dslreports logo
Exclusive Screens Of Comcast's New Bandwidth Meter
New meter to launch in January for all users

Click for full size
Yesterday a Comcast insider informed us that Comcast, who implemented a 250GB monthly cap in October, will be offering users an online bandwidth usage tracking tool starting January 5. According to the source, the tool will retain up to three months of usage and track multiple MAC addresses, though not in real time (3 hour delay).

We've subsequently obtained screenshots showing where (in your web user menu) the meter link will be located, and a shot of the meter in action. Currently, the Comcast FAQ tells users to do a web search for bandwidth meters or use the meter included in the McAfee Security Suite the company gives out free to subscribers.

We'll note we're happy to see Comcast measuring usage in actually gigabytes instead of e-mails sent. You do start to wonder if those with their own bandwidth monitoring tools will create a lot of extra work for Comcast support when/if they believe that there's a discrepancy between Comcast's tool and their own.
view:
topics flat nest 
page: 1 · 2 · next

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

Finally

They should have put this out before issueing the CAPs

NOZIREV
join:2008-07-10
New Bedford, MA

1 recommendation

NOZIREV

Member

Re: Finally

Its not like they didnt have something for you to use while this was being developed, "Currently, the Comcast FAQ tells users to do a web search for bandwidth meters or use the meter included in the McAfee Security Suite the company gives out free to subscribers." please stop the crying...

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList

Premium Member

Re: Finally

said by NOZIREV:

Its not like they didnt have something for you to use while this was being developed, "Currently, the Comcast FAQ tells users to do a web search for bandwidth meters or use the meter included in the McAfee Security Suite the company gives out free to subscribers." please stop the crying...
you are aware that this does not tell you about thirdparty devices that are using the internet. devices like xbox360's, wii, ps3, streaming music players, etc.
caco
Premium Member
join:2005-03-10
Whittier, AK

1 edit

caco

Premium Member

Re: Finally

Where does it say that?

knightmb
Everybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN

knightmb

Member

Re: Finally

Looks like Business customers are in the clear, all the wording is aimed towards residential users everywhere that I read.

At least I'll hope since I top many TB a month.

UseNewFirmware
@64.206.111.x

1 recommendation

UseNewFirmware to caco

Anon

to caco
I doubt it explicitly says it anywhere (I didn't read it), but if it's software running on a computer there's no way it's going to know about all the other traffic passing through a router. That's why the BEST solution for a home user is to get a router that's compatible with a custom firmware that provides traffic monitoring: I use and recommend DD-WRT v24 firmware on a Linksys WRT54GL router, which is targeted at enthusiasts who actually want to install third party firmware. The firmware lets me view my bandwidth usage month-by-month or, if you hover your mouse over each bar, even day-by-day as the attached screenshot shows.
jacour
Premium Member
join:2001-12-11
Matthews, NC

jacour

Premium Member

Re: Finally

The Comcast cap inspired me to install DD-WRT at long lost, mainly due to concerns about bricking my router (which didn't happen). The graph is a very handy tool and the DD-WRT software is much nicer than the LinkSys supplied firmware. I can strongly recommend it.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski

Premium Member

Re: Finally

said by jacour:

The Comcast cap inspired me to install DD-WRT at long lost, mainly due to concerns about bricking my router (which didn't happen). The graph is a very handy tool and the DD-WRT software is much nicer than the LinkSys supplied firmware. I can strongly recommend it.
said by jacour:

The Comcast cap inspired me to install DD-WRT at long lost, mainly due to concerns about bricking my router (which didn't happen). The graph is a very handy tool and the DD-WRT software is much nicer than the LinkSys supplied firmware. I can strongly recommend it.
I use Tomato and it also has the bandwidth meter. Very handy indeed as it catches all traffic.

wifi4milez
Big Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY

1 recommendation

wifi4milez to ArrayList

Member

to ArrayList
said by ArrayList:
said by NOZIREV:

