It's official: Comcast starts 250GB bandwidth caps October 1 - Page 10

Vorph · 08-08-2009, 02:16 PM

Multiple connections.

AltBinz and pretty much every other decent usenet program will let you specify the number of connections to the server to use while downloading. Note that your news host will likely limit this. Easynews caps at 20 connections even with their basic plan. Giganews makes you pay extra if you want more than 10 connections.

For web downloads, get the Firefox addon called DownThemAll! and set it to the max of 10 connections.

With my Roadrunner service, I'm lucky to get half the bandwidth I pay for on a single connection. With 10 connections I get 75-80%. With 20, I can usually max it out at 95% which is pretty much as good as it gets since there's always some overhead. Time of day doesn't seem to matter either; even at 4AM a single connection is shit. Occasionally at prime time even 20 connections won't cut it, but there's nothing you can do about that.

Zodiac · 08-08-2009, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chu

Yeah I don't get how people download so much. The torrent tracker site I download porn of keeps track of this stuff and I've only downloaded 110gb in the last 4 years...

It's really easy to get really high download numbers during the season when a lot of TV is broadcasting. I download episodes in HD to play on my HTPC, I think I was following 10 shows last season. Add in a few streamed movies, some games and it can add up pretty quickly.

Edit: Just for reference, each HD episode of an hour long network show is about 1.2gb - a HBO/Showtime show is around 1.5gb.

Lyenae · 08-08-2009, 08:46 PM

A cap on bw is fine.

The real issue is how they handle people who download past the cap. Charging rates nowhere in line with the original service is rape. If it's $50 for cable internet service with a 250gb cap, then downloading past that cap should be rated similarly. If I download 500gb, I shouldn't expect to pay more then $100 that month.

Cybsled · 08-09-2009, 06:57 AM

Honestly the only people pulling 500 gig a month are Warez d00dz and massive movie pirates, because I cannot comprehend anyone else using that much

Grooverider · 08-09-2009, 07:40 AM

I don't think anyone is concerned about the 250gb cap now. But in two years time when all their media is streamed via IP.

Comcast is setting a president for their broadband service which you really don't want to be adopted by other companies.

Vehn · 08-09-2009, 07:58 AM

I live in the DC / Maryland area and I called them and they said they don't have a 250gb cap at all... I swear when I first signed up with them they did say they had the cap though. hopefully I wasn't connected to some IT guy who didn't know :/

Lucifar · 08-09-2009, 08:27 AM

I'm another outside observer coming from a position where the best we could get 5 year ago was 10 gig a month.

These days the same money will get you 60 odd gig, and better options such as data banking and off peak extra's etc as the competition tries different ways of offering a better deal (other than pure price competition)

It seems like data caps based on monthly cost and the likes of buying extra data blocks etc actually encourages the ISP's to build more capacity into their network, so that they can grow their business by droping their price per GB a little and be able to service the extra capacity that more users and bigger uses brings.

If plans start off as unlimited.. where is there to go? What incentive to invest in more capacity.

GrobbeeTrull2.0 · 08-09-2009, 08:31 AM

Quote:

If plans start off as unlimited.. where is there to go? What incentive to invest in more capacity.

The incentive is in keeping the customer. If you don't invest in upgrades to your infrastructure, people will leave to companies who are.

Chanur · 08-09-2009, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucifar

I'm another outside observer coming from a position where the best we could get 5 year ago was 10 gig a month.

These days the same money will get you 60 odd gig, and better options such as data banking and off peak extra's etc as the competition tries different ways of offering a better deal (other than pure price competition)

It seems like data caps based on monthly cost and the likes of buying extra data blocks etc actually encourages the ISP's to build more capacity into their network, so that they can grow their business by droping their price per GB a little and be able to service the extra capacity that more users and bigger uses brings.

If plans start off as unlimited.. where is there to go? What incentive to invest in more capacity.

The thing is, they wont invest money into better capacity. They will just keep their territory locked down and keep selling more and more. They do not really care if their service sucks as its the only game in town in most places.

Lonin · 08-09-2009, 06:59 PM

Keep in mind that uploads count towards your cap as well, so unless you're an asshole leacher, you can pretty much double whatever you download in terms of what it's costing your cap.

I have Comcast near Portland and I download quite a bit of shit, but I've never gotten a notice or anything from Comcast. I don't know if I've ever gone past the cap, so that may very well be why, but I wouldn't be surprised if I have surpassed it or gotten very close. I wouldn't worry about it unless you download a lot of stuff, and only then if they actually contact you about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gauss

Bit late to this thread but if you live in one of the 4-5 cities that has it I can vouch for Clear's Wimax service. I've had it for 2.5 months now and it's been almost as good as a wired connection (minus hiccups every few days). It's like 20 bucks for the cheapest connection, but 20 bucks well-spent to not have to put up with Comcast's bullshit.

Be careful, in some areas (like Portland), Clearwire is resold by Comcast, so they may enact the same cap.

Lenardo · 08-10-2009, 08:00 AM

PERSPECTIVE time

95% of us here won't hit the cap ever with a 250gig cap. i know i won't.

wow patch 3.2 was almost 400mb. i downloaded it 3 times...1.2gig.... that is probably the largest use of bandwidth this month.

comcast's service is going to get better soon for tv as they shut off analog transmissions in the near future (analog uses the most bandwidth)

The Ancient · 08-10-2009, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chanur

The thing is, they wont invest money into better capacity. They will just keep their territory locked down and keep selling more and more. They do not really care if their service sucks as its the only game in town in most places.

About...a year ago Comcast doubled my download and upload bandwidth. I didn't get any extra charges on my bill, or even a notice it was happening, it just happened and I found out later when I was comparing plans.

So you really don't know what the fuck they are going to do, do you?

Capping heavy users or charging them more is exactly how the system should work. I don't want to subsidize your excessive internet usage.

Sealody · 08-10-2009, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vehn

I live in the DC / Maryland area and I called them and they said they don't have a 250gb cap at all... I swear when I first signed up with them they did say they had the cap though. hopefully I wasn't connected to some IT guy who didn't know :/

Strange. I'm in the DC/Va area as well. About a year ago before the 250GB cap was announced, him and his roommate was hit with a warning of disconnection notice for excessive bandwidth usage. With that we know they at least monitor usage.

We were told from Comcast that there will be (or already is) a 250GB cap. From rumors tho it doesn't seem like it's a hard solid cap. If you go over, it doesn't automatically flag you. Some believe they send out notices to some % of people over that cap. There were people who said they hit alittle over that, 250-300Gb and were not given notices.

As for the actual cap, it's probably true that 95% of the people would not even come close to that 250GB limit. As for just MMO usage, ignoring game patches would come in at less then 1gb a month. So the actual data transfered is tiny. The support stuff would take a much larger part of this total bandwidth used. Browsing your game's forums, guild forums, mobs, items, raids pages would take more. Add in youtube videos and finally voice chat and/or ventrilo. That'll take up much more bandwidth then just the MMO data. Or course even with all these it'll be virtually impossible to hit this 250GB cap if your only interest is MMOs. Just saying.

lendarios · 08-10-2009, 10:14 AM

What would be your bandwidth consumption if you watch Hulu shows an average of 25 hours a week? Basically i dont watch tv anymore i just watch hulu full seasons shows.

Grooverider · 08-10-2009, 10:23 AM

Probably quite high. I have a HTPC box sitting under my TV, serving me HD content that I've downloaded via sabnzbd. I only download HD content these days.

Movie average = 12gb, TV Episode average = 2-4gb.

In the last 10 days I would guess I've done 150gb. A lot of the content was snatched automatically using episode butler..

