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ctggzg
Premium Member
join:2005-02-11
USA

ctggzg to pipdipchip

Premium Member

to pipdipchip

Re: Comcast abuse phone call.

We have two people in the household programming and web-conferencing over VPN all day and using other non-work computers the rest of the time, at least 20 computer-hours a day altogether. The router shows about 6 GB in WAN activity over the last month. 300 GB is ridiculous. Comcast isn't obligated to tell anyone the limit. Either stop using the bandwidth of 50 average customers or get ready to have your account terminated (rightfully).
GrumblyGuy
join:2007-01-05
South San Francisco, CA

GrumblyGuy

Member

300 GB? It's sad that this usage is even an issue. The US is what- 16th worldwide in broadband usage? Customers in Asia and Europe are paying far less money for internet access 20 Gb/sec and faster.

Lack of competition and these ridiculous usage caps mean that regular viewing of online 1080p programming isn't happening anytime soon. Of course, online video is bad news for a cable company.

Right now, you can hit 300 GB easily: Own a Slingbox. Watch legal video from cbs.com and other networks' websites. Have a household where 4 people watch video primarily online.

I want to be able to order HD video on-demand online and have bandwidth to spare for a group video conference while I'm waiting. I want to have a home security webcam send surveillance video to me while I'm at work.

And all the little things add up- I watch music videos on launch.yahoo.com. I use VoIP. I'm a photography and Photoshop hobbyist and view several hundreds of 10 MP pictures every month.

I wish Comcast would come up with a pricing tier for people who do want higher upload/download quotas.
Expand your moderator at work

Bek
@bellsouth.net

Bek to Apollo729

Anon

to Apollo729

Re: Comcast abuse phone call.

Switch to another ISP. If bell south is in your area goto them I've used then quite a bit and never had one complaint about use of bandwidth whether its the new server or streaming videos and i watch alot off youtube or google. ESP if they going to raise their voice REFUSE to tell you what the bandwidth limit is to safeguard your internet 'unlimited internet'? Hmmph doesn't exist with Comcast OBVIOUSLY
mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Denton, TX

mobbo to iamanon

Member

to iamanon
LOL

Getting in an endless loop arguement is fun, plus it costs Comcast $20/hour in labor/benefits to have that guy call you and warn you. I love it. Someone needs to record such a phonecall to Comcast so I can hear it and have a giggle.

Frank
Premium Member
join:2000-11-03
somewhere

1 edit

Frank to dvdivx

Premium Member

to dvdivx
The cmts probably generates a report based on modem mac address. Try using another cable modem and switching them around every other week.

At first I posted something much more complex but I decided to keep it simple.

unlimited
@sbcglobal.net

unlimited to dvdivx

Anon

to dvdivx
There should be a limit listed, a "unlimited pipe" means unlimited, how hard is that Comcast? What he says makes sense, obviously Comcrap doesn't figure that unlimited means the same thing. Give him a holler, I already contacted him, since then I moved to AT&T. Apparently, they need lawyers to speak to them (comcast) and they like it!

Man I thought I would never see the day where "unlimited" had a limit. Only Comcast could screw that up to be "Comcastic". I can only imagine what color their sky is.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· IrjQoLK0

rob_in_chatt
Premium Member
join:2004-09-17
Chattanooga, TN

rob_in_chatt to dvdivx

Premium Member

to dvdivx
it is absurd for someone to use 300 gig in a month and bitch about a letter from the ISP saying stop it.

that is about 15 CDs of music a day you would have to burn to get to that amount. i have 5 PCs here networked, 3 of which are gaming machines so they are always online gaming and the laptop is the server watchdog when im gaming and then there is the business only PC. i have never come even close to a fraction of 300 gig in a month and between the 4 people here the connection is in constant use.

cork1958
Cork
Premium Member
join:2000-02-26

cork1958 to EnasYorl

Premium Member

to EnasYorl
.
Well to hit that number you have to be downloading 16 hours a day for 30 days at a rate of 1.33Mbps.

That is a ton of usage. That would mean on average your using up ~4% of the total network on that CMTS port all the time.

I'm guessing your actually using up 15% of the network all the time during Peak hours and it's affecting other users that might be calling in to complain about slow speeds.

Remember this is DOCSIS not DSL.
Exactly what I was going to say. You definitely were doing WAY more than just catching up!!