Its not like they didnt have something for you to use while this was being developed, "Currently, the Comcast FAQ tells users to do a web search for bandwidth meters or use the meter included in the McAfee Security Suite the company gives out free to subscribers." please stop the crying...
you are aware that this does not tell you about thirdparty devices that are using the internet. devices like xbox360's, wii, ps3, streaming music players, etc.
As I understand it, this counts all traffic delivered to your IP address. Basically anything that passes through your cable modem will register, regardless of whether its your PC or Xbox. You are thinking of the applications like DL Meter (I think thats what its called) that only track the data used by the PC its installed on.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Finally

McAfee can only track the data used by the PC it's installed in. How would it measure full network usage? You have to be at the router, modem or ISP level to do that.

wifi4milez
Big Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY

wifi4milez

Member

Re: Finally

said by iansltx:

McAfee can only track the data used by the PC it's installed in. How would it measure full network usage? You have to be at the router, modem or ISP level to do that.
Correct, however the ISP provided service being discussed here is not the McAfee software. This thread is referring to a new bandwidth meter that is in the process of being released. The new bandwidth meter is going to track at the cable modem level, or perhaps the MAC address of the router attached to it. In either case, all traffic will be tracked regardless of which device is using it.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Finally

Correct. I was referencing a post that talked about how Comcast is currently offering McAFee.

It'll be interesting to see how router-based traffic loggers (DD-WRT, Tomato) compare to Comcast's ISP-based logger...

funchords
Hello
MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA

funchords to wifi4milez

MVM

to wifi4milez
said by wifi4milez:

Basically anything that passes through your cable modem will register,
I hope not, or I hope typical network broadcasts get subtracted out.

I've never measured this on Comcast, but one Roadrunner user showed 60 Kbps of sustained traffic of what sounds like ARP or DHCP broadcasts that -- if it continued -- would total 20 GB/mo.

wifi4milez
Big Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY

wifi4milez

Member

Re: Finally

said by funchords:
said by wifi4milez:

Basically anything that passes through your cable modem will register,
I hope not, or I hope typical network broadcasts get subtracted out.

I've never measured this on Comcast, but one Roadrunner user showed 60 Kbps of sustained traffic of what sounds like ARP or DHCP broadcasts that -- if it continued -- would total 20 GB/mo.
I suspect they will omit that traffic then. If I am not mistaken, TWC has a 20G cap in some of their Texas markets. If they were to include that data then every sub would be over their limit before even using the service. That would certainly cause many customer complaints, and would be a huge headache for TWC to deal with.

anon123456
@comcast.net

anon123456 to funchords

Anon

to funchords
ARP or DHCP broadcasts would stop at the router and not be forwarded onto the cable modem. So unless you are directly connected to the cable modem with your PC or a switch you would not need to worry about it. And if your router is making the DHCP requests to your cable modem you would not be sending any traffic from your PC's etc at all.

Qumahlin
Never Enough Time
MVM
join:2001-10-05
united state

Qumahlin

MVM

Re: Finally

said by anon123456 :

ARP or DHCP broadcasts would stop at the router and not be forwarded onto the cable modem.
Um, the modem receives the traffic BEFORE the router. The modem is the gateway device..not the router. The traffic would not be forwarded on to your PC's but it is still hitting the modem and your router as well.

No this traffic most likely won't be counted, but the one post about 60Kbps sec in arps is something that is a fluke and typically a "storm" of that size would be killed by other management software in place at the CMTS level if it continued for more than a few minutes.

Notice the user said it caused his overall speeds to crash when it was happening, it's not a normal occurence

funchords
Hello
MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA

funchords

MVM

Re: Finally

said by Qumahlin:

Um, the modem receives the traffic BEFORE the router. The modem is the gateway device..not the router. The traffic would not be forwarded on to your PC's but it is still hitting the modem and your router as well.
Right.
said by Qumahlin:

No this traffic most likely won't be counted, but the one post about 60Kbps sec in arps is something that is a fluke and typically a "storm" of that size would be killed by other management software in place at the CMTS level if it continued for more than a few minutes.
Who knows? We're just guessing here. It will be interesting to see how close they get. The screen shots from the news article showed the summer months -- so I've got to wonder whether all this time spent now on something apparently there for a while is about looking at and fixing the accuracy of an existing system.
said by Qumahlin:

Notice the user said it caused his overall speeds to crash when it was happening, it's not a normal occurence
IIRC, his area was coming back up from some kind of problem. I'm really not worried about ARP alone, or DHCP broadcasts, or munged packets, or any single thing. The combination of problems of monitoring "delivery" in a best-effort system like the Internet may cause some different results in different environments -- a one-size-fits-all system is unlikely to get it right, we'll be talking about this a lot.

Continuing to focus on perfecting metered Internet, we are continuing to underline the fact that broadband with Comcast sometimes involves a choice between expensive, bursty, boosty, laggy, lossy, limited cable ISP service and a cheaper, unlimited, "fast-enough" alternative (with its "we suck even harder" customer service in my Verizon DSL area).

If Comcast's anti-congestion plan that it's rolling out is truly effective, why do we need caps? Why not go back to unlimited?

anothercomment
@anonymouse.org

anothercomment

Anon

Re: Finally

said by funchords:

If Comcast's anti-congestion plan that it's rolling out is truly effective, why do we need caps? Why not go back to unlimited?
Not sure I am the fish you are looking for, but I do have some ISP experience and will bite on that baited question...

Because congestion management is to manage unexpected congestion in a fair way. Upgrades on the network still happen as per the business plan in an organized way around expected growth. Otherwise you would have to run congested all the time.

Usage management is to manage the situation where this now becomes expected requiring unexpected upgrades to the network outside the business plan. Since the business plan justifies upgrades, new speeds and price points, you want to ensure you distribute the costs in a "fair" way across a user base.

Since studies show that top "unlimited expecting" users will consume all available bandwidth they are given, their cost of carry exceed their revenue provided. Summary: 1 manages unexpected congestion (to keep networks fair) and one managed unexpected growth (to keep costs fair).

The idea is either to find a "good" cap and grow with it, or charge to offset the cost of usage as is done under commercial terms. You don't have to like it, you can continue to argue against it, but there is plenty of Internet history showing this method and it is reality.

funchords
Hello
MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA

funchords

MVM

Re: Finally

Thanks for the kind and thoughtful reply
said by anothercomment :

Because congestion management is to manage unexpected congestion in a fair way. Upgrades on the network still happen as per the business plan in an organized way around expected growth. Otherwise you would have to run congested all the time.

Usage management is to manage the situation where this now becomes expected requiring unexpected upgrades to the network outside the business plan. Since the business plan justifies upgrades, new speeds and price points, you want to ensure you distribute the costs in a "fair" way across a user base.
It appears that the business plan is to grow available bandwidth slower than typical Internet growth trends. Assuming 250 GB was the right amount for October 2008, we should have a cap of 275 GB now.

But who cares if I use 500 GB if I use them when nobody else is competing for them? If I am successful and avoid transmitting my massive data spew during signs of congestion, then my use of 500 GB is -- by definition -- not only within the business plan but within the existing system.

And if I'm unsuccessful, then Comcast's "sloppy-seconds" bandwidth management takes hold and I can't harm normal users anyway -- under that plan, I am not entitled to any bandwidth and any that I do get is bonus.

As a result, one way or the other, we don't need a cap.
Since studies show that top "unlimited expecting" users will consume all available bandwidth they are given,
Study or not, the notion is wrong on its face. Most users only use 3 GB (we are repeatedly told), despite having much more at their disposal and having the service that was not sold with limits.

(We've never seen such a study. ISPs have quoted this amount without explanation or qualification. My guess is that my idle computers probably consume 3GB/mo.)
their cost of carry exceed their revenue provided.
It's silly to look at this in any level other than the aggregate, otherwise you create the situation where the owner of an all-you-can-eat buffet is running a secret per-plate tally and kicking out customers when they exceed his hidden business plan. (That's not a shot at Comcast -- as they have now disclosed that they have done something like this for years. That's not about fairness, that's about fairer dealing.)
Summary: 1 manages unexpected congestion (to keep networks fair) and one managed unexpected growth (to keep costs fair).
I hold that the "15+15 and out" plan really does both. Aggregators (Aggregaters?) don't pay by consumption, they pay by the width of the pipe which Comcast controls. Those costs are, by definition, fixed. As the heavy users force it toward full, Comcast deprioritizes their traffic which allows others to remain unimpacted.

