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Comments on news posted 2010-01-11 18:38:03: After implementing a 250 GB usage cap for all of the company's users in August of 2008, it took Comcast more than a year to finally give users a proper usage meter last month. ..

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tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

So where is it?

Not active here(greater seattle market) yet
rtalcott
join:2003-12-02
Pelzer, SC

1 edit

rtalcott

Member

os independent?

Is this going to be a windows only thing?
rt

C_Chipperson
Monster Rain
Premium Member
join:2009-01-17
00000

C_Chipperson

Premium Member

It is OS independent, it is web-based on your comcast.net page (i think)

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Nothing in NJ yet

This must be the SLOWEST rollout of a feature in history. Well maybe not as slow as their TIVO rollout.
rtalcott
join:2003-12-02
Pelzer, SC

rtalcott to C_Chipperson

Member

to C_Chipperson

Re: os independent?

Thank you!
rt
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

How are disputes resolved?

what if Comcast's meter is not any more accurate than Verizon's that mysteriously added useage even to phones that don't have data capability? What if the meter says you used 500 GB and you only used 50 GB? What recourse do have if any to dispute that?
WernerSchutz
join:2009-08-04
Sugar Land, TX

1 edit

WernerSchutz

Member

said by 88615298:

what if Comcast's meter is not any more accurate than Verizon's that mysteriously added useage even to phones that don't have data capability? What if the meter says you used 500 GB and you only used 50 GB? What recourse do have if any to dispute that?
The guy from the "abuse" department is very open to discussions*

* = customer being blamed for everything

/sarcasm

Now, seriously, I believe if you take the initiative after an incident and try to discuss with someone from the Philly HQ they would actually be a lot more responsive and understanding.

Looking at the tech discussions presented by JLivingood, I believe the meter is quite accurate, although being targeted by a DDOS/virus/malware would create a problem for you, since technically the data transfer would be accurate, although not intended by the customer.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to FFH5

Member

to FFH5

Re: Nothing in NJ yet

Meh, I'll go with AT&T HSPA rollout as slower. There's a map for that, ya know.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt to WernerSchutz

Premium Member

to WernerSchutz

Re: How are disputes resolved?

But having the meter would allow you to be aware of the problem and report it to the CC abuse team (and probably not be blamedfor it/have it held against you , provided you followed the instructions for cleaning out any viri/trojans/etc.)
flashcore
join:2007-01-23
united state

flashcore to WernerSchutz

Member

to WernerSchutz
Let me just tell you How disputes are resolved with these morons.

First I would not trust anything that Concast says or gives you to look at. I was accused in 2007 of downloading over 1200GB in one month (Before there 250GB cap was ever announced). Now how I managed that is beyond me, I was out of the country the whole month they said this occurred and the modem/computer/router/wifi/etc... were all unplugged and the alarm on my house set the whole time, no one had access to my internet or house for the entire month.

Then came the fun part of coming home to find the service disconnected and a message from some random number and a random guy from india saying to call this random long distance number which I did not trust. Needless to say I called the Concast support to verify that it was legit and they told me they did not know what that number was and not to trust it and they turned my service back on.

The next day it was off again with another call from the random long distance number/indian. This time I called the number back and got a answering machine, so I left a message to call me on my cell phone if they wanted to reach me. Well that was too complicated for the idiots and they called my home again at 1pm on a weekday (I guess the morons in india that they hire to do this crap don't know that people in the US have jobs from 6am-5pm), well needless to say it took 3 days of this bullshit before I had enough and finally called the concast corporate complaint number to get my service back on.

Now for how the dispute was not resolved (Remember at this point they still had not announced there 250GB cap). This idiot who could hardly speak any english made the accusation that I did this, after telling the moron it was impossible because the modem was off the entire month he continued to read his script. I repeatedly asked what this so called cap was that I broke and he refused to say. He then proceeded to threaten me with service termination and a 2 year ban. In the end I just told the guy to F**K OFF, told him to learn English and to stop making accusations that he could not back up. I then demanded that he to turn my service back on immediately which he did only because the corporate offices told him to (I will not go into why I was able to get away with this but I will say it helps to know people).

The only good thing to come from all of Concast's crap is that they managed to piss me off so bad with this shit that 3 Months later when FiOS became available, I left these morons behind and will NEVER do business with them again.

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena

Premium Member

Who determines accuracy and disputes?

You know.... government officials do "spot checks" on random meters that the electricity, gas and water companies roll out before certain models are placed in customers houses, to ensure the companies don't rip off their customers.

Why should we believe that Comcast meters are accurate, and who will have the "last word" when it comes to a dispute?

I mean, if some dude with access to a large Korean university network just doesn't like me, and decides to blast me for a week.... I may not notice it as my router just drops all ICMP traffic, but at that moment it will already have passed my modem and is counted as data.