GamerGeek
Premium Member
join:2003-07-26
Fortuna, CA

GamerGeek to dvdivx

Premium Member

to dvdivx
I love it. I really do. You have the audacity to state unequivocally that you downloaded 300 gigs of stuff to "catch up" (whatever that means), yet you threaten to sue the company for requesting that you knock it off?

First off, it's Comcast's bandwidth, not yours. If they tell you to cut it out, you cut it out. Secondly, since you already know they were monitoring your account and have records of what you downloaded, do you not think that they would submit that as evidence in your frivolous lawsuit? I would wager, even if it's a fraction of the total amount, that something in that obtusely large amount of data is material with a copyright attached to it. If it is, you are completely boned, my man.

I consider myself an above average downloader, but I've been monitoring my bandwidth since 2004. I can safely say that I didn't even go over 3/4 of what you downloaded in the entire YEAR of 2006. 300 gigs in a month is beyond excessive. You should feel lucky they only warned you, but nope, you have to get all cry-cry and switch providers because they weren't going by your definition of "unlimited".

You just have to love this "ME" mentality everyone has lately.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

1 edit

1 recommendation

NormanS to iamanon

MVM

to iamanon
Click for full size
Two years, or so, of anime downloads.
said by iamanon :

This "unlimited" versus "(bandwidth) abuse" needs to be defined - maybe a class action lawsuit will be the final solution.
Somebody, in another, similar thread, posted the 3-year-old + advertisement in which Comcast offered, "Unlimited access". Not "Internet", but "access". That ad ran at a time when many customers were still on dial-up service, and dial-up services offered time limits. I once had a CompuServe account which offered 5 hours of access for a flat $9.95 per month, but started billing at $1 per minute for time over 5 hours in a given month. By contrast Comcast's "unlimited access" was pretty cool: 24/7 access with no surprise surcharge for being over some hourly limit.
If it wasn't for the monopoly of the cable and telephone companies, and I have more choices than two for an internet service provider, I would've been long gone from Comcast a long time ago.
A choice between only two services is not a "monopoly", but a "duopoly". I think. However, where I live there are multiple choices. Okay, only Comcast for cable HSI, but AT&T, Comcast, Covad, DSL Extreme, Speakeasy, and the Covad resellers for DSL. And Hughes Satellite. Not even a "duopoly" here.
1.33Mbps - that's a lot? That is only 12% of Comcast's advertised download bandwidth. Customers are not expected to use at least 12% of their available bandwidth??
What's with this "available bandwidth". I have never seen Comcast advertise selling "available bandwidth". I have never seen any ISP advertising "available bandwidth". If you take the actual bandwidth Comcast has, and divide it by the number of customers Comcast has, that would be your "available" bandwidth. I suspect is is closer to 30GBytes per month than 300GBytes per month.
And there is no offpeak/onpeak usage difference on my bill. Last time I checked, Comcast cable modem isn't a cellphone service??
No. It is an Internet service which offers high speed download. So you can get the final episode of the fan-subbed "Black Lagoon: Second Barrage" four, or five times faster than I did. Not so you can get four, or five times as many episodes of anime as I can get.

I once posted in a similar thread that I think I had downloaded 400GBytes of anime in the last two years. With a total of only 160GBytes of total disc space on two computers I had to burn a bunch of shows to CD to make room for more. I have, subsequently, obtained a computer with 1,000GBytes of HDD storage. So, to prove my point, I recopied all downloaded anime shows to HDD. In over two years, just about 193GBytes of shows. I don't download just because I can. I truly tried to thin out the downloads because, until last month, my available HDD space was limited.

I am still trying to grasp downloading 300GBytes per month. It would take me just three months to fill my current HDD, assuming I started with no stored data. I just bought a spindle of 100 DVD-R discs two months back. That would hold another month of downloads at 300GBytes per month.

Can high quality video streaming really account for it all? You would have to be watching it 24/7; no time to eat, sleep, bathe, go to work...

Rats. I forgot the screen shot...
NormanS

1 edit

1 recommendation

NormanS to unlimited

MVM

to unlimited
said by unlimited :

There should be a limit listed, a "unlimited pipe" means unlimited...
Show me a recent Comcast ad, say, between Jan. 1, 2005 and the present, where Comcast advertised "Unlimited Internet", or "Unlimited bandwidth".

Before 2005 doesn't count. "Unlimited access" doesn't count.

Hmm. It seems that you, like I, have an "at&t Yahoo! DSL" connection. You need to be especially careful about quoting what you think Comcast ever said. Please do your research on the competition before piling on them with unconfirmed rumor.
champkind
join:2007-01-04
02342

champkind to NormanS

Member

to NormanS
disclaimer: I forget what the TOS says

Doesn't the TOS say that users can't negatively affect other users on the network? It doesn't say anything about conserving bandwidth so they don't have to pay for it. As long as the network can handle it, I see nothing wrong with what I'm doing. In theory, a person should be able to test network capacity by running a speedtest at peak hours. When I am getting a 14mbps (powerboost) on my 6mbps connection, IMO, that means the network can handle it, and nobody else is affected.

jsmarkbrown
Premium Member
join:2002-12-16
Baltimore, MD

jsmarkbrown to dvdivx

Premium Member

to dvdivx
Wow... I'm amazed at the attitudes of some of the people who are making comments here. Are you all Comcast customers? I am. But fortunately (unlike alot of people) there are many choices where I live. I have had issues with Comcast since day one. I have to say that I believe they have made best effort attempts at keeping me as a customer. I am on the triple play package. They advertised telephone, internet, and digital cable for 33 bucks each, plus fees. The first thing they tried to screw me on was this "Digital Cable". I have made this comment before, but it needs to be restated as it is appropriate for the conversation.... The triple play package DOES NOT include digital cable. They call it "digital lite". Well, you can call it what you want, but it either is or it isn't. They say it includes on demand with thousands of free programs. Also untrue. I believe the same thing goes for internet service. Unlimited means without limit. If you place a limit on it, it's not unlimited. Any attempts to obscure the intent or meaning of "unlimited" is a deception of expectations by consumers to receive service that is not limited. When my contract is up with Comcast I will go back to dsl. I will download what I want, when i want, and how much i want and my ISP won't say a word. Comcast wants to be better than dsl providers. They want to be faster and more reliable. You don't accomplish this by deception. It's too bad that Comcast has to provision so much bandwidth to provide the speed they advertise. But that's life Comcast. Get over it.

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

1 recommendation

Robert

Premium Member

said by jsmarkbrown:

Wow... I'm amazed at the attitudes of some of the people who are making comments here. Are you all Comcast customers? I am. But fortunately (unlike alot of people) there are many choices where I live. I have had issues with Comcast since day one. I have to say that I believe they have made best effort attempts at keeping me as a customer. I am on the triple play package. They advertised telephone, internet, and digital cable for 33 bucks each, plus fees. The first thing they tried to screw me on was this "Digital Cable". I have made this comment before, but it needs to be restated as it is appropriate for the conversation.... The triple play package DOES NOT include digital cable. They call it "digital lite". Well, you can call it what you want, but it either is or it isn't. They say it includes on demand with thousands of free programs. Also untrue. I believe the same thing goes for internet service. Unlimited means without limit. If you place a limit on it, it's not unlimited. Any attempts to obscure the intent or meaning of "unlimited" is a deception of expectations by consumers to receive service that is not limited. When my contract is up with Comcast I will go back to dsl. I will download what I want, when i want, and how much i want and my ISP won't say a word. Comcast wants to be better than dsl providers. They want to be faster and more reliable. You don't accomplish this by deception. It's too bad that Comcast has to provision so much bandwidth to provide the speed they advertise. But that's life Comcast. Get over it.
Can you show me where Comcast advertises Unlimited? They advertise a constant 24/7 connection, but nowhere have I see n they advertise their Broadband has "Unlimited".

jsmarkbrown
Premium Member
join:2002-12-16
Baltimore, MD

1 edit

jsmarkbrown

Premium Member

show me in their sales ad where it says it's limited.
this is exactly what I was talking about. Dialup isn't content limited. Neither is DSL. The EXPECTATION of consumers is unlimited service. This issue carries legal weight. It's all about expectations. If Comcast intends on placing any limits on service, those limitations should be clearly spelled out BEFORE you commit to a contract.