There's zero need for a cap.
The idea is either to find a "good" cap and grow with it,
A cap that grows at some guaranteed minimum rate with adjustments to match actual Internet growth trends would be very good for users and innovators. Right now, we probably have VC's sitting on the sidelines because who wants to invest in projects that might hit the cap?
or charge to offset the cost of usage as is done under commercial terms.
That's another angle. But let's not stop there. What about families of 5 users or more -- why can't they buy a second allocation of 250 GB or 70%-70%-out for their home? (AT&T's and RoadRunner's trials of 150GB/mo and 40GB/mo are actually the best examples of this problem. 250 GB is still a lot of bandwidth.)
You don't have to like it, you can continue to argue against it, but there is plenty of Internet history showing this method and it is reality.
This is the first we've brought up history. If you'd like, we can go there. We did struggle with this in the past and how we handled it is very illuminating and useful.

Nice reply, thanks!

u235Sentinel
@xmission.com

u235Sentinel to NOZIREV

Anon

to NOZIREV
And if the numbers don't match the bandwidth consumed is there a resolution short of terminating more Concast customers?

I only ask because I'm sure a Concast shill as yourself would have the answer.
mlabate
join:2007-09-03
Bangor, PA

mlabate to DarkLogix

Member

to DarkLogix
One would think, but this is Comcast we are dealing with.

knightmb
Everybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN

knightmb

Member

Re: Finally

Found something interesting in their FAQ
quote:
How does Comcast help customers who have been identified as excessive users?

Comcast's experience shows that some customers identified as excessive users were not aware of the activity that caused the excessive use. For example, after being notified by Comcast some customers identify another person in their household, such as a child or roommate, who uses the service in ways that generate excessive use. In other cases, a customer's personal computer may be compromised by a virus or spyware that uses the computer to send large amounts of spam or perform repeated bulk transfers of large files. Still other customers may have an unsecured wireless router or be using our residential Comcast High-Speed Internet service for a commercial or business purpose and not the intended residential purpose. In each of these situations, and many others, Comcast is able to help the customer identify and address the cause of the excessive use made with his or her account. In fact, most customers identified as excessive users change their usage patterns or make other adjustments and continue to use the service. Only a small fraction of the tiny number of users who are identified as excessive users ever have their service terminated for one year because of continued excessive use.

Ok, so they pull out the "only 1% of Comcast customers are excessive users" and then further go on that it's actually even less because those that were excessive tend to be virus/spam/open wi-fi abuse. So actually, what they are saying is that instead of helping to fix grandmom's virus/trojan infected machine, we will blame the problem on the 1% of the 1% of the 1% that actually use more than 250GB a month of bandwidth instead which out of the many thousands of customers they have, would probably be about 2 or 3 people per state who aren't virus/trojan/open wi-fi users?

Talk about reading between the lines.

jlivingood
Premium Member
join:2007-10-28
Philadelphia, PA

1 recommendation

jlivingood

Premium Member

Re: Finally

said by knightmb:

Ok, so they pull out the "only 1% of Comcast customers are excessive users" and then further go on that it's actually even less because those that were excessive tend to be virus/spam/open wi-fi abuse. So actually, what they are saying is that instead of helping to fix grandmom's virus/trojan infected machine, we will blame the problem on the 1% of the 1% of the 1% that actually use more than 250GB a month of bandwidth instead which out of the many thousands of customers they have, would probably be about 2 or 3 people per state who aren't virus/trojan/open wi-fi users?
That's not what is intended at all. In fact, its the job of our CSA team to work with customers like that and help them try to remove malware and properly secure their networks, etc.

Jason

knightmb
Everybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN

knightmb

Member

Re: Finally

said by jlivingood:

That's not what is intended at all. In fact, its the job of our CSA team to work with customers like that and help them try to remove malware and properly secure their networks, etc.

