You know, AT&T Broadband isnt as good as it used to be anymore. They used to allow you to push the lines as fast as they would go upstream, and now they are capping us off at XXK/second upstream. In my area, it is at 128K/sec. I could do that on a 1D2B ISDN for crying out load.

I would really like to start doing some streaming broadcasts, but this just isnt gonna work. I could support like all of five users now.

Anyone know any little "tricks" for extracting a few extra ounces of upstream bandwidth out of AT&T Broadband? If it matters, I have a General Insturment (GI) SurfBoard SB3100 modem. Any help anyone can give would be appreciated.

(Please dont tell me to go to www.live2365.com, I wont subject myself to the constant barrage of ads they have on there).

Originally posted by kkimmel
You know, AT&T Broadband isnt as good as it used to be anymore. They used to allow you to push the lines as fast as they would go upstream, and now they are capping us off at XXK/second upstream. In my area, it is at 128K/sec. I could do that on a 1D2B ISDN for crying out load.

I would really like to start doing some streaming broadcasts, but this just isnt gonna work. I could support like all of five users now. I have AT&T Broadband as well... and uploading is definitely a pain in the neck. Have a program like KaZaA running in the background? You had better not enable file sharing or else you're going to be getting 2000+ ms latency from your local network. Uploading is very slow, and also slows the rest of your surfing down considerably.

I would almost go for a T1 myself, but I've had download speeds of 3+ megs from Site5's network across my cable connection, which you can't get with a T1. Besides, cable is a lot cheaper, and I have no real need to upload much anyway. :D

In your case, however, I think cable might not be the best way to go simply because of these upload speed limitations.

Go to www.fdcservers.net and order one of their low end dedicated servers and setup your own server to relay the broadcast. You could also upgrade your live365 account.

I see nothing wrong with live365... I am one of the "founding broadcasters" (although I haven't done anything in a LOOOONG time. I did get a free upgraded account and a tshirt though:)

<rant on> Yeah I have ATT Broadband in my area.. They suck.. Too bad for me thats all that is available out here.. Oh and you better PRAY you dont have a support issue.. if you do make sure you take the day off from work.. When I got mine "installed" and it would not let me setup on my pc because I was given a account # that was never setup on there servers.. I timed how long I was on the phone with support... 11hrs and 13mins on hold not including the first say of 3+hours.. So finally I spoke to someone in there "techincal task force" (btw: I finally found out there was no such thing some dickhead thought it would be funny to tell me that there was one) they said they would come out in 3 days.. On the third day I called asking where the frig the tech guy was he never came.. they told me "sorry we did not call your issue was fixed 3 days ago.. looks like someone made an error when setting up your account 9 DAYS AGO ... guess what they offered me when I asked for a free month at the least... 10 friggin days credit.. thanks att.. I will be sure to switch as soon as DSL is available.. dont even get me started on the new and improved "digital cable" i got... </rant off>

In our area, it use to be called Mediaone, then Roadrunner, worked fantastic! Then AT&T bullied there way in and bought them out.. It's been nothing but downhill, since they brought in all their dial up users onto the network, sucks big time compared to what it was.

try www.peercast.org

Most upload limits are implemented at the cable modem in the docsis config file that is configured by your ISP. However, most cable modems' config files are pretty darn near impossible to modify without a second cable modem on the same physical network.

Also, most cable modem providers will take your cable modem away forever if they find you doing it.

I have comcast at home (which sucks worse than when I had AT&T), and they have a professional plan with a higher upstream limit that is only 3 times as much money a month. You might see if AT&T has a higher service plan.

How do I edit this file, and how would they know I was being naughty and hacking my modem? Is there really any way they could find out without physically inspecting the unit or unless they had a suspicion that I was up to no good?

Or do they have some little automated system that goes through the modem base and pings the modems every so often and checks to see whose been naughty and whose been nice?

I already have a virtual dedicated server hosted at www.dsnsi.com. The problem is, I cant do certain things there becase I dont have root on the server. Basically, I just have a friendly admin and thats about it. I can't run SQL because the server ower runs his accounting software on SQL, and he isnt gonna take a chance that I could screw up his records (cant say that I blame him).