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

Robert

Premium Member

said by jsmarkbrown:

show me in their sales ad where it says it's limited.
Use of the Comcast services indicates agreement of their Terms of Service, AUP, and other policies. One policy in specific is their acceptable use policy that states:
quote:
Comcast may provide versions of the Service with different speeds and bandwidth usage limitations, among other characteristics, subject to applicable Service plans. You shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or degrade any other user's use of the Service, nor represent (in the sole judgment of Comcast) an overly large burden on the network. In addition, you shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, disrupt, degrade, or impede Comcast's ability to deliver and provide the Service and monitor the Service, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

You further agree to comply with all Comcast network, bandwidth, and data storage and usage limitations. You shall ensure that your bandwidth consumption using the Service does not exceed the limitations that are now in effect or may be established in the future. If your use of the Service results in the consumption of bandwidth in excess of the applicable limitations, that is a violation of this Policy. In such cases, Comcast may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your Service account or request that you subscribe to a version of the Service with higher bandwidth usage limitations if you wish to continue to use the Service at higher bandwidth consumption levels.

jsmarkbrown
Premium Member
join:2002-12-16
Baltimore, MD

jsmarkbrown

Premium Member

what limitations is it referreing to?

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

Robert

Premium Member

said by jsmarkbrown:

what limitations is it referreing to?
This is a circle. Comcast will NOT release what the 'cap' is per month because if they did then customers who do abuse the service would make sure that they come close, but not over, to that cap on a monthly basis.

The only way Comcast will release the caps to the public is to make it a lower # (ie. 50GB). But that just screws it up for everyone.

Assumptions on this forum believe that 300GB is the 'cap'. 300GB is VEY VERY VERY REASONABLE. If you manage to download 300GB+ in 1 month, then you need to find another source for Internet access.

jsmarkbrown
Premium Member
join:2002-12-16
Baltimore, MD

jsmarkbrown

Premium Member

10 gigs a day is alot. Deciding what the limit is based on whether others have complained is unfair because it places a different limit on each customer. In any case, if I call Comcast and corner them into admitting there is a limit on usage then they should readily have information on what that limit is available. Refusing to inform a person of a known limitation is deceptive.

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

1 recommendation

Robert

Premium Member

I'll agree that it can be deceptive.. but that's the name of this game. It's either Comcast be deceptive and protect their network and subscribers, or the subscribers be deceptive (and you KNOW that to be true) and force Comcast to lower the caps because the less than 1% of the abusers continue to abuse the caps by always making sure they never go over it.

TraumaJunkie
Premium Member
join:2004-03-05
Knoxville, TN

TraumaJunkie to jsmarkbrown

Premium Member

to jsmarkbrown
said by jsmarkbrown:

10 gigs a day is alot. Deciding what the limit is based on whether others have complained is unfair because it places a different limit on each customer. In any case, if I call Comcast and corner them into admitting there is a limit on usage then they should readily have information on what that limit is available. Refusing to inform a person of a known limitation is deceptive.
Well, if you and the OP think the TOS/AUP are deceptive then why don't you all files a class action lawsuit? Wanna know why you don't? Because you AGREED to the TOS/AUP when you signed up for service. You AGREE to the TOS/AUP everytime you connect to the Comcast network. Sure, you will find a lawyer that will file for you and take YOUR money because there is no chance in he# that this would ever make it to court. You think Comcast and all other ISPs do not have these agreements reviewed over and over to be sure thry are iron clad legal before putting them into action?

bUT
@pacbell.net

bUT to dvdivx

Anon

to dvdivx
The problem is you don't really know what you agree to. If you live in a geezer community in Florida, using 50gigs a month might place you in the top 1% of all users.
67845017 (banned)
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL

67845017 (banned) to TraumaJunkie

Member

to TraumaJunkie
said by TraumaJunkie:

said by jsmarkbrown:

10 gigs a day is alot. Deciding what the limit is based on whether others have complained is unfair because it places a different limit on each customer. In any case, if I call Comcast and corner them into admitting there is a limit on usage then they should readily have information on what that limit is available. Refusing to inform a person of a known limitation is deceptive.
Well, if you and the OP think the TOS/AUP are deceptive then why don't you all files a class action lawsuit? Wanna know why you don't? Because you AGREED to the TOS/AUP when you signed up for service. You AGREE to the TOS/AUP everytime you connect to the Comcast network. Sure, you will find a lawyer that will file for you and take YOUR money because there is no chance in he# that this would ever make it to court. You think Comcast and all other ISPs do not have these agreements reviewed over and over to be sure thry are iron clad legal before putting them into action?
Overall you are right. But, even iron-clad legal arguments can be argued in court and not be winners. Happens all the time.

