Comcast Usage Meter....

[Afterburner]

lol... I just got this email..... Fun to see how much I use! A lot more than I thought....

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/7421/capture2hh.jpg


Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer

We are pleased to announce the pilot launch of the Comcast Usage Meter in your area. This new feature is available to Comcast High-Speed Internet customers and provides an easy way to check total monthly household high-speed Internet data usage at any time. