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zevus
join:2010-11-29
Chandler, TX

zevus to billaustin

Member

to billaustin

Re: CL to start capping

I'll just keep using it as normal. The contract I entered into (that doesn't expire for another 18 months or so), doesn't include any bandwidth caps.

As long as I don't have to pay an early termination fee after being 'disconnected for repeated violations', it doesn't bother me too much.
zevus

2 edits

zevus to Drex5000

Member

to Drex5000
Reasonable? Maybe if the cap only applied to the hours of high usage... these people that are downloading terrabytes of torrents, well, they'd be downloading near 24/7, wouldn't they?

The vast majority of their downloads would be during off-peak hours.

ed: oh, the 150GB for people with 1.5Mb/s connection seems overly generous, when compared to the 250GB catch-all for higher speeds. you'd have to download at max speed 24/7 for about 10 days to hit that. on a 25Mb/s connection, you could reach 250GB after 25 hours of maxing connection

and you can get a dedicated server with 100Mbit/100Mbit unmetered bandwidth from OVH for $50 or less (kimsufi)
Poguemahone0
join:2010-05-27
united state

1 recommendation

Poguemahone0 to ispepi

Member

to ispepi
For the people who are furthering the "torrents" thing, I'll drop some truth.

Looking at my Steam games list, here's a few games I don't currently have installed. Fallout 3 w/ DLC is 13GBs. L4D2 is also 13GBs. Both Mass Effect games clock in at over 12GBs each, so we'll say 24GBs for the sake of brevity. RAGE is 25GBs. Episodes from Liberty City is 17GBs. So, if I were to download all these legally purchased games while not affecting the network at all, that's almost a hundred gigs gone.

On top of that, my grandfather watches a lot of documentaries on Netflix. My cousin who lives here downloads reams of songs for her iPod each month - from iTunes.

So, while I'm the only one you could reasonably call a "power user", the less technically savvy of the house are using a lot of bandwidth too.

None of what I use is illegal and it absolutely doesn't affect the network.

BankerMama
join:2009-03-10
united state

2 recommendations

BankerMama to ispepi

Member

to ispepi
When they sell you a phone, you can use it 24/7 if you wanted. When enough users called out of area, you could get all trunks busy and try again. Usually, the company would notice this happening and add more trunks so calls would go thru. To me, this is the same as what is going on with internet except now they don't want to add more "trunks" bandwidth.
They sell you in bold advertising UNLIMITED internet, but they don't really want you to use it unlimited and now seem to want to blame you for using it as UNLIMITED.
Fine, they are changing to CAPS. I feel they should have to change all advertising to LIMITED and it should be in bold. This goes for all other ISP's that are going this way also.
RavenGirl
join:2009-03-08
Bountiful, UT

RavenGirl to ispepi

Member

to ispepi
I hope that CL will at least give us some tool to monitor our bandwidth usage, if they're serious on enforcing the policy. Then someone can go through and find out how much the tool is off.
firedrakes
join:2009-01-29
Arcadia, FL

firedrakes

Member

i period dont like caps. mostly due to greedy telco that dont want to upgrade to current standards etc. i use alot of bw but mostly due to watching hd content of tv shows and playing games.

Boss302_1970
join:2009-12-11

Boss302_1970 to ispepi

Member

to ispepi
all these caps are is this, they don't want to upgrade their equipment to handle the new higher b/w usage. streaming hd and gaming now uses a lot more b/w then before. capping is how they plan to control b/w. it would be nice if there was an isp e.g. verizon fios, everywhere. so we could all avoid any caps by changing isps.
Rob_
Premium Member
join:2008-07-16
Mary Esther, FL

Rob_

Premium Member

One more thing.. look at the complaints on the CLINK FB page.. RIP DSL.. cable is much better and faster. I can't wait for google internet to be nationwide..give everyone some competition.
maderas
join:2011-11-27

maderas

Member

The unfortunate thing is that those of us in rural areas will most likely end up with no broadband access once again after the monopolies like CenturyLink pack up and go home... blah. The way the US has handled building its entire internet infrastructure has been so completely backwards for the past decade.

sputnick
join:2010-10-01
Eagle, ID

sputnick to ispepi

Member

to ispepi
this will def affect me. I average 150gb of traffic on just my pc. will report if i get any warnings
cheesedude
join:2011-12-11

cheesedude to ispepi

Member

to ispepi

Disappointing

This is a disappointing development. By no means am I a heavy downloader. But if you watch some videos on Youtube for a few hours, you can easily download 10 GB of data or more. I'm sure I don't come close to using 250 GB a month. But if I ever did, the last thing I want is to hit a cap.

Obviously, signing up for something like Netflix is impossible now thanks to crappy Centurylink. Even if I don't come close to a cap, I don't want to be treated like a child by my ISP. I'll start looking around and see what kind of home phone and internet packages are available in my area. Just to get an idea of what is out there. I'm not dead set on dropping Centurylink, but this cap makes me mad!

