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Cox Cap Enforcement Remains Inconsistent
As Metered Billing Potentially Looms on Horizon
by Karl Bode Thursday 22-Mar-2012 tags: competition · business · bandwidth · cable · caps · Cox HSI
Tipped by Rob_ See Profile
A few years ago Cox Communications clarified that the company imposes what they call "soft" usage caps, which may or may not be enforced depending on the market. Each market is broken down here, with the caps varying depending on where you live and what the local network can handle. This Georgia resident in our forums for example had his account temporarily suspended for using more than 200 GB, while users in other markets who consume more never receive even a warning.

Click for full size
Just about a year ago Cox launched their usage meter in Florida, telling us it would launch everywhere "very soon." Cox has since continued a staggered deployment to numerous markets, and reader Rob_ See Profile notes the company continues to put a lot of effort into the design of the system, recently revamping it with a new usage graphic (see right).

This constant refinements may or may not indicate an interest on the part of Cox to start implementing metered billing sometime down the line (we've asked, but haven't heard back yet). Despite so many ISPs eager to explore caps and metered billing, few if any have been able to get usage and billing systems up and running correctly.

Cox appears to be no exception, with measuring, enforcement and support of their 200 GB cap remaining somewhat inconsistent. "I called the number (listed at the bottom of Cox's usage meter) and the rep who I talked to said Cox has no caps on usage and I should ignore it," says one user.

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houkouonchi

join:2002-07-22
Ontario, CA
Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS

Screw your caps Cox.

I will take my FIOS thank you very much...



And NO caps not even soft. I can use it 24/7 if I want. I already push 20TB/month and its NO problem. Screw u cox. For most of these companies caps are total BS just to get people to use their TV service. If you download all the TV you watch your easily looking at 500-750 GB usage with 1-1.5GB files for 720p series. Much more if 1080p.
--
150/75 mbit Verizon FiOS connection FTW!
talz13

join:2006-03-15
Avon, OH

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

How much is that insane connection? I remember the discussion about you replacing the two FIOS with this super FIOS since you run servers and hosting, but how much does that thing run you per month?

45612019

join:2004-02-05
New York, NY

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

said by talz13:

How much is that insane connection? I remember the discussion about you replacing the two FIOS with this super FIOS since you run servers and hosting, but how much does that thing run you per month?

You can bundle a 150/70 Mbps FiOS connection + TV bundle with every channel Verizon carries including premiums + Phone for $150-200/mo in NY/NJ.

If he's bonding two of those he might be looking at $400 a month.

houkouonchi

join:2002-07-22
Ontario, CA
Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
said by talz13:

How much is that insane connection? I remember the discussion about you replacing the two FIOS with this super FIOS since you run servers and hosting, but how much does that thing run you per month?

It is a bit over $400/month; however, for 450 megabits of combined (up/down bandwidth it comes out to less than $1 per megabit of up/down speed. Much better pricing than most others.

Also no cap so if I maxed the up and down I could potentially use 130TB/month up and down.

Also many people have TV/phone/internet 35/35 which can do 10TB/month (20TB in/out) and again no caps.
--
150/75 mbit Verizon FiOS connection FTW!

Simba7
I Void Warranties

join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

I'd love to have that type of link.

What's the router handling all this traffic?

houkouonchi

join:2002-07-22
Ontario, CA
Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

said by Simba7:

I'd love to have that type of link.

What's the router handling all this traffic?

A 1u box with an intel core i3-2120t (35w TDP) machine. The atom 1.6 Ghz box I had before wasnt quite fast enough to handle VPN at the speeds I needed which I use for the bonding.
--
150/75 mbit Verizon FiOS connection FTW!

Simba7
I Void Warranties

join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

Nice.. What are you running? FreeBSD or Linux?

houkouonchi

join:2002-07-22
Ontario, CA
Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

said by Simba7:

Nice.. What are you running? FreeBSD or Linux?

Linux since that is what I am intimately familiar with and not even sure if there is a packet based round robin bonding driver for bsd so not even sure if I could do what I am doing on bsd.
--
150/75 mbit Verizon FiOS connection FTW!