Jason
Fair enough, my opinion is that those that are upset by the cap will point to this as another reason why they are against it. I think maybe it should be worded a little different so that it doesn't seem to blend in the excessive users and those users that are excessive but didn't know any better because they had a virus/trojan/wi-fi, etc. That's what I took from it when I read it.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to jlivingood

Member

to jlivingood
said by jlivingood:

That's not what is intended at all. In fact, its the job of our CSA team to work with customers like that and help them try to remove malware and properly secure their networks, etc.

Jason
No see once watching movies and TV on the internet becomes more common place and higher bitrates are used it's your job to let customers know that if they only got their content from Comcast they wouldn't go over thier cap which in the end is the REAL reason for the cap. Because honestly a straight cap is a VERY VERY retarded way of managing bandwidth. Anyone with even 1/4 of a brain knows that.

Jeremy
@comcast.net

Jeremy

Anon

Re: Finally

TRUTH. I'm a great example of big ISP's worst nightmare. I pay out $150/mo to Comcast. I'm now going to drop TV service and go with internet service only. I have a Xbox 360, PS3 and 2 PC's. I have plenty of viewing options on those machines through a combination of pay (Netflix) and free (Hulu) services. Comcast no longer has value to me. In fact, I'm probably going to go over to uverse, drop TV and get either the 10 or 18mbps program for LESS money than a 8mbps pipe @ Comcast. That is ofcourse unless AT&T releases the BS caps they're testing nationwide.

Either way... they see the writing on the wall. Their business model is falling apart in the long run. As it should. People shouldn't have to pay $X for 300 channels when they only watch 4-5 of them on a regular basis.

FicmanS
Premium Member
join:2005-01-11
Brownsburg, IN

FicmanS to DarkLogix

Premium Member

to DarkLogix
Agreed...
bugabuga
join:2004-06-10
Austin, TX

bugabuga

Member

I wonder how the count the traffic

I wonder if they will be counting all inbound traffic that gets delivered, or just passes their border router.
I.e. if you turn the modem off while someone keeps sending packets to "your" address, will that still have counter spinning or if the modem needs to be on, and if router manufacturers will start offering a power port to bring the cable modem up/down on demand

Matt3
All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC

Matt3

Premium Member

Re: I wonder how the count the traffic

said by bugabuga:

I wonder if they will be counting all inbound traffic that gets delivered, or just passes their border router.
I.e. if you turn the modem off while someone keeps sending packets to "your" address, will that still have counter spinning or if the modem needs to be on, and if router manufacturers will start offering a power port to bring the cable modem up/down on demand
If you turn your modem off, you no longer have an address. It's assigned to the device behind the modem, not the modem itself.
bugabuga
join:2004-06-10
Austin, TX

bugabuga

Member

Re: I wonder how the count the traffic

That's not necessarily true. Routing doesn't change. IP address linked to modem's MAC address doesn't change. Traffic may still come down to the node etc
Unlike dial-up, cable modems have quite consistent IP addresses

Matt3
All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC

Matt3

Premium Member

Re: I wonder how the count the traffic

said by bugabuga:

That's not necessarily true. Routing doesn't change. IP address linked to modem's MAC address doesn't change. Traffic may still come down to the node etc
Unlike dial-up, cable modems have quite consistent IP addresses
If you power your cable modem off, the CMTS will know there is not a link any longer and release the IP.

•••

koolkid1563
MVM
join:2005-11-06
Powell, WY
MikroTik CCR1036-8G-2S+
MikroTik hAP AC

koolkid1563 to bugabuga

MVM

to bugabuga
Here on Bresnan, each subscriber gets 2 IPs so to speak. One is assigned to the modem directly and is inside of Bresnan's internal network with a private IP in the 10.253.x.x range. The other is assigned to the device behind the modem and is a public IP in the 69.144.x.x range.

If they were to monitor only the 69.144.x.x IP, that should eliminate any local chatter from the modem to the CMTS and vice versa.

Matt3
All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC

Matt3

Premium Member

Re: I wonder how the count the traffic

said by koolkid1563:

If they were to monitor only the 69.144.x.x IP, that should eliminate any local chatter from the modem to the CMTS and vice versa.
That is what I was referring to. If a public IP isn't assigned to SOME device attached to the cable modem, you can't send traffic anyway.

