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IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

They should just institute a soft cap

They should just impose a 250 GB cap like Comcast. 250 GB is plenty of data and most residential use is well below 250 GB. The terms of service on most residential Internet connections state that usage must be consistent with normal residential use. Most TOS agreements also prohibit hosting servers or using it for a data center. Hosting servers or data centers on a residential connection would be like buying a residential Comcast Digital Voice unlimited home phone and running a call center or telemarketing firm while paying for a residential connection. The reason businesses are charged higher rates by the phone company for that call center or a data center is charged more by their ISP is that such facilities consume more of their resources than a normal residential customer.

My usage on my Comcast connection is about 30 GB per month (which is normal residential usage as it is below the 250 GB cap that Comcast used to enforce).

If you want to host servers or operate a data center, get a business connection.
Wilsdom
join:2009-08-06

Wilsdom

Member

You're not normal, you're a fool. A $20 dsl connection is more than you need.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

said by Wilsdom:

You're not normal, you're a fool. A $20 dsl connection is more than you need.

OK, so how much data should a typical residential customer consume under normal usage. I run a MacBook Pro, a Mac Mini, an iPad and an iPad mini, along with an iPhone.

Or maybe Comcast's meter is inaccurate. I am on the computer a good part of the day. I also subscribe to the 105 tier. If I have anything slower, then some things take forever (like Mac system updates). Even 80-100 GB of usage is consistent with normal residential usage. Once you start going over a terabyte or two, then that smells like someone is running a server or a commercial data center and they should pay for an appropriate connection. Remember the reason AT&T and eventually VZW dropped unlimited data, its because their networks could not handle the load of heavy data usage. It's like running an amusement park on a residential circuit breaker panel, the load center could not handle the load except you would either have a fire or you'd short out your amusement rides or could only run one ride at a time with a bunch of angry guests.

AnonPerson
join:2000-08-26
Lexington, KY

AnonPerson

Member

Not trying to argue, but there *are* legitimate and legal ways to use a lot of bandwidth. Those include but are not limited to:
- Data backups (like cloud services)
- Netflix HD streaming (or any other form of streaming)
- Purchasing / Downloading video games (Steam, Origin)
- Working remotely from home (remote desktop)

The list is endless. Sure there are also illegal ways to consume bandwidth, but as proven above, there are many legal ways.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Update: I just checked my meter and I used 47 GB in November.

As of Dec 4th, I have already consumed 5 GB (might be related to me restoring my iPhone from iCloud since I just bought my iPhone 5 yesterday on the 3rd).
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks to AnonPerson

Member

to AnonPerson
Not to nitpick you, because your overarching point is valid, but.....:

#1 is overblown. Most data backups are incremental, so unless you're running a photography/video studio, your data isn't changing THAT much between backups.

#3 shouldn't really matter either, unless you're buying dozens of games off Steam a month. A single game is measured in the single digits of gigabytes, so it's not much towards a 250GB cap. A house with multiple gamer kiddies might be a different story, but they'd be an outlier.

#4 isn't even on your ISPs radar, RDP uses very little bandwidth for what it does. I run RDP sessions all day long, and they're lucky to get into the 100s of megabytes. Streaming Pandora in the background while you work will consume more bandwidth than RDP.
jeffreydean1
join:2010-05-31

jeffreydean1 to IowaCowboy

Member

to IowaCowboy
There are single games that alone take up 25 gigs just to download. Add to that a little Netflix streaming, normal browsing, maybe some Spotify music streaming and you'll be bumping up against 250 pretty quickly.

30 gigs a month might be normal... for people over 50 and non-gamers who haven't discovered streaming video yet...

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

1 recommendation

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Maybe my low usage is because I get my video content from my cable subscription.

AnonPerson
join:2000-08-26
Lexington, KY

1 recommendation

AnonPerson

Member

If you do on-demand video or something of that sort through your cable TV package, then yeah, that will certainly lower the amount of bandwidth you use. Those services don't actually get metered into your internet usage.
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20 to jeffreydean1

Premium Member

to jeffreydean1
said by jeffreydean1:

There are single games that alone take up 25 gigs just to download. Add to that a little Netflix streaming, normal browsing, maybe some Spotify music streaming and you'll be bumping up against 250 pretty quickly.

30 gigs a month might be normal... for people over 50 and non-gamers who haven't discovered streaming video yet...

I use Net Monitor for eight years now. I rarely go above 15GB down in one month. Only times above that were in past years and only maybe 2 months of the year and the highest was 30GB one month. I don't do Netflix or HuluPlus. I had planned to until I began reading about both keeping a list of what I watched for a couple of years and selling that information to third parties. So, I want nothing to do with them. I just surf and upgraded Monday to 20/2 and Docsis 3 modem but I RARELY see any download speed on a speed test that is above 14mb down and I NEVER EVER can download applications from any site at above 250KB/sec... except the OOL FTP speed test...so it is a rip off these higher speeds in practical terms. Oceanic says I am using "slow" servers all the time...nooo...that is not it. They should not be offering these higher speeds...we can't get them here and most servers cannot deliver the higher speeds anyway. It is all smoke and mirrors in favor of the ISP.