Thistool

@144.70.2.x
Totally agree with you and so jealous of your insane connection. You rock Drool.
openbox9
Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2
said by houkouonchi:

If you download all the TV you watch your easily looking at 500-750 GB usage with 1-1.5GB files for 720p series. Much more if 1080p.

Wow, that's a lot of TV each month. That's almost 12 hours a day.

BF69
Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
download all the TV you watch? sound like illegal activity to me.

45612019

join:2004-02-05
New York, NY

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

As much as I'd like all Apple products to be illegal, downloading 1080p TV shows from iTunes is far from being an illegal activity.

BF69
Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
you downloading 20 TB a month is why companies have caps. it's called REASONABLE useage.
Uncomm0n

join:2005-04-21
Centreville, VA

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

I got news for ya buddy. When a connection is labeled "UNLIMITED" especially FiOS, ANY amount of usage is reasonable. The only way it would be unreasonable is if its not labeled "UNLIMITED"
me1212

join:2008-11-20
Pleasant Hill, MO
Hes paying over $400 a month for a 450 mb connection. For that kind of money and that kind of bandwidth 20TB, he *can* do a total of 130TB a month so hes using less than 1/6th of what he can use. Only using 1/6th of what you pay for hardly seems unreasonable to me.
Wilsdom

join:2009-08-06
20TB is completely reasonable. That's only 15% utilization of his $400/month connection. Maybe after 100TB you could say he was downloading a lot, but even then the ISP has no right to complain since they chose to offer such a fat pipe

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
kudos:4
said by BF69:

you downloading 20 TB a month is why companies have caps. it's called REASONABLE useage.

No its not. caps are all about preserving LUCRATIVE VIDEO revenues

viperpa33s
Why Me?
Premium
join:2002-12-20
Bradenton, FL
said by BF69:

you downloading 20 TB a month is why companies have caps. it's called REASONABLE useage.

Please define what is reasonable? Most people have there own definition of what they consider reasonable. The others just go with the flow.
Kamus

join:2011-01-27
El Paso, TX
"you downloading 20 TB a month is why companies have caps. it's called REASONABLE useage."

And yet he CAN use it and no, the sky isn't falling.

People that think that using a connection that is already there more than other people are somehow causing problems don't know the first thing about networking.
ScottNJ

join:2003-04-13
Hackensack, NJ

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

said by Kamus:

"you downloading 20 TB a month is why companies have caps. it's called REASONABLE useage."

And yet he CAN use it and no, the sky isn't falling.

People that think that using a connection that is already there more than other people are somehow causing problems don't know the first thing about networking.

It seems like many people are falling for the propaganda the ISP's are pushing. They were already on the record complaining that Google and other content providers were making a profit off of them. If they had their way they would block or severely throttle Netflix and iTunes. Bandwidth usage is cover for their real gripe.

They are desperate to find ways to make more money off of providing a connection to the Internet.
clarknova156

join:2011-06-04
Poughkeepsie, NY
Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
And your missing the point. Its an entirely 100 percent fiber network with the near endless ability to expand for more bandwidth. His activity or bonding two dedicated lines has ZERO effect on his neighborhood as he can download at full speed 24/7/365 and it simply won't effect anyone , show me one cable network that isn't overloaded and poorly managed and I'll be willing to hear more. This isn't some DOCSIS 3.0 limited overburdened cable network or some highly crowded DSL copper line. This network was built to easily supply such demand and its the model network around the country. Unless you happen to have community laid and paid for fiber , FiOS is simply the best you can get (until Google starts offering 1Gbps)

Next time try a little harder in your poorly stated opinion.

MxxCon

join:1999-11-19
Brooklyn, NY

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

you drank so much verizon koolaid it's dripping out of your ears.
--
[Sig removed by Administrator: signature can not exceed 20GB]
Fast Turtle

join:2008-02-19
Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
If I downloaded all the TV I watch, it would be Zero used of a 1MB cap. The reason is pretty simple. I no longer watch TV or any sort of Paid Programming so your argument is a non-issue for me. Heck I've even stopped using BT for the same reason I quit watching TV and going to the Movies. Nothing good available.