DaMaGeINC
The Lan Man
Premium Member
join:2002-06-08
Greenville, SC

DaMaGeINC to bugabuga

Premium Member

to bugabuga
What about all the broadcast traffic that hits the cable modem? Notice how the recieve light consintly flashes? If you were to count all that traffic, it would add up.

Matt3
All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC

Matt3

Premium Member

Re: I wonder how the count the traffic

said by DaMaGeINC:

What about all the broadcast traffic that hits the cable modem? Notice how the recieve light consintly flashes? If you were to count all that traffic, it would add up.
That is the ARP traffic the other posters are referring to. If they measure your public IP traffic at the egress router, none of that matters.

Ytsejamer1
join:2008-01-18
Somersworth, NH

Ytsejamer1

Member

I worry about Netlfix usage

I worry what this cap is going to do when I really have some time to kill with the holidays and watch a few movies from Netflix' streaming.

I'm glad Comcast has a higher cap than most who have implemented one, but it just seems like they want to limit your choice of viewable tv to their service (newsflash, I know).

But I'm glad there will be a meter available...it'll let me keep an eye on it.

••••••••••••
AVonGauss
Premium Member
join:2007-11-01
Boynton Beach, FL

AVonGauss

Premium Member

First Thought...

I think I am reading too many boards, my first thought was is this the result of a leaky faucet at Comcast or is Comcast getting a bit more savvy in dealing with the community?
b10010011
Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
united state

b10010011

Member

The latest DD-WRT has a bandwidth monitor

I looked at it a couple times, seems to work quite well counts everything going through your router in both directions. But of course you need to have a compatible router to use DD-WRT.
raptor1418
Premium Member
join:2002-12-03
Denver, CO

raptor1418

Premium Member

Re: The latest DD-WRT has a bandwidth monitor

Tomato Firmware also has a bandwidth monitor that breaks down to Real-Time, Last 24 hours, Last 7 days and monthly.

The real-time and last 24 hours use a graph chart to show usage. The Last 7 days and monthly just give total up, total down and combined total.

With my setup the router is attached right to the modem so that should be my true inbound/outbound and leaves all the modem to edge router talk out. So if my numbers are a hell of a lot lower than their bandwidth usage numbers I will be bitching.

Comcast has pissed me off over the last 3 months with service problems I feel that they caused and resulted in me having to spend money. And on top of it all I just got a notice that they are jacking my rate up for HSI according to a notice I received last week.

Comcast why don't you true improving your network with some of the profit you already get. Can't wait till some new ISP comes in that has FTTH. I would drop comcast in a millisecond for an ISP with FTTH.
brianiscool
join:2000-08-16
Tampa, FL

brianiscool

Member

well

At least this is a good way to know if someone is stealing your internet service. lol

••••
Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL

Mr Matt

Member

ISP's their own worst enemy.

What a way to run a railroad. History repeats itself. In the mid 1800's the railroads got to big for their britches. The president of one of the railroads decided that he did not like a article printed by the newspaper, about the railroad. His solution was to refuse to carry any supplies to that newspaper. The president of that railroad regretted his action. As a result of his actions the government created the Interstate Commerce Commission to stop the B.S. The ICC regulations prohibited the railroads refusing to carry merchandise for one customer while carrying the same merchandise for another customer as long as the shipper paid the rates that were regulated by the ICC. Basically the ICC told the president of the railroad to F.O.

I think the bandwidth meter was a bad move for ISP's. Without a bandwidth meter an ISP can claim excessive usage without the customer having an effective way to determine what the ISP claimed was down/uploaded. Now the customer can ask the ISP to determine the source of the traffic if the customer claims they did not generate the traffic. Like a cellphone bill, the ISP's bandwidth meter should also provide a table showing the URL's and associated IP addresses, where traffic was downloaded from and uploaded to, during the period of time the traffic was measured. What a convenient way to find out if you are a victim of malware or a bionet.

•••

Sir Meowmix III
@205.255.240.x

Sir Meowmix III

Anon

Sarcasm

That graph makes absolutely no sense to me. How do they expect consumers to be able to use that data to gauge their usage?