ServerSonic:

I hate banner ads and popups. Thats what is wrong with it. People seem to foget that the internet belongs to the people and not corporate america. The internet is about information, about sharing the information you have with other people.

Sadly, the internet has basically become one big ball of crap where webmasters work to shuttle users from one site to another, and show them advetrtisements along the way so they can inflate thier affiliate accounts.

What they have done is ruined it for webmasters such as myself who engage in ethical advertising and dont use annoying banner to torture thier website visitors for a little service here and a shard of information there.

Anyone remember that banner that flashes alternating red and white frames, and says "If this banner is flashing, then you have won"? It looks like a damn strobe light. And it has got to be the most annoying thing this side of the equater.

Anyone who puts a banner the one I described on thier website shouldnt be a webmaster. The above is an example of what you do when you are really desperate. You obviously dont care about your website visitors when you do something like this.

People have become so resistant to advertising that they dont pay attention to ANY of it. If you want to win customers, advertise ethically. I wont allow banners on any site I run. And I would probably fire a designer who wanted popups in a design. The extent of my advertising is text links and small buttons. And no animation in the buttons.

Then there is the issue of spam. <shakes violently> Dont even get me started on them.


Site5-Matt:

The T-1 route is just a tad bit expensive for a hobby, espically out here in Ameritech land. A T-1 costs upwards of $1,500 dollars a month by the time you pay for the local loop, access and the installation.

I am Cognigen reseller, so belive me when I say that I have looked into it. I ran all of the quotes I have for T1 data circuits, lowest thing I got was $1,200 and that was with a no-name company that I had heard some bad things about and they wanted a three-year contract for that.

Go quote them yourselves. http://ld.net/?keithkimmel

I would like to see what you all come back with. I know in California T1s are about $300 a month. Thats more reasonable and down to earth.

delete - double post

kkimmel:

Yes it is true that cable modem users can uncap their service. More or less, you need to be very comfortable with FTP, UNIX, the make command, IP addressing schemes, routers, servers, and many other things to get this done. From what I've heard it is not easy to do, nor is there a "hack" that will "fix" your modem.

Is there really any way they could find out without physically inspecting the unit or unless they had a suspicion that I was up to no good? This is why I would not attempt doing such a thing and probably how you would get busted...

1.) You would be breaking the law and stealing from the cable company.
2.) You would be stealing from your neighbors, as the way cable modems work is that your download speed is directly related to how many people are on the local cable loop you are on. (aka the people in your neighborhood)
3.) Your neighbors would probably complain about how slow their connections have gotten recently.
4.) You would then get busted, as the cable company would realize that gigabytes of data are being sent to your address and not to other people on the local cable loop.
5.) Who knows what types of penalties and fines you would then be charged with. Could you go to jail for this type of offense? Probably. The cable company will probably try to sue you for their loss of business, service and human resources. It could wind up costing you $30,000.
6.) You would then no longer have access to cable modems in your area and have to go back to 56k modems.

Andrew

Originally posted by Brad
In our area, it use to be called Mediaone, then Roadrunner, worked fantastic! Then AT&T bullied there way in and bought them out.. It's been nothing but downhill, since they brought in all their dial up users onto the network, sucks big time compared to what it was.

Same here. I was THE FIRST customer in my area to sign-up way back when with "Media One Express" which then become "Media One RoadRunner," then AT&T made the purchase and all went downhill from there ... :-/

Here is my lame understanding of how caps are set which may be inaccurate but closely related to what actually happens.

Your cable modem boots up and does more than just making a DHCP request, it also does a tftp to that server to download a configuration file.

It uses that configuration file to set the max up and download speeds and other things that are configurable, such as filtering ports and disabling snmp on the ethernet side of the modem.

To "hack" this, you would need to set up your own tftp server on the broadband side of the modem, and disconnect the modem from your actual ISP, so that your tftp server is used instead. Then you can serve whatever configuration file you want.

The docsis modems are going to also enable SNMP on the broadband side, so your cable modem provider can actually make queries to your modem to read these settings.

It might be easier and more legal to just contact AT&T about an upgrade in service.