EmoHobo
join:2010-07-16

EmoHobo to ispepi

Member

to ispepi

Re: CL to start capping

I had Comcast with a cap and I watched Netflix practically all day on my days off and never once hit my 250 GB cap, I doubt I could on my Century Link account.
Sometwo
join:2008-12-28

Sometwo to davidpaj

Member

to davidpaj
I was going to switch to CL, since Suddenlink is capping, but now CL is capping too?
firedrakes
join:2009-01-29
Arcadia, FL

firedrakes

Member

well i got a email back dealing with bonded dsl 25mb plan and their capping that but did not mention what the cap was for higher connections
Jammers2011
join:2011-01-01
Tillamook, OR

Jammers2011 to ispepi

Member

to ispepi
Well i just might have to look at Charter cable now that CL is going to start capping. I'll have to check if Charter caps too but they also offer much faster speeds then CL.

FarmerBob
join:2000-12-21
Littleton, CO
Calix 716GE-I
Netgear Orbi RBK853
Netgear RAXE500

FarmerBob to Boss302_1970

Member

to Boss302_1970
said by Boss302_1970:

all these caps are is this, they don't want to upgrade their equipment to handle the new higher b/w usage. streaming hd and gaming now uses a lot more b/w then before. capping is how they plan to control b/w. it would be nice if there was an isp e.g. verizon fios, everywhere. so we could all avoid any caps by changing isps.

No. Caps are purely a Greedy Revenue Generating concept. Plain and simple. They sit there and tell us how we can Upload and Download all kinds of things and get us hooked then impose caps after we're hooked. They raise base pricing and then impose caps to get more. And we let them get away with it.
firedrakes
join:2009-01-29
Arcadia, FL

firedrakes

Member

bob i agree. just like school books..... greedy way of getting money

Mr Mxyzptlk
@centurytel.net

Mr Mxyzptlk

Anon

When I asked a Centurylink rep about this the response was: "we're only interested in people who are 'doing business' on the internet."

I'm not sure what their definition of "doing business" is...
emig5m
join:2004-02-16
Columbia, NJ

emig5m to ispepi

Member

to ispepi
The download limits probably wont bother me but I'll say this... Having no limits was kind of a good sales point since the service in most areas is a lot slower than most other ISP's. In my case it's 7Mbps max down vs what someone like Comcast provides on the downstream (up to 105Mbps). The speed available to most CenturyLinks customers is a complete joke IMO. The previous good points of my connection was always...

Low Latency (in my case I was on FastChannel and had pings to servers in my area in the 8ms to 25ms range)

No slow downs during peak hours (used to be a big sales pitch over cable)

No bandwidth limits (good sales pitch over faster, but limited usage providers)

Now it's like all the good points are on it's way out of what used to be a good service albeit a much slower service than average in this day and age. In my area it started out as Sprint, and then Embarq, and now CenturyLink. I probably liked Embarq the best of the three. I feel that if DSL can't keep up to speed with other services for the average customers then they should at least keep the usage limits wide open and try to make the connection more rock-solid (lower latency, no peak hour problems.) Like I said, the download limits probably won't be an issue to me, but I still feel that DSL should offer some up-sides to its service to offset the down-sides of other ISP's since it's so slow to today's standards (DSL is the new ISDN?)

Joe
@embarqhsd.net

Joe to Mr Mxyzptlk

Anon

to Mr Mxyzptlk
Well I chatted with a customer service rep today and they told me that they are going to start capping Feb 2012. But when I asked how we could monitor our usage I was told that we could not? So how the heck are we going to monitor our usage if they don't have a way for us to do it? Anyone else have any more info on this? I really need to know.
emig5m
join:2004-02-16
Columbia, NJ

1 edit

emig5m

Member

said by Joe :

Well I chatted with a customer service rep today and they told me that they are going to start capping Feb 2012. But when I asked how we could monitor our usage I was told that we could not? So how the heck are we going to monitor our usage if they don't have a way for us to do it? Anyone else have any more info on this? I really need to know.

BitMeter2 is a nice freeware download meter that you can monitor your usage by the day, week, and month. It also has a "ISP Restrictions" setup where you can set your ISP's monthly cap and have it alert you at a certain percentage used:







I never monitored my usage before (never had a reason to) but I've been curious to what my monthly average is anyway. I just installed it last night and have it set to notify me once I hit 75% of my quota.

Joe
@myvzw.com

Joe

Anon

Thanks for the info on bitmeter2, according to the info it is good for monitoring usage on a desktop. Would any know of any wireless routers that have the ability to monitor monthly usage? I know there is some 3rd party firmware available like DD-WRT but I would like a soulition out of the box. I have a linksys WRT54G v6 and there is no monitor availablefor it.
scooper
join:2000-07-11
Kansas City, KS

scooper to ispepi

Member

to ispepi
The newest generation Netgear routers have it (at least the WNDR3500 / 3700 do).