Who determines whether the traffic coming from some Korean university was actually me downloading a HEAP of warez from a server there, or some Korean junk in an online game chat that just can't stand that I won and kicked his ass in some shootout game, figured out my IP address and decides to take it out on me.......

Well, who?

nerdburg
Premium Member
join:2009-08-20
Schuylkill Haven, PA

nerdburg to flashcore

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to flashcore

Re: How are disputes resolved?

Dude, Comcast doesn't have customer support in India.

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena to WernerSchutz

Premium Member

to WernerSchutz
said by WernerSchutz:

Looking at the tech discussions presented by JLivingood, I believe the meter is quite accurate, although being targeted by a DDOS/virus/malware would create a problem for you, since technically the data transfer would be accurate, although not intended by the customer.
I am very interested in the latter. Having been active on IRC for 16 years, and having played a variety of online games (although I don't play much anymore), I know how easy it is, and I have actually had this happen to my, to use some big university network, especially outside of the United States to blast someone's IP address with a LOT of data.

Now, on my side I may actually not even notice it, besides that the internet just got a little slower..... I have a decent router that blocks ICMP, and any type of that traffic will just be dropped, same with bogus HTTP replies and whatnot.

But on a 15 Mbps connection, you can probably generate 50, 60 GB of traffic in a 24 hour period, and if you have someone that is pissed off enough at you because YOU are the one that WON THE GAME the other night, and you just HAD to gloat..... that can add up rather quickly.

Also, there are still SO MANY people that have open routers. In my street there are 10 routers I can see when I sit out on my front porch, and 4 of them are open, 3 of them are WEP and cracked in minutes, with the remaining 3 being WPA, including my own.

Now we all know that we are responsible for our own data, but it is NOT ILLEGAL to have an open router, and many people do not even KNOW any better!

Also, WEP is easily cracked and if you THINK you are safe.... someone might actually be using your internet. And I say that because someone in an apartment building I know has used his Linux laptop to crack 2 of the WEP routers he can see, and is using their internet because he himself GOT SHUTDOWN for not paying his bills.

Say you come home after a long weekend, check you meter, and all over sudden 80 GB was added that you did not initiate.... and your poor WEP router doesn't log who did what at what time.

Alternatively, how do you prevent cheaters? Someone that DOES leave his torrent client running all the time, and leaves his router open ON PURPOSE so that when he crosses the line, he can simply claim..... IT WASN'T ME!!

How does this work?

hayabusa3303
Over 200 mph
Premium Member
join:2005-06-29
Florence, SC

hayabusa3303 to iansltx

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to iansltx

Re: Nothing in NJ yet

att will try a lawsuit on that map also.
flashcore
join:2007-01-23
united state

flashcore to nerdburg

Member

to nerdburg

Re: How are disputes resolved?

said by nerdburg:

Dude, Comcast doesn't have customer support in India.
I guess you have never had to deal with there "abuse" department. All 4 of the idiots I spoke to there were clearly in India, not one American and not one could speak proper English.

AnonPerson
join:2000-08-26
Lexington, KY

AnonPerson to FFH5

Member

to FFH5

Re: Nothing in NJ yet

I'd fair to say Verizon FIOS rollout is slower.

jjoshua
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ

jjoshua

Premium Member

Jump for joy!

Your ISP caps your service and you're all jumping to get some POS usage meter?

Tell Comcast to stuff their usage meter up their ass, lower your bill, and uncap your service.

Suntop
Wolfrider Elf
Premium Member
join:2000-03-23
Fairfield, MT
·3Rivers Communic..
·T-Mobile
Netgear R6400
Netgear WNR1000
Netgear WNDR3400

Suntop

Premium Member

You got to be kidding me

They wouldn't do that no way. They are encrypting the qam signals so you can't use that tuner to get those channles. In wavecable area you can watch quite a deal of channles. Even Discovery HD Theater for the cost of basic cable. Comcast is too greedy. Oh well.

In Lakewood, Washington they only let you watch 31 channles and it is crap channles.

such is life no?

r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium Member
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

r81984 to jjoshua

Premium Member

to jjoshua

Re: Jump for joy!

So much for fair internet.
These companies only cater to people that do not use their internet connections.
A 250 GB cap a month means your connection is really a 768 kbps connection.

heat84
DSLR Influencer
join:2004-03-11
Delray Beach, FL

heat84

Member

Why are people worried

Nothing is being rolled out slower than U-Verse. Not even glaciers.

I don't see how any of the concerns expressed in this thread pertain to the meter. The meter is just so YOU can see your monthly data usage. Comcast already monitors our bandwidth usage separately. You guys are acting like those concerns didn't exist before the meter.

I use NetMeter anyway.

