dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
12199
sprintster
join:2004-11-30
San Jose, CA

2 edits

sprintster

Member

Earthlink usenet bandwidth limit reinstated?

I just got this error message today when using earthlink usenet services:

"username has exceeded monthly bandwidth limits"

Since when did earthlink reinstate their quota???!

--update--

Earthlink did not reinstate any quotas for usenet usage. I had the support rep reset my download history. hopefully they will resolve the issue by tomorrow.

Anyone else running into this?

NoOneCares
join:2000-09-16
Portland, OR

NoOneCares

Member

When you reach the limit it's supposed to slow down your connection not cut it off. They are probably having some other issue.
sprintster
join:2004-11-30
San Jose, CA

sprintster

Member

seems to be working correctly now.

NoOneCares
join:2000-09-16
Portland, OR

NoOneCares

Member

said by sprintster:

seems to be working correctly now.
Mine had stopped again this morning. Guess I'll just leave it alone for a few days and see what happens.

whfsdude
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Washington, DC

whfsdude to sprintster

Premium Member

to sprintster
I'm not having any issues at all. I've downloaded a lot over the the last 30 days too.

[Total] 5231.0KB/s, 7524 MB queued, ETA: 00:24:32

(yes, that's not my DSL connection I'm downloading onto).
whfsdude

whfsdude to sprintster

Premium Member

to sprintster
Looks like they did add quotas
quote:
Dear Subscriber,

You have reached your monthly bandwidth limit for Giganews Usenet access provided by Earthlink. As a valued Earthlink subscriber, you now have the opportunity to upgrade your Giganews Usenet account to Premium Service.

The following plans are available to Earthlink subscribers. And, as a special introductory offer, take 50% off the first two months!

DIAMOND - $29.99 Per Month

Unlimited monthly transfer allowance
Total of 20 simultaneous connections
256-bit SSL encryption
Retention growing to 365 days!
PLATINUM - $24.99 Per Month

Unlimited monthly transfer allowance
Add 256-bit encryption and 10 Bonus Connections for $5.00 extra
Retention growing to 365 days!
SILVER - $12.99 Per Month

35GB monthly transfer allowance
Add 256-bit encryption and 10 Bonus Connections for $5.00 extra
Retention growing to 365 days!
ALL PLANS INCLUDE

FREE 14-DAY TRIAL*
Cancel Anytime
2100+Days Text Newsgroup Retention
24Hr Member Support
99%+ Completion Rate
107,000 Uncensored Newsgroups
10 Simultaneous Connections
Broadband Download Speeds
Free Headers
Unlimited Uploads
Usenet Spam Filtering
Discounts on Newsreader Clients
Thank you,
Earthlink Customer Support

*All new Giganews personal Usenet access accounts come with 14 days of free service (up to 10GB total transfer). If you cancel within 14 days of signup, you will be charged nothing. If you do not cancel within 14 days of signup, the service level you select will automatically start and you will be charged for that service. Giganews trial accounts are limited to downloading only and are unable to post articles. This offer is available only once per member.

NoOneCares
join:2000-09-16
Portland, OR

NoOneCares

Member

I haven't received one of those letters, yet. I guess when I do I'll finally pull the plug on Minspring Earthlink. I've been wanting an excuse to go with something cheaper, and since I use USENET a lot, this will finally drive me to do it. Real Bummer!

DrStrange
Technically feasible
Premium Member
join:2001-07-23
Bristol, CT

DrStrange to sprintster

Premium Member

to sprintster
FWIW usenet.com has 20GB for $5.95/month and unlimited for $12.95/month.

huemanatee
@mindspring.com

huemanatee to sprintster

Anon

to sprintster
Having the same problem here. Don't know what to do. If I create a new screen name account, would that get around this? Any information appreciated. Thanks.
huemanatee

huemanatee to DrStrange

Anon

to DrStrange
This looks like a better deal.

Astraweb Special $96/Year
Astraweb have informed us of a special deal they are doing for the next two weeks. $96/Year Unlimited BW, that works out to be $8/month only! The offer expires 18 Jul 09, Click Here for more info and to signup.

»www.news.astraweb.com/sp ··· rly.html

DrStrange
Technically feasible
Premium Member
join:2001-07-23
Bristol, CT

DrStrange

Premium Member

Not bad. I purchased a few GB from Astraweb for a backup source several months ago when usenet.com seemed to be having completion issues. Forgot to check their deals before my previous post. Thanks for the info.

Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium Member
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30

Doctor Olds to sprintster

Premium Member

to sprintster
So what is the quota now? I looked all over Earthlink's Policies and Agreements and found no mention of this change.

I will use that to get my monthly price lowered since I have to replace a service they are reducing in quality/availability that was part of the original package.

TheNoOneMan
@mindspring.com

TheNoOneMan to NoOneCares

Anon

to NoOneCares
I just got one myself. I thought it was another clever type of spam.
I never had a problem with my downloading quota and I download DVDs constantly. And now, I can’t even access my usenet usage.
Personally, I am a bit angry about it. Considering how much I paid for DSL, I feel that I shouldn’t have to pay extra for another Usenet service.
I use Shemes’ GrabIt for downloading headers and searches; looks like I’ll have to expand the account, perhaps.

Kirby4321
@verizon.net

Kirby4321 to whfsdude

Anon

to whfsdude
I ran into this at the end of the June, getting a "monthly bandwidth exceeded" notice. Earthlink support (in India) didn't know anything about it and kept telling me Earthlink had no limits. However, now I've received two of those bandwidth notices and they're suggesting I sign up at GigaNews. I don't know exactly how much the cap is, but GigaNews does have an account (Silver) with 35gb bandwidth, which I suspect it might be. This is the $13 a month service

However, you can open up to 8 free e-mail accounts and sign in with those addresses. Apparently each one has a separate cap, so you can multiply the bandwidth by 8x. But it's a pain when it was unlimited before.

The newsgroup service was what kept me on Earthlink. I was in the process of transferring everything over to my GMail account when Earthlink announced the unlimited newsgroup service, and I stayed.
solamour
join:2009-07-15

solamour to sprintster

Member

to sprintster
I received "You are approaching your monthly transfer limit" a few days ago and "You have reached your monthly bandwidth limit" the following day.

But at least for now, they seem to allow me to login, although it's noticeably slower than usual; just doing a daily header update takes a half hour. Full header update on a busy binary group took almost all day. Then again, I think it was always slow. Being slow is OK with me as long as they don't block me completely.

I was curious about the cap, because the "approaching limit" mail came in right after I downloaded a bunch of files from the binary groups. When I contacted their helpdesk (via web chat), I was told my limit is 5GB/month. I didn't bother to ask what happens after 5GB (i.e. whether I no longer can download or get throttled).
__
sol

TheNoOneMan
@mindspring.com

TheNoOneMan to sprintster

Anon

to sprintster
Well, it seems that the email is not spam. I just logged in and got this “481” error. It says that I’ve exceeded monthly bandwidth limits. (And right in the middle of a download, too…)
And I can’t find my Newsgroup Usage Quota on their Support Center.

This really angers me since about 90% or my DSL connection is for Usenet. Another question for me is when did they start implementing this? I was doing some serious hard-core downloading for the previous six months, and now this…

Kirby1234
@verizon.net

Kirby1234

Anon

Heavy downloaders received the bandwidth email at the end of June - the 29th or the 30th. Earthlink just did this with no advance notice. Seems like they want to shake off heavy Usenet users as AOL and Verizon has done.
sprintster
join:2004-11-30
San Jose, CA

1 edit

sprintster

Member

Looks like Earthlink reinstated their 5GB limit.

Terrible news for binaries downloaders, such as myself, where 5GB can go by in a matter of hours.

whfsdude
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Washington, DC

1 recommendation

whfsdude

Premium Member

said by sprintster:

Terrible news for binaries downloaders, such as myself, where 5GB can go by in a matter of hours.
uhh. More like minutes :P
sprintster
join:2004-11-30
San Jose, CA

1 edit

sprintster

Member

I'm not sure whats going on. I just finished downloading 50GBs and I havn't hit a cap yet. Perhaps earthlink is toying around with us.

-- update --

i just hit the quota. i think its about 100GBs.

winsyrstrife
River City Bounce
Premium Member
join:2002-04-30
Brooklyn, NY

winsyrstrife to sprintster

Premium Member

to sprintster
Anyone tried tying geographical lines to the Usenet cap limitations? From working in the industry for several years, I can say that we always found a test market for these kinds of things. Anyone in NYC, besides myself, that can chime into this thread? I have their EL experience account, does that include Usenet? Haven't visited EL's Usenet in eons...

So far, we have San Jose and Portland? San Jose seems like a risky test market.