SAP_Pete
Premium Member
join:2002-09-13
Las Vegas, NV

SAP_Pete

Premium Member

I don't see my bill getting lower, just the service cut back. That is unacceptable. Instead of worrying about people using the service they signed up for, how about you fix your shitty PRISM TV ? After two years and countless calls, I still have DVR shows disappear, channels freeze up, recordings start / stop. Replaced router once and DVR twice.

The day I get a call / email about "excessive usage" is the day I rip out the whole BS.
sexcho
join:2009-08-14

sexcho

Member

CenturyLink just lost me as a customer. I just switched to Cox today at 29.99 for preferred (12Mbps/1Mbps up w/o powerboost) for the first three months, then I'm going up to the Premier for 63.99 at 20Mbps. I can barely get 6Mbps with CenturyLink in my part of town and now they want to pull this crap? They don't even have tools in place to monitor your usage. I don't care if I never went over 250GB before, I will be now so I can get away from this disgusting company. I wish they never absorbed EMBARQ. Customer service went in the toilet, no speed upgrades for years, and I'm paying $40 a month.
maderas
join:2011-11-27

maderas to ispepi

Member

to ispepi
Hey, CenturyStink, here's a novel idea: instead of instituting caps, why don't you spend some of your (undoubtedly vast, given how fond you are of cutting corners and screwing the little guy) profits on upgrading your infrastructure and actually providing the friggin' service you charge us all for?

Oh, no? Not willing to do that? Well alright, caps it is then!

NcezNet
@embarqhsd.net

NcezNet

Anon

I advise everyone with issues to go here:

»esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

I live EXACTLY 1 block from the local CO, and had 0 issues with my 10mb line until they started with this 40mb stuff. Now every single night, like clockwork, from around 5pm until around midnight, I do good to pull in 3mb speeds. During the day it is fine except on the weekends. They have just over sold their service, plain and simple. File a complaint using the link above. It WILL get results. It worked for a friend who had line issues they refused to look into (it was their fault) and he filed a complaint and got results. So no this isn't a magic fix, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Please let's help stick it to C-Link, they are an awful corp. I have dealt with them for a very long time, see below:

I had to deal with them (wholesale) for the last 6 or so years and it was like the head had no idea what the whole body was doing, arms didn't know what the hands were doing, legs didn't know what the feet were doing, etc etc. Not even going to begin complaining about the shady business tactics where they repeatedly screwed us out of our customers. The sad part would be a few months later when the customer would come back and say "You were right, they are awful, I am ready to come back" and I would have to explain the contract they agreed to. They would have no clue what they had gotten into. I always warned them before they switched and I was always, always 100% honest with my customers. We could not match their service in terms of speed offerings or bundles, but I always warned them what they were walking into.

Their favorite tactic to screw us over, before we eventually closed down this past year was this - call up wholesale customer and offer them a deal on a random package, usually some kinda call waiting/caller id/3 way calling type of deal. Customer agrees to service. Then they would reconfigure the customers dsl service from PPPoE (how we had to run our service) to their standard (always heard them refer to it as DHCP). Then the customer calls us back with DSL outage. Then I get the runaround for a couple hours from their techs before someone would finally say "Oh, the line has been misconfigured". That was a regular thing for the last year we operated. I once lost 3 accounts in one week because of it. We were a local and small ISP so every account mattered a great deal to us. It may as well have been 300 that week.

Another thing they loved to do was botch installs. A normal turn key install should've taken no more than 3 days, but usually ran anywhere from 1 week to 2 weeks. Endless emails to our rep, Scott Nolan, and repeated calls to their tech support were a common occurrence with installs along with a healthy dose of the run around before finally getting results. Techs would often need to go inside but would instead stick a note on the door saying they had went by and no one was home when someone would be there the whole time. A turn key install means the tech was not supposed to leave the site until he had been inside and verified that the dsl signal was good all the way up to the desired jack. We rarely got what we paid for. Not even gonna start on the number of times they billed us for their problems on turn keys.

Over the summer I had an issue where my line would not sync at the proper speeds. The call to their residential tech support was a laughable waste of time. At first he tried to explain the line/feet deal affecting speed, completely ignoring the fact that my speed had been great for months before that. I hadn't moved, nor had the CO. That's not even mentioning the fact that I was a block away from the CO. The call ended with the tech coming to the conclusion that my phone line (the one running from the 660r to the jack) was bad. There had been no storms and no pets or rodents gnawing on the line, and whaddya know? The line was good. Thankfully I had access to another 660r and that was my problem. There are more stories but I think i've made my point.

I hope the link above helps someone, and I really hope they get what's coming to them. In the 3 times I have watched them change names they have gotten worse with each iteration. I would love to see them get what's coming to them.