. If you want to leave your lights on all day, they really don't care as long as you continue to pay your bill. Personally, I do…

I'm not personally amazingly sympathetic. He uses his service for business purposes at home (as a consultant) - as he is perfectly entitled to do so.

If he had paid for a business class account, he'd be fine. I pay Comcast right on $100 a month for 22/8mbps, with 5 static IPs, no throttling, and no caps - I work from home and according to my firewall had approximately 800GB of traffic last month (and that usage is not out of the ordinary).

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#189

Post by nitrogen »

mikeryan wrote: post #176
pavel_lishin wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are dozens of apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux that can tell you how much bandwidth you're using Sure, for that machine. So I suppose he could go out and bet a new box, set it up as the router, and then monitor traffic. Just like I have to install my own electric meter... wait. Or like how I have to install my own flow measuring va... wait again.

Most wireless routers offer some version of this feature, its not too difficult to use. My newish (~$100) Netgear wireless router actually has a Traffic Meter feature which monitors my traffic on a monthly basis and can warn me when I get close to nearing that cap. Its a worthwhile investment if you're being warned about your traffic.

Most wireless routers offer some version of this feature, its not too difficult to use.

Really? I've never seen one that has it, and I highly doubt the feature was introduced before these data caps became a problem. Even if most wireless routers have the feature, I doubt most people find it "not too difficult to use." My parents, for example, can't even be bothered to learn to use the scheduling feature of their own recently-purchased router (which does not have a traffic meter).

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#190

Post by nitrogen »

ctide wrote: post #85
bgentry wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though their contract specifies the same data cap for all speed options... So that means that at any time they can decide to terminate you for the same reason.

Does it matter if they don't? I'm sure you can find clauses in most ISP contracts that enable them to terminate you more or less at will, it doesn't matter much if they don't enforce them.

Avoiding and fighting ostensibly-offensive but rarely-enforced laws and policies is essential to preserving consumer freedoms and civil liberties. I, for one, do not want to live in a society with laws that can be applied to anyone but are rarely enforced (as is common now), as in such a society the law will be applied to whomever the enforcer doesn't like.
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