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536

Premium Member

The big question

Does comcast consider 1000 or 1024 bits a kilobit?

sapo
Cruising Down Memory Lane
Premium Member
join:2002-09-16
Sacramento, CA

sapo to AnonPerson

Premium Member

to AnonPerson

Re: Nothing in NJ yet

At least that requires effort.

jlivingood
Premium Member
join:2007-10-28
Philadelphia, PA

jlivingood to flashcore

Premium Member

to flashcore

Re: How are disputes resolved?

said by flashcore:
said by nerdburg:

Dude, Comcast doesn't have customer support in India.
I guess you have never had to deal with there "abuse" department. All 4 of the idiots I spoke to there were clearly in India, not one American and not one could speak proper English.
The Customer Security Assurance team (aka the Abuse team) is based on the East Coast of the United States.
jlivingood

jlivingood to dvd536

Premium Member

to dvd536

Re: The big question

said by dvd536:

Does comcast consider 1000 or 1024 bits a kilobit?
You may want to review »netforecast.com/document ··· racy.pdf where that is addressed on page 4 in the chart "How Much is a Number?"
How Much Is a Number?
The Comcast meter reports Gigabytes, which is a binary number not to be confused with the similar decimal number. There is an easy numbers trap that appears to make the two systems the same. A thousand is often referred to as the metric kilo, followed by a million that starts with the same "M" as mega. But in fact these are very different values. The following table illustrates the difference.
Counting traffic by billions of bytes will result in a -6.9% error relative to the meter which uses binary numbers. A negative error indicates that the value is low relative to the standard value. In this case the decimal is underreporting relative to the meter.

NOCTech75
Premium Member
join:2009-06-29
Marietta, GA

NOCTech75

Premium Member

Still trying to get answers to these questions

This post below got ignored the last time I asked it (few days ago in the last Comcast meter news post):

Comcast is going to launch an online backup filespace...now let's say I use said backup filespace on a nightly basis. Here's the scorecard:

1. I use the backup service and it counts against my cap.
2. The service I am either a) getting as part of the package or b) actually paying for.

Why do you guys roll out a service yet if we actually use it it counts against our cap. That makes no sense.

What if some asshat from another network decides to continuously ping my router with 1K byte packets, will that count against my cap?

Now let's look at the Comcast website, what can I do with my connection:

* Watch streaming HD movies online.
* Dominate games with less lag.
* Download music and upload photos in the blink of an eye with PowerBoost.
* Get blazing fast connections—even with the whole family online at the same time.

Let's see, streaming HD movies... that's a lot of data. Downloading music, that could be another busy one. So here you are telling me to use it... but if I actually use it like I could I'm a bad guy.

Now let's look at the SmartZone Communications Center:

Welcome to an amazing fusion of e-mail, Comcast Digital Voice® messages, and your Universal Address Book in one convenient place—with access from any Internet connection.

* Listen to your voice mail from your PC and in any order. Even forward messages to others by e-mail.

Here is another service being touted... that goes against my cap. Why? Again, if you don't want folks to use it don't offer the service.

But wait.... there's more!

Comcast.net: your gateway to a world of online entertainment

* Enjoy full access to Comcast.net, where you can share photos, listen to your favorite music, shop, and play games.
* Check TV listings and access over 130,000 news and entertainment videos from Fox Sports, E!, and more.

So again, I use something Comcast is touting and providing.. I'm the bad guy.

Bill Neilson
Premium Member
join:2009-07-08
Alexandria, VA

Bill Neilson to maartena

Premium Member

to maartena

Re: Who determines accuracy and disputes?

I suspect they will and it wont be long before people are suing Comcast for lying about the amount they used

pjhofmann
join:2000-08-22
Argyle, TX

pjhofmann to tshirt

Member

to tshirt

Re: So where is it?

said by tshirt:

Not active here(greater seattle market) yet
I live right outside of Portland, OR and I still don't seem to have it.

jpr
@mchsi.com

jpr to jlivingood

Anon

to jlivingood

Re: The big question

...and they are wrong.

If 100 (binary) Gigabytes (107,374,182,400 bytes, or 'octets') are counted by the [true binary gigabyte] meter, the meter will show '100 GB'. However, an application that reports 1 Billion bytes as '1 GB' will show '107 GB' (or '107.37 GB' if it does not round).

Therefore, 'counting traffic by billions of bytes' will result in a +7.37% error relative to the meter which uses binary numbers (true Gigabytes). This POSITIVE error indicates that the value is HIGH relative to the standard [true binary gigabyte] value. In this case, the decimal is OVERreporting relative to the [standard true binary gigabyte] meter.

LeftOfSanity
People Suck.
join:2005-11-06
Dover, DE

LeftOfSanity to flashcore

Member

to flashcore

Re: How are disputes resolved?

said by flashcore:

said by nerdburg:

Dude, Comcast doesn't have customer support in India.
I guess you have never had to deal with there "abuse" department. All 4 of the idiots I spoke to there were clearly in India, not one American and not one could speak proper English.
YEAH!! It's not like Comcast would hire anyone in America that has an accent.
Expand your moderator at work
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