I need something like how many millions of web pages left I can surf, or how many billions of pictures I can send in email, or even how many MP3s I can download. What about how many Facebook/MySpace profile updates I can do. Give me real data, not these silly Jigglybits!

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

Why not in Real Time?

A 3 hour delay what is this the 1890's

and why 3 Mac addresses are they also going to meter voip(lol wth)
you would only need to monitor one the mac of ether the cable modem or the router

(even though this doesn't effect me as I switched to business class at home but still wth)

•••••••••••••••••••

doug426
@12.173.117.x

doug426

Anon

Just a thought

Will they let you carry over your unused bandwith to the next month.

RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY

RARPSL

Member

Re: Just a thought

said by doug426 :

Will they let you carry over your unused bandwith to the next month.
Probably not since the whole capping scenario is based on their inability to provide the capped bandwidth amount to EVERY customer. If they allow roll-over than that increases the actual average usage as time goes on. One possible roll-over method that I have seen is to have the rolled-over units expire if not used. In this scheme, the roll-overs from the prior period get used the next period if needed. In Next Period 2 they are worth 50% and then 25% in Next Period 3 and are gone in Next Period 4. IOW: You have 3 periods to use-them-or-lose-them. The oldest roll-overs are used first in this method.

dleehend
Howdy
Premium Member
join:2002-03-11
Malvern, AR

dleehend

Premium Member

3 hour delay

is much better than the 4 DAY delay in AT&T's new bandwidth meter.
donjuan2002
join:2002-10-06
Kearny, NJ

donjuan2002

Member

Re: 3 hour delay

This one of the reason I love Verizon Fios, I am not even close to 250gb, comcast will be out of business in about 10 years front now, time will said
AVonGauss
Premium Member
join:2007-11-01
Boynton Beach, FL

AVonGauss to dleehend

Premium Member

to dleehend
4 days? Ouch. I would think anything beyond a 24-hour period is too long.

SLD
Premium Member
join:2002-04-17
San Francisco, CA

SLD

Premium Member

How much DL to see usage

Do we have to go through their shit-ass website to see this data? Yeah, the one that has default error / login pages that get AJAX'd over 5 seconds later while you are re-typing the login you just put in? How many MB does that crap download to your browser just to give you some simple stats?

jjoshua
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ

jjoshua

Premium Member

Freaking sheep....

250GB cap? That sucks.

Free bandwidth meter? Ohhh, cool. Let me try.

SarasotaSlim
join:2008-04-19

SarasotaSlim

Member

Roll Over Minutes ???

I mean bytes..... How long till they implement, for a fee, the ability to roll over your unused monthly bytes.

Just reminds me of cell phones, but in reverse. Cell phones started out very expensive on a per minute/time of day and gradually progressed to rather inexpensive "all you can talk" for cheap-o. Whereas broadband use is going from all-you-can-pound to bill-by-the-ounce.

Maybe AOL had it right in the 14.4baud days of billing. Anyone remember the monster overage bills ?????

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

aaronwt

Premium Member

Re: Roll Over Minutes ???

said by SarasotaSlim:

I mean bytes..... How long till they implement, for a fee, the ability to roll over your unused monthly bytes.

Just reminds me of cell phones, but in reverse. Cell phones started out very expensive on a per minute/time of day and gradually progressed to rather inexpensive "all you can talk" for cheap-o. Whereas broadband use is going from all-you-can-pound to bill-by-the-ounce.

Maybe AOL had it right in the 14.4baud days of billing. Anyone remember the monster overage bills ?????
I never used AOL. I had dialup from 1995 to 1997(from EROLS) and in 1997 I got a cable modem with 5mbs down.

joetaxpayer
I'M Here Till Thursday
join:2001-09-07
Sudbury, MA
552.8 23.8

joetaxpayer to SarasotaSlim

Member

to SarasotaSlim
said by SarasotaSlim:

I mean bytes..... How long till they implement, for a fee, the ability to roll over your unused monthly bytes.
I suspect that it's less than 1% who are at this limit. I've used a meter for a few months and find I'm at 25-35GB/mo. For me, a rollover is meaningless. Those who are 200GB+ users will likely watch their usage and aim to finish the month with a torrent to push to 245GB.

