| Originally, Comcrap used to count the headers downloaded as part of that one gig. Which meant, you could easily eat up your entire 1 gig on headers before you actually downloaded anything. Now they don't include headers as part of your two gigs. Also, most people use nzb files and nzb indexing sites to search and locate files without having to DL large amounts of headers.
Before Comcrap took over @home, @home provided free unlimited newsgroup access. Retention was only a couple days at best but it was free and I remember some servers were very fast. I believe comcraps standard tier allows 4 megabit DL speed. With @home and static IP, I got close to 6 megabit and this was probably back in 2000 and the upload was over 1 megabit as well. After comcrap took over downloads went to 1.5 megabit and 128kbps up. And after 8 years comcraps basic tier still is slower then what @home provided for me running on a windows 95b box.
I've been on qwest dsl now for a few years on a RT. Its only has 1.5 down and 700 kbps up.. but it works. Last year I did not have one outage and this year only one that lasted a few hours. My speed is consistent and so far I don't think qwest cares what I do and does not throttle, cap anything. Comcast works pretty good for me as well, but it has allot of outages on HSI and CATV as well. Their claims about CATV being more reliable then satellite are bogus. I am convinced its because their installers are constantly messing with connecting people up and disconnecting them. Comcast has great promos so many, including myself have jumped on comcast on deals and later on jump when rates skyrocket. I see CC vans everywhere constantly messing around with the optic nerve and nodes etc.. Also, comcast is not regulated like the telcos to insure reliability. Thats why cable in many areas cannot provide adequate reliability.
At least in Albuquerque, Comcrap has nothing on qwest as far as reliable HSI. I think most of their channels are still on analog here with enormous amounts of ingress interference at my house. I think they have just started VOD now.. nice after Albuquerque pays the same high Digital TV rates for years as everyone else with no video on demand.
You would think that comcrap would lower their rate a bit so the price shock would not be so great when the promos run out. The way they do it keeps their installers in a constant motion of connecting up and disconnecting. Just on my street alone, I see a comcast van a few times a month affecting only 5 houses. I regularly see qwest tech messing with my dslam but it never ever interferes with my connection. Comcast infrasture is a joke. Its old and unreliable compared with my Dish/qwest dsl setup. I just wish Qwest had more money to invest in FIOs. But at least they provide a stable product for less money then comcast. |
