Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Web Hosting Lounge : Comcast 250GB monthly limit

[page-zone]

Interesting:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080828/comca..._cap.html?.v=2

On Oct. 1, the cable company will update its user agreement to say that users will be allowed 250 gigabytes of traffic per month, the company announced on its Web site.

Comcast stressed that the bandwidth cap is far above the median monthly usage of its customers, which 2 to 3 gigabytes.

[Barti1987]

If they cap me, I will not be paying my bill

I use ~200 GB a month just on uploading files, let alone downloading files (which is usually much more).

Peace,

[Webdude]

This is going to cause a lot of problems. Cable modems can be hacked and their mac ID's changed. Cable companies control modems by mac ID's. If someone changes their mac ID, and that mac happens to be yours, and they go over the limit... you find your modem shut down..lol. Heck, even the allowed speed for a modem can be hacked. When your modem connects, it downloads a file from the tftp server, and that file tells your modem how fast it can upload/download.

[HaZe_X]

I Had Cable internet at one time(optimum Online) not bad, I Uncapped the modem tho, But I switched to Fiber 2 years ago, blows cable away.

[plumsauce]

I use ~200 GB a month just on uploading files, let alone downloading files (which is usually much more).

Where do you store the downloads? /dev/null?

[40sixty]

Meh, I belive they always had a limit.
And now just went ahead and announced it publicly.

I'm not worried about it now, but in the future...it might get tricky.

[Mekhu]

In March of this year my Internet Company (Rogers) announced monthly bandwidth usage limits on all of their plans.

I received a bill for $300 in overages that I thankfully was not forced to pay (played dumb) but it did make me purchase a 2nd ISP that I use solely for usenet downloads.

It's unfortunate if you ask me... a huge step back in what the Internet stood for. Anyways, people warned us of this "control" for years and now we're starting to see it.

[Emil]

About time. I should be able to get a better connection now. Hopefully. It is better than shaping traffic in the short term. But long term they do need to increase capacity.

[Orien]

Originally Posted by Webdude

This is going to cause a lot of problems. Cable modems can be hacked and their mac ID's changed. Cable companies control modems by mac ID's. If someone changes their mac ID, and that mac happens to be yours, and they go over the limit... you find your modem shut down..lol. Heck, even the allowed speed for a modem can be hacked. When your modem connects, it downloads a file from the tftp server, and that file tells your modem how fast it can upload/download.

Aren't their systems smart enough now to instantly be able to detect a customer running an uncapped modem? It doesn't seem worth the risk of getting blacklisted.

[timburke]

Originally Posted by Orien

Aren't their systems smart enough now to instantly be able to detect a customer running an uncapped modem? It doesn't seem worth the risk of getting blacklisted.

Yeah, they typically are. When a modem has a MAC Address that's not in Comcast's system, it'll automatically get sent to a 'Walled Garden', a system where the only webpage accessible is Comcast's activation wizard. Also, if you use a modem that's already on someone else's account, it can't be activated with the wizard, iirc.

[bear]

How do you know how much you're using currently? I'm not affected yet, and I'm fairly certain I'm nowhere close to the limit, but I'd like to see just how much I'm using.

[Webdude]

Originally Posted by timburke

Yeah, they typically are. When a modem has a MAC Address that's not in Comcast's system, it'll automatically get sent to a 'Walled Garden', a system where the only webpage accessible is Comcast's activation wizard. Also, if you use a modem that's already on someone else's account, it can't be activated with the wizard, iirc.

Two modems with the same mac cant run on the same node. However, they will both run on seperate nodes. And no, their systems are not able to tell the difference. Put this way, a mac is used as the modem's username and password on the cable system. If you use the same ethernet mac, modem mac, and serial number... then no matter what the cable company does, it's systems would not be able to tell which modem is the real one. However, majority are setup to only see and check the modem mac.

[cabron]

Jeez... 250 gigs :O I downloaded and uploaded over 250 GB yesterday alone...

[peruviantalk]

I honestly do not see where I can draw 250GB yet 50GB a month. I averagely download 10-15GB and I even think thats pushing it. I don't mind the cap even though I am not a Comcast user but I would mind if they capped the overall download speed.

As much as I use my modem for streaming / games I still think from just downloading 10-15GB is enough. 250GB is pretty big limit (at least for me).

What are you downloading/uploading so much from an home connection (security anyone?)

EDIT:

To put 250 GB of monthly usage in perspective, a customer would have to do any one of the following: — Send 50 million e-mails (at 0.05 KB/e-mail)– Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song)– Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB/movie)– Upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo).

[andrewk]

I would rather they raise the price then put a cap on it. Glad I dont download much anymore.