My friend has AT&T cable. In July they recalled the modems because they would spontaneous explode, ROFL. And she was going to be away at the time AT&T said they would come and fix it. So she called and they said that they could ONLY do it that week that she was away. So she threatened to sue them for endangering her and her family by letting them have an exploding modem and refusing to replace it on HER time. Her husband's a lawyer. Anyhoo, they gave and came on HER time. heh. Silly AT&T.

I have Verizon DSL and my only complaint is that my sister is hogging all the bandwidth with Kazaa! But that's a sibling issue, not a ISP issue. :D

I know all of the reasons why I should not do it. This is purely for my education only. I would never even consider doing anything illegal... because, well, its illegal.



clio:

I am willing to bet those damn modems dont explode because of all the bandwidth they consume and the bits of data that just fly through them so fast that it burns a hole through the side of the case. :D

bitserve:

Thanks. This is enlightening.

And I already have contacted AT&T about a premium account, they have such an account. But they only offer it in a few select markets (about seven of them) in the entire country. They call them business accounts, and they have an SLA and much better upstream bandwidth.

http://www.attbroadband.com/java/bbs/get-pricing-action.do

They dont offer it where I am. Or else I would get it, because it is still much cheaper than a T out here.

I search the net, and came up with a few intresting articals on the topic.

http://www.netwide.net/users/CableGuy/HowtoUncapDocsisCompliantCableModems.htm

(This was intresting)

It was an official recall on that particular one. There must have been a potential to explode, otherwise they wouldn't be so demanding about replacing them!

AT&T anything is silly.

Yea... AT&T sucks big ones... :D

I used to have Mediaone also, till AT&T got thier grubby hands on it. Speed was good, but the network would die at exactly midnight to 3 AM my time every day :angry:. Damn OKIHost, you was on hold for 11 hrs. :eek: My longest was 4 hours and about 20 something mins.

When AT&T decided to come out and shut off my service (the bill wasnt even due yet and we weren't behind) the tech told us we owed over $300. :angry: Long story short, a complaint was filed to the city (total of about 12,500 in the year. Jan 02 to May 02).

Don't get me going on their phone and cable service... Err, did I say service? :eek:

*sigh*

I hate AT&T as much as spammers :eek2:

<edit>
We had the Toshiba PCX1000 modem, and the tech insisted on taking our modem and we **bought** the modem through Mediaone.

96 away from custom title :)
</edit>

Well, I played with my cable modem until about 4 AM EST last night, and I have finally concluded that AT&T has taken away my SNMP rights. The neve of them to do such a horrible thing! After reading and re-reading that tutorial, I guess if they disable SNMP you are SOL?

Well, inside of the little config utility at 192.168.100.1, I did see a little button that will reset the modem to factory defaults. I wonder if I could just run the factory reset thing, call AT&T and have them walk me through setting the modem back up again.

All I need is the TFTP address and the config file name. Then I download it, edit it and upload it again. Everything else they put you through is simply to discover that information.

Does anyone know what happpens when you do the factory reset? Does it reset itself and then download all it's paramaters again from the server and not allow the user to reconfigure it? Or does it make you re-register the modem like it did when the technican came out orginally? Or maybe a teletech will walk me through setting it back up again, and there will be an option that allows me to disable SNMP or enable it, and he will tell me to disable it but I will disregard that and enable it but tell him I disabled it.

MGCJerry: Yeah, maybe so. But they are the only game in town except for Ameritech IDSL, which is the same speed as ISDN (128K Up/128K Down) and it comes in at way over $100.00 a month. Or of course, I could go back to a damn modem. And I can tell you that isnt happening.

I see none of you AT&T users have had experience with *uh oh*

NTL/TELEWEST UK BROADBAND!

Just been reading quotes off their unofficial help site, which ntl decided to buy out, adding to their £12bn debt(around US$18bn)

"Had ntl for 2 years now (tv,phone & ntl world)...it is utter crap!!! "

"...listening to that bloody awful dire straights guitar solo "

"The belief is, anyone can be taught how to tech, but good CS skills are something you either have or not "

"When someone would ask for a surpervisor or manager, we would just pass it a mate to pretend to be a manager "

"This is surely the worst company I have come across. Unbelieveably poor service, dreadful quality "products" and general bad attitude"

"Exposing NTL is always a pleasure "

"CSA: I'm sorry sir but you don't appear to be in a cable/broadband enables area - Customer: I HAVE IT!"