What I do miss is my local bookstore as I prefer reading over any of the passive experiences of simply watching.
KnightAR

join:2004-04-22
San Marcos, CA
If I was able to get Verizon where I live, I would jump ship the day I found out FIOS was available in my area =/
davidhoffman
Premium
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA
kudos:1
Do you ever see consistent bonding on the upload side that gets you closer to the theoretical 150Mbps upload capability?

houkouonchi

join:2002-07-22
Ontario, CA
Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

said by davidhoffman:

Do you ever see consistent bonding on the upload side that gets you closer to the theoretical 150Mbps upload capability?

It is 150 up. The problem is that speedtest.net does not measure upload as accurate. Using the web100 ndt test takes a little bit of time to ramp up and gives me results around 280/130. Speedtest.net is accurate on the downstream side of things.
--
150/75 mbit Verizon FiOS connection FTW!

baineschile
2600 ways to live
Premium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI
Awesome speeds. Just out of curiosity, what did you need 300mb for, that the 15o couldnt handle?

JohnILM
Holla
Premium
join:2003-03-15
Tuckahoe, NY
And for every one person that has 20TB of usage, I'm sure there's a hundred+ that barely hit 100MB. Use it up! There's plenty to go around.

Packeteers
Premium
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
kudos:1
Reviews:
·Time Warner Cable
·Verizon Online DSL
"faster than 99% of us" enjoy it houkouonchi


mdpeterman

join:2010-10-10
Westerville, OH
What VPN service are you using to bond your connection? I'd like to bond connections here, since I can only get 10mbps dsl but would like to bond multiple lines.

houkouonchi

join:2002-07-22
Ontario, CA
Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

said by mdpeterman:

What VPN service are you using to bond your connection? I'd like to bond connections here, since I can only get 10mbps dsl but would like to bond multiple lines.

I am running my own VPN servers off my own colo'd machine. Anyone with a dedicated/colo server on a fat pipe can do this if you know how to.
--
150/75 mbit Verizon FiOS connection FTW!
erikthebean

join:2007-06-25
Manchester, NH
Reviews:
·Great Works Inte..
·Spectra Access
Dude A+ for ingenuity, now for the question. What linux flav are you using for this, and are you VPNing into another place to achieve the bonding, or are you just connecting the 2 Fios connections, and they are just round robin(ing). I have tried round robin in the past, but it always acts funny..maybe it because of my cisco who knows.

houkouonchi

join:2002-07-22
Ontario, CA
Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

said by erikthebean:

Dude A+ for ingenuity, now for the question. What linux flav are you using for this, and are you VPNing into another place to achieve the bonding, or are you just connecting the 2 Fios connections, and they are just round robin(ing). I have tried round robin in the past, but it always acts funny..maybe it because of my cisco who knows.

Its round-robin but packet based round robin. Actually I am technically doing both. I do balancing and bonding. Because bonding uses bandwidth on the other end I have rules setup in the netbalancer so not *everything* goes through the bonded interface.

On the home side I am using zeroshell mainly because it has quite a nice interface for doing the bonding and has built-in support for it. The server-side is just running a flavor of gentoo.
--
150/75 mbit Verizon FiOS connection FTW!
SniperCS

join:2005-09-11
Lawrence, NY
Sounds like BF69 is salty lol... Guess he can't just say that's awesome and wish you good luck. I wish I had the disposable income to do such a thing but alas I do not currently. I would download all the things.
NiteSn0w

join:2010-12-24
Shouldn't you be able to use PfSense and achieve the same results (or better) without using a vpn to bond the two connections? I used to do this with Cable and it worked great I could download at ~60Mbit/s even over http.

See 6 replies to this post
NiteSn0w

join:2010-12-24

1 edit
I'm an idiot and didn't realize there where two pages and I thought my other post didn't post.

MxxCon

join:1999-11-19
Brooklyn, NY
said by houkouonchi:

I will take my FIOS thank you very much...