08-08-2009, 02:16 PM	#136 (permalink)
Vorph Fuck Art, Let's Kill Join Date: May 2002 Location: Hell Posts: 7,243	Multiple connections. AltBinz and pretty much every other decent usenet program will let you specify the number of connections to the server to use while downloading. Note that your news host will likely limit this. Easynews caps at 20 connections even with their basic plan. Giganews makes you pay extra if you want more than 10 connections. For web downloads, get the Firefox addon called DownThemAll! and set it to the max of 10 connections. With my Roadrunner service, I'm lucky to get half the bandwidth I pay for on a single connection. With 10 connections I get 75-80%. With 20, I can usually max it out at 95% which is pretty much as good as it gets since there's always some overhead. Time of day doesn't seem to matter either; even at 4AM a single connection is shit. Occasionally at prime time even 20 connections won't cut it, but there's nothing you can do about that. __________________ ...the whole world's going to blow up anyway. I might as well keep my pride. eRepublik Referral (PM me for assistance if you start up using my link)

08-09-2009, 06:57 AM	#139 (permalink)
Cybsled Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 10,278 +49 Internets	Honestly the only people pulling 500 gig a month are Warez d00dz and massive movie pirates, because I cannot comprehend anyone else using that much __________________ Training the citizens of Norrath from 1999-2003!

08-09-2009, 07:58 AM	#141 (permalink)
Vehn Hurm... Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 2,293 -3 Internets	I live in the DC / Maryland area and I called them and they said they don't have a 250gb cap at all... I swear when I first signed up with them they did say they had the cap though. hopefully I wasn't connected to some IT guy who didn't know :/ __________________

08-09-2009, 08:27 AM	#142 (permalink)
Lucifar Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: New Zealand Posts: 203 +3 Internets	I'm another outside observer coming from a position where the best we could get 5 year ago was 10 gig a month. These days the same money will get you 60 odd gig, and better options such as data banking and off peak extra's etc as the competition tries different ways of offering a better deal (other than pure price competition) It seems like data caps based on monthly cost and the likes of buying extra data blocks etc actually encourages the ISP's to build more capacity into their network, so that they can grow their business by droping their price per GB a little and be able to service the extra capacity that more users and bigger uses brings. If plans start off as unlimited.. where is there to go? What incentive to invest in more capacity. __________________ Lucifar Lyrihym, 70 Bard (EQ Tribunal, retired 2004) Luc, 70 Tauren Warrior (WoW Blackrock-US)

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08-08-2009, 08:46 PM	#138 (permalink)
Lyenae Registered User Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 2,664 -104 Internets	A cap on bw is fine. The real issue is how they handle people who download past the cap. Charging rates nowhere in line with the original service is rape. If it's $50 for cable internet service with a 250gb cap, then downloading past that cap should be rated similarly. If I download 500gb, I shouldn't expect to pay more then $100 that month.

08-09-2009, 07:40 AM	#140 (permalink)
Grooverider 1234567890 Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Svenborgia Posts: 1,299	I don't think anyone is concerned about the 250gb cap now. But in two years time when all their media is streamed via IP. Comcast is setting a president for their broadband service which you really don't want to be adopted by other companies.

08-10-2009, 08:00 AM	#146 (permalink)
Lenardo Registered User Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 2,648 -23 Internets	PERSPECTIVE time 95% of us here won't hit the cap ever with a 250gig cap. i know i won't. wow patch 3.2 was almost 400mb. i downloaded it 3 times...1.2gig.... that is probably the largest use of bandwidth this month. comcast's service is going to get better soon for tv as they shut off analog transmissions in the near future (analog uses the most bandwidth)

08-10-2009, 10:23 AM	#150 (permalink)
Grooverider 1234567890 Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Svenborgia Posts: 1,299	Probably quite high. I have a HTPC box sitting under my TV, serving me HD content that I've downloaded via sabnzbd. I only download HD content these days. Movie average = 12gb, TV Episode average = 2-4gb. In the last 10 days I would guess I've done 150gb. A lot of the content was snatched automatically using episode butler..