In this case, I don't think there's much legal leg on which to stand.

bittorrent
@59.186.67.x

bittorrent to dvdivx

Anon

to dvdivx
i like how you all assume that just because he is using 300GB a month he must be downloading illegal material, and even if he is i dont see why its any of your business.

why do you think high speed internet is so popular? im sure all the people with 30Mb down are just using it to check their email...NOT! almost everyone i know downloads illegal stuff, if it werent for p2p, newsgroups, etc isps wouldnt sell nearly as many high speed connections.

why do you think bittorrent takes up a major chunk of all internet traffic? why do so many people have dvd burners? to burn all their "home movies"? i think not. lets face it, theres not really a lot of legal stuff worth downloading as far as video goes, and dont tell me people need 12Mb to watch movie trailers or get pictures from grandma.

and this from comcasts own site: "And now with PowerBoost, our fast connection gets even faster with an extra burst of speed up to 12 Mbps when you’re downloading large files like videos and games."

please tell me where i can find all these "games" and "videos" legally, that are actually worth playing or watching.

i dont condone piracy, but if you think that it has nothing to do with the fact that most households have high speed internet, you are just fooling yourself.

i hate apostrophes

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA

1 edit

dadkins

MVM

Games?
»www.fileplanet.com/

*cough* Steam *cough*

»www.gamespot.com/pc/

Videos?
Uhm... pr0n?

»abc.go.com/fsp/index.htm ··· os=Video

»www.cbs.com/innertube/

»www.nbc.com/Video/

Thing to remember, you can only watch so many hours of any video source.
With the speeds some of us are getting, game downloads happen rather quickly - even the big ones.
But, you can only play one game at a time.

300GB in one month is silly no matter how you look at it.
There is a human factor y'all are missing in this equation.
While we can now transfer gobs of data from machine to machine, us humans can only take data in so fast.

No matter how fast my connection is, I can only watch so many hours of video in a given month.
Most video that is streamed is in some compressed format, so that increases the amount of time needed to view it all.

Downloading TV programs, uhm... get a DVR!
If ya miss an episode... download it!
Merge it into your recorded series and you're set!

*NONE of the above can add up to the Inviso-Caps.
I know!
I try it everyday!
I have NO worries aout getting "The Phone Call" or "The Letter".

YMMV.

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

1 recommendation

Robert to bittorrent

Premium Member

to bittorrent
I like how you start off by saying ..
said by bittorrent :

i like how you all assume that just because he is using 300GB a month he must be downloading illegal material, and even if he is i dont see why its any of your business.
But then all you talk about is that the Internet exists because of illegal activity, that fast downloads are popular because illegal activity, that a major chunk of the Internet traffic consists of bittorrent packets of illegal downloads, and finally how he should recheck himself if he thinks that HSI exists for e-mail and not for downloading of illegal activity.

Get a CLUE. No wonder we assume he was downloading illegal activity, because according to you, THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO DO. Yet you have no idea why we assume he was downloading illegal activity?
said by bittorrent :

why do you think high speed internet is so popular? im sure all the people with 30Mb down are just using it to check their email...NOT! almost everyone i know downloads illegal stuff, if it werent for p2p, newsgroups, etc isps wouldnt sell nearly as many high speed connections.

why do you think bittorrent takes up a major chunk of all internet traffic? why do so many people have dvd burners? to burn all their "home movies"? i think not. lets face it, theres not really a lot of legal stuff worth downloading as far as video goes, and dont tell me people need 12Mb to watch movie trailers or get pictures from grandma.

and this from comcasts own site: "And now with PowerBoost, our fast connection gets even faster with an extra burst of speed up to 12 Mbps when you’re downloading large files like videos and games."

please tell me where i can find all these "games" and "videos" legally, that are actually worth playing or watching.

i dont condone piracy, but if you think that it has nothing to do with the fact that most households have high speed internet, you are just fooling yourself.

i hate apostrophes

Duh
@gte.net

Duh to hobgoblin

Anon

to hobgoblin
said by hobgoblin:

said by champkind:

(My adelphia was switched to comcast.)
Which means you play by their rules......

Hob
Now, if they'ld only tell us what those rules are.

hobgoblin
Sortof Agoblin
Premium Member
join:2001-11-25
Orchard Park, NY

1 recommendation

hobgoblin

Premium Member

"Now, if they'ld only tell us what those rules are."

Its simple. If you are impacting the service of others you are asked to cease.

Hob
Expand your moderator at work