While you bonded 2 150mbit connections, it seems like most people are misreading this graph.
Speedtest.net tests speed using multi-threaded downloads. It downloads at least 4 files at once. However when you are watching streaming TV, there's only 1 thread/connection. So you won't go faster than 150mbit...Plus no TV stream offer such speeds, not even bluray.
--
[Sig removed by Administrator: signature can not exceed 20GB]
nickphx

join:2009-10-29
Phoenix, AZ

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

Not when you bond multiple VPN connections into one virtual interface. The way it works is his 'router' establishes one vpn connection over each fios connection to a server in a data center. Then you bond the two vpn connections into one virtual interface.
Then the round robin bonding driver evenly distributes the packets over the two interfaces.

You're thinking of non-bonded round-robin load balancing that most 'multi-wan' prosumer 'routers' do..

MxxCon

join:1999-11-19
Brooklyn, NY

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

said by nickphx:

Not when you bond multiple VPN connections into one virtual interface. The way it works is his 'router' establishes one vpn connection over each fios connection to a server in a data center. Then you bond the two vpn connections into one virtual interface.
Then the round robin bonding driver evenly distributes the packets over the two interfaces.

But this is not what he has. His speedtest shows his ISP is verizon. if it was through this supposedly bonded vpn connection, his exit ip would be of that vpn service/server.
--
[Sig removed by Administrator: signature can not exceed 20GB]

houkouonchi

join:2002-07-22
Ontario, CA
Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS

Re: Screw your caps Cox.

said by MxxCon:

said by nickphx:

Not when you bond multiple VPN connections into one virtual interface. The way it works is his 'router' establishes one vpn connection over each fios connection to a server in a data center. Then you bond the two vpn connections into one virtual interface.
Then the round robin bonding driver evenly distributes the packets over the two interfaces.

But this is not what he has. His speedtest shows his ISP is verizon. if it was through this supposedly bonded vpn connection, his exit ip would be of that vpn service/server.

Actually it is what I do and you are right. This is why I have a route entry that actually routes to speedtest.net over my FIOS connection (no bonding) for the main-page so it lists the correct ISP. If I didn't do this then you are correct. Its because speedtest.net itself figures out your ISP but you can be a completely different IP when connecting to the individual speedtest.net servers.
--
150/75 mbit Verizon FiOS connection FTW!
mystica

join:2001-10-30
Denver, CO
I got a new catchphrase for you:

Houkouonchi. Pushing the limits of USA internet closer and closer to Japan, one FIOS connection at a time.

BTW thanks for all the anime
--
:wq!
Wrote dslreports_forum_post
mike@thor:~>_
xocsucram

join:2008-10-02
if every online gamer had just about 10% of your upload speed, lag would be a thing of the past

unfortunately i cant control their choice of bargin basement ISP contracts =(

dwright

@comcastbusiness.net
We do the same thing between dual 35/35 connections using Ecessa Powerlink boxes.

Our VPN throuput is around 60meg, consistently.

Van
Premium
join:2009-07-08
New Orleans, LA

The fact that the meters rarely work

or work some-of-the-time should not deter Cox

Much like the upcoming RIAA/MPAA "enforcement" where users are deemed guilty by little-to-no-evidence.....these companies should go forward with these "You are guilty because we say you are"

gballer

@reyrey.net

So

who will be checking these so called meters to make sure they are acurate and customers arent getting hosed?

See 16 replies to this post
Vf19aalpha

join:2004-06-11
Oklahoma City, OK

My cap's 250GB per month up/down

Hi, Here in oklahoma city the cap is 250gb for the 30mbps/3mbps. $64.99/month since I have their bundled service (the legally blind can't use netflix o and I need the local tv stations because of the weather) The last time I looked at the online usage meter it was showing usage at least 1 business day lag & showed you your weekend usage the next monday or tuesday. Here's hoping okc gets something faster but I won't hold my breath since at&t is offering dsl here (not my part of town but who cares) and cox brags that it uses a fiber/copper system.
fathamburger

join:2010-07-16
North York, ON

It's not just cox

We've written about it also but it's not just Cox and AT&T thats inconsistent.. »www.worldbroadbandfoundation.org···too-late

and started taking and aggregating contributions to investigate the spread of caps and their inconsistencies from ALL players and discussion in the meantime

»www.worldbroadbandfoundation.org···tigation

and we're running late but we're also targeting our map for a soft launch in the next week which will now have to incorporate the six strikes policy as well

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