I do remember AOL's $6/hr overage charges. Crazy times.
Joe
nitzan
Premium Member
join:2008-02-27

nitzan

Premium Member

The funny thing is...

You do start to wonder if those with their own bandwidth monitoring tools will create a lot of extra work for Comcast support when/if they believe that there's a discrepancy between Comcast's tool and their own.
By telling customers to go find a bandwidth meter on their own - they made this problem worse - because now they have a bunch of potentially clueless users armed with bandwidth meters. If they implemented the meters to begin with they would have much less "armed" customers. But now since the deed is done they will have to deal with the support tickets this will generate.
utahluge
join:2004-10-14
Draper, UT

utahluge

Member

I plan on using it. :)

Well, I plan to make sure I come close to my 250 Gigs. I normally don't average that high but caps drive me nuts! Rather than averaging my lower numbers into their system, I plan on inflating my numbers to increase the average. I also encourage a lot of you to do the same thing.

1. It will bite them in the a** as all the sudden their numbers will go UP. Probably something they wouldn't expect.
2. If they keep the caps, it will most likely result in higher caps as the average will be much higher.

Bring on the encrypted torrents!!! ha ha ha
barmar
join:2008-05-29
Arlington, MA

barmar

Member

Re: I plan on using it. :)

said by utahluge:

Well, I plan to make sure I come close to my 250 Gigs. I normally don't average that high but caps drive me nuts!
It is NOT a cap, it's a threshold.

If you're below 250 GB, you will never be considered an excessive user. If you're above 250 GB and you're one of the heaviest users, you may receive an excessive use warning.

So all the posts about trying to hit 250 GB on the nose, or minimizing the reporting delay, are misguided. In practice, you'll almost certainly have to go far above 250 GB before you're actually considered an excessive user.

Comcast has been warning and terminating excessive users for years, this is not new. The only new thing is the 250 GB/mo threshold, below which you can be sure you're safe. It's still the case that you have no way of knowing how much you can really use before getting a warning, because it's dependent on the overall use of the network by other customers.

ctceo
Premium Member
join:2001-04-26
South Bend, IN

ctceo

Premium Member

Strangeness

What I find funny is that every client and company I've worked with has had, and keeps usage statistics for years (not just 3) on a per account basis, and it is just now coming to light with the revelation that metered billing is the way to go.

Wheres the At&t equivalent. Does anybody in the test beds have any screenshot or links?
RealityCheck60
join:2008-12-06
Elwood, IN

RealityCheck60

Member

Comcast's motto: Take away services, raise the price

All Comcrap has done ever since they took over when Insight sold us out to them, is take away services and raise their prices!

They took away TV channels, cable TV picture is NEVER good and clear, and now they want to limit our internet too.

It is totally wrong that cable companies are allowed to operate as a monopoly so that they can do such underhanded things as Comcast is doing, because there is no competition!

Stefania
Jezu Chryste, Kubi
Premium Member
join:2003-03-17
Chicago, IL

1 edit

Stefania

Premium Member

Will they offer bandwidth refunds?

What if you're downloading something and packet loss/corruption causes the download to become bad, at Comcasts fault? I may have to re-download the same file up to 10 times before I get an uncorrupt transfer.

Say, 10 multiplied by 9GB = 90GB. If that happens twice, at 180GB in addition to my normal 100 (or less) GB usage will make that 280GB. So will Comcast refund me the 162GB that they didn't/couldn't deliver properly?

Think it doesn't happen? I had a total of 228.99GB of bad transfers 2 months ago on Cox. Last year I had a month where it was even higher than that. Unfortunately I only keep logs for a year so I don't know what it was exactly.

Also, what if you're being attacked by a DDoS?
BlueFrogCS
join:2002-12-13
Sandy, UT

1 edit

BlueFrogCS

Member

net-traffic

Click for full size
I'll be more interested to see if the comcast tool displays a different amount than I show using via ipcop with the net-traffic addon ..
page: 1 · 2 · next