"They might as well rip off 50 of the 51 buttons on the remote leaving the OFF button "


A recent customer review:

"An installation time is agreed on and my card is debited. I'm given an account number and a PID number and told that a contract will wing its way to me Real Soon Now. I'm told I'll get the installation, a 60ft Cat-5 cable, a USB adapter and a CD which I need to use to activate my broadband "oh and I forgot to mention that that costs 25 pounds too" "What??" "But you do get the first month of broadband free" Hmm, that costs 25 quid anyway so okay. Ish...

Now about this PID, I don't use Windows so what exactly is on this CD that I need? "You put in the CD, go onto broadband and it asks for your PID" "What do you mean by 'go onto broadband' and what exactly 'asks me' for my number?" "Well you just go into Control Panel and tell Internet Explorer to detect settings and then it does it all for you and asks for your number"

"I'm using Linux so I need to know *exactly* what I need to do with this PID number and what you mean by "it asks you" - what, exactly, 'asks me' and how do I get to it, is it a web page, html on the CD, an .exe you run or what?" "No sir, you just go onto broadband and it does it all for you" "BUT I'M NOT USING WINDOWS AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHEN YOU SAY 'YOU JUST GO ONTO BROADBAND??!" "You're not using Windows?" "No" (coincidentally, this is why I said that I wasn't using Windows). "But you do have Internet Explorer, right?" "No, it's not available for Linux, but I am using Netscape"

"Oh, you're using *Netscape*?" "Yes, under Linux, not Windows, so I need to know how I get onto this broadband thing you're talking about" "Well you just go onto it and it ask..." Noooooo! "Is it an icon I click on in My Computer?" "Yes and it configures your PC for you" "Through an auto-config script which you enter into your Internet Explorer settings in the Tools/Internet Options/Connections tab?" "Yes" "But I'm not using Internet Explorer" "Well it's just in Control Pa..." "I HAVEN'T GOT A CONTROL PANEL BECAUSE I'M NOT USING SODDING WINDOWS"."


"Please do not call helpdesk 'cause at NTL there ain't any"













and guess you my ISP is... NTL! My internet keeps going up and down and up and down and up and down all day... sometimes for 15 hours+ at a time... one day i had 2mins 8 seconds(stopwatch) online and the rest was downtime(not a local problem... neighbor was fine)

Give me AT&T anyday...

and about that upload cap... i have a download cap of 512k and up fo 120k so quit complaining..

phision.com:

Sorry you have had such a rotten experince. But dont take that out on me.

Originally posted by kkimmel
Well, I played with my cable modem until about 4 AM EST last night, and I have finally concluded that AT&T has taken away my SNMP rights. The neve of them to do such a horrible thing! After reading and re-reading that tutorial, I guess if they disable SNMP you are SOL?

Hence the "..most cable modems' config files are pretty darn near impossible to modify without a second cable modem on the same physical network."

I have ATT cable out here in Oregon.
Guess what?

I suppose i'm the only person with no complaints about them!

I get 384K upstream, not 128K.

They have been down for a total of maybe 2 hours in the past 4 months.

I always am able to get full speed when downloading or uploading.


Lucky it seems :)

bitserve:

Can you please explain to me what that means? Do you mean like a friend who has the same service, same modem type and that is willing to work with me, or do I need to put a second cable modem on my side of the network somewhere? You repeated that like it is completely obvious what is supposed to be done...

Originally posted by kkimmel
Can you please explain to me what that means? Do you mean like a friend who has the same service, same modem type and that is willing to work with me, or do I need to put a second cable modem on my side of the network somewhere? You repeated that like it is completely obvious what is supposed to be done...

Who can access your cable modem's config? Just your cable company, because they can access the broadband side of your modem. In theory, with another cable modem you could simulate your ISP. I doubt that access to a fellow subscriber's modem on your same network would work.

Yeah, they took away my ability to get at the little thing with DHCP. Anyone got any info lying around on how to get at it using another cable modem? I could go out and buy another modem... would be worth it...