I get the feeling that EL's Usenet may be on it's way out, or possibly dumping all binary groups. Usually the only way to fight this is with massive user resistance (complaints). I wonder, how many serious Usenet members ONLY use Earthlink as their source, and care enough to complain?, or even hit the cap? I'd bet the pot that Earthlink is counting on "very little".

Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium Member
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30

Doctor Olds

Premium Member

The Earthlink Experience is not supposed to include access to Usenet.

Archive of the old link to TEE
»web.archive.org/web/2006 ··· as/eexp/

antdude
Matrix Ant
Premium Member
join:2001-03-25
US

antdude

Premium Member

said by Doctor Olds:

The Earthlink Experience is not supposed to include access to Usenet.

Archive of the old link to TEE
»web.archive.org/web/2006 ··· as/eexp/
Really? When I got Experience last summer, the customer support said it has usenet/newsgroup access. Was this recently changed?

As for me getting those emails and errors, I haven't gotten any yet. I know I had downloaded about 10 GB on a weekend a couple weeks ago and in the past.

Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium Member
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30

Doctor Olds

Premium Member

Some users report access via NNTP on EE does work, but many had it for a short while and later posted it had quit working with permission errors. They were told by Support that Usenet would not be included for the under $10.00 price of EE and that they had to purchase/upgrade to full Earthlink Dial-up in order to get it back as EE Accounts were now blocked with no further NNTP access.

antdude
Matrix Ant
Premium Member
join:2001-03-25
US

1 edit

antdude

Premium Member

said by Doctor Olds:

Some users report access via NNTP on EE does work, but many had it for a short while and later posted it had quit working with permission errors. They were told by Support that Usenet would not be included for the under $10.00 price of EE and that they had to purchase/upgrade to full Earthlink Dial-up in order to get it back as EE Accounts were now blocked with no further NNTP access.
Wow, I used to have the full dial-up package ($21.95 per month), and then downgraded to Experience to save money and still have the same features and access. As of today, I can still post and read on Giganews.

Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium Member
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30

Doctor Olds

Premium Member

I won't say anything if you won't.
marv6
join:2007-11-20
New Orleans, LA

marv6

Member

I am not sure I understand. A long time ago I subscribed to Giganews because of the short retention time in the Earthlink news servers. All of a sudden today my download speeds using Giganews dropped by two thirds. I checked with Giganews and they say that everything is fine on their end and they checked my connection and said it was fine, but, to check with Earthlink to see what their policy was. Can they slow my downloads even though I am using Giganews. Using Speakeasy my download is still over 3 mb, but connecting to Giganews thru Earthlink my download is now about one third of what it has been. Is Earthlink doing something to slow it down? Thanks

Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium Member
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30

Doctor Olds

Premium Member

If you have a personal GigaNews Account and your speeds have dropped and the login credentials are not related to any of your "up to" 8 existing Earthlink Email Address/Password credentials then no, it is nothing that EL is doing.

Now if you are logged in to GigaNews using any one of your "up to" eight Earthlink Email Address/Password credentials then there is a limit as discussed above in this topic.
marv6
join:2007-11-20
New Orleans, LA

marv6

Member

Thank you Doctor Olds. I am not using my earthlink logins and passwords. I have my own for Giganews. My software NewsReactor and News File grabber allow me to also use my earthlink news servers and I imagine that the limits would apply to them, but, I primarily use Giganews. Today, using Giganews it is back up to speed. Maybe Giganews had a problem yesterday?

Thanks for the clarification. Using live chat with Earthlink, I was told pretty much the same as you suggested, once, live support realized that I had my own account with Giganews. At first they thought that I was using the Earthlink news servers.
mcf57
join:2006-08-17
Cumming, GA

4 edits

mcf57 to Doctor Olds

Member

to Doctor Olds
said by Doctor Olds:

Now if you are logged in to GigaNews using any one of your "up to" eight Earthlink Email Address/Password credentials then there is a limit as discussed above in this topic.
I am using EL usenet servers. Are you saying that you can use Giganews service with EL email address/password credentials? I had heard that Earthlink usenet was now being supplied by Supernews (as of 2008) and then Giganews bought out Supernews.

I am only getting retention of about 140 days (on news.east.earthlink.net) so if there is someway I can use Giganews with EL e-mail, I could then maybe get the 400+ days of retention. Is this possible? If so, what are the Giganews server addresses to use with EL credentials?

I can live with a cap limit if there is one when accessing Giganews servers since I don't really download a lot, but I was more interested in the higher retention.