Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
[Merged] Comcast Implements 250GB Cable Internet Bandwidth Limit
- Thread starter rscott505
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Comcast should have something in your account that tells you. I don't have comcast, but they really are obligated to...
Another option is to install some custom firmware on your router.
On a side note, if you have 5 people in your, using IPTV and that sort of thing it's not inconceivable to hit the cap.
Another option is to install some custom firmware on your router.
On a side note, if you have 5 people in your, using IPTV and that sort of thing it's not inconceivable to hit the cap.
Time for Comcast customers to write angry letters and find internet providers with zero caps. Hell, I'd even call their corporate office and give 'em a mouth full. 
I pay Comcast almost 60 dollars a month for unlimited internet access. You do understand what "unlimited" means, don't you?
If they can't support it, quit advertising it as unlimited and/or upgrade the network.
while it is alot for some.
it just depends on your needs and necessities. which is not something most cable (or most companies) get.
[...]
doing film and audio projects with various classmates and professionals we use torrents alot to disburse our work to each other to work on across various networks. and they can get quite heavy especially uncompressed video and heavy amounts of audio.
and thusfar we havent had many bandwidth problems but its been shaky, but we depend on it since were not all on the same network or have huge budgets to get better non-consumer connections; but in the end it works, so hopefully it wont be a huge deal or limitation....we do tend to get crazy with the stuff we distribute to each other through our work.
nothing illegal there....
If I were Comcast, I might be able to make the argument that your use (if extensive and continuous) on film and audio projects with professionals might constitute a non-consumer use and thus might necessitate a commercial connection subject to different terms of use.
I find the cable companies to be extortionist in their pricing and slow to rollout new technologies which they invariably overcharge for. Having said that, I do think that they need to market, build and price for the broad consumer market (which is slowly, but steadily asking for more capacity). People who are at the very high-end need to understand that pushing well beyond the established limits of consumer use (into that top 1% of users) places them at risk of being asked to move to a different pricing tier. Having said that, I could see over time how Comcast (or in my case, Cox) could move lots and lots of people into that higher tier...
The key is making sure that they are open and transparent about consumer use and caps. Today, 250gb doesn't seem like an unreasonable restriction. If it is still 250gb in a few years, that might be a different story. Comcast should say they have a 250gb limit, but the limit will move upwards a certain percentage each year based on the general consumer use increase.
Also, if they are going to charge or limit, they should have a web tool that tells you what you are using...
I have 7 people in my house and everyone is a heavy internet user, and I would really have to try hard to go over 250gb. That's an enormous limit and I'm totally fine with it.
Torrents aren't illegal. What you're doing with them probably is.
Hulu, gaming, video chatting, iTunes and whatever the hell else you have IS NOT going to put you over 250gb. Period. Unless you're downloading 200 "Linux distributions" (there aren't even that many in existence) per month, you aren't going to go over the limit.
Torrents aren't illegal. What you're doing with them probably is.
Hulu, gaming, video chatting, iTunes and whatever the hell else you have IS NOT going to put you over 250gb. Period. Unless you're downloading 200 "Linux distributions" (there aren't even that many in existence) per month, you aren't going to go over the limit.
HughesNet = 300MB a day. I accidentally downloaded a game patch one time, Internet was shot the rest of the week.
Strange that you quote me complaining that Comcast advertises "unlimited" internet when my post was not about Comcast advertising at all. However would you please post a link to where Comcast says you get "unlimited" internet (and help me to understand the word unlimited). May be wrong but I don't ever remember seeing Comcast advertised as "unlimited" internet. So for you and all the complainers please post the links that prove Comcast is using deceptive and illegal advertising.
Please provide a link where Comcast sells their service as limited first. I don't recall it ever being advertised as "limited" internet.
Thanks.
HD Movies, my friend. HDTV as well. Eats up HD space and bandwidth.
And to answer the OP's question, I've been using this program called Surplus meter to track my bandwidth. It works swimmingly, check it out:
Surplus Meter
Frankly, there is no point to either of your demands for links.
Comcast can change the terms of service whenever they want.
Wow, where the heck are you coming from with that? He was perfectly fine with where he was coming from with that question, they never (at least from what I have seen) advertised their service as having unlimited bandwidth access. And if they did advertise their service as "unlimited," it was probably referring to what sites a user had access to, not the bandwidth allotted. And why exactly would a company advertise their service as limited?
And by the way, Comcast has always reserved the right to stop somebody's service for excessive use of bandwidth (it said it in the contract terms), they just never set a figure to that limit which is why they have now instated this 250 GB cap.
I'm going to weigh in on this... if comcast knows when you go over your 250GB limit... that means they know how much we all use each month... ie they already meter us. Now I'm a comcast broadband user. I don't come anywhere near the limit. Comcast isn't cheap. Since they meter us why not give those that only use a little a price drop? That's why comcast doesn't want you to know how much you use (unless you go over). If joe used 3 GB a month and Jim uses 200 GB a month and they both pay the same... Joe's gonna be pissed and maybe shop around. Maybe someone else comes along and offers the casual user a much cheaper price....
30 years ago I worked for a company that made large timesharing computers. Could handle up to 1000 users. Had a board in there that was called the meter board to keep track of how much cpu time a user used so they could be billed for their share of the timesharing.
30 years ago I worked for a company that made large timesharing computers. Could handle up to 1000 users. Had a board in there that was called the meter board to keep track of how much cpu time a user used so they could be billed for their share of the timesharing.
os x automatically keeps track of the bandwidth used since booting the computer, this is why things like istat start over whenever you start your computer.
the best way that i have seen is to buy a cheap linksys wrt54d router and install the tomato router firmware. it allows you to keep track of bandwidth on a monthly basis.
the best way that i have seen is to buy a cheap linksys wrt54d router and install the tomato router firmware. it allows you to keep track of bandwidth on a monthly basis.
I completely understand that Comcast has the right to change the terms (as most service contracts include these types of clauses) but please don't lump me in with the other poster. He did unjustifiably and insultingly challenge me by typing "You do understand what "unlimited" means, don't you?" when I never mentioned unlimited. I was just simply pointing out that in fact he was the one who didn't even "understand" what he had.
Do you know that KB is not the same as kbps?
700 kbps = 4 MB/minute
By the way, video chat??? Hum I thought p0rn are usually one way?
Bandwidth Cap = Bad
This is a 30-day capture of my bandwidth from my iMac at work. Less than 10% of this bandwidth is internal as this system is set up as a location for us to download drivers and other misc things that we need to fix Windows boxes from the web.
If you have more than 4 or 5 computers, game consoles, slingboxes, etc in your house, the 250GB cap is gonna spell disaster for many of those who have moderate bandwidth usage generated from each device.
This is a 30-day capture of my bandwidth from my iMac at work. Less than 10% of this bandwidth is internal as this system is set up as a location for us to download drivers and other misc things that we need to fix Windows boxes from the web.
If you have more than 4 or 5 computers, game consoles, slingboxes, etc in your house, the 250GB cap is gonna spell disaster for many of those who have moderate bandwidth usage generated from each device.
Attachments
Here is a new freeware program called TraffiX that was just added to the Apple site. I downloaded it and it sees my Linksys router but you must input a SNMP password. Have tried my router password and my wireless password but neither work. What is and how do I find (or create) my SNMP password (don't see anything in the router's Intranet (is that the right word?) page)?
I don't much care for that policy of theirs regardless of if you even come close. Why wouldn't they want to just bump those people up to a different tier and charge them additional fees? Seems like a more reasonable approach--and one I hope that Bright House would use if it comes to that--not that I could imagine ever reaching that level but who knows.
Hey, thanks for the link. This seems to be exactly what I was looking for. It only monitors traffic through the internet at the router level. So it accounts for all the machines at my house, and it excludes local traffic such as wireless timemachine, airtunes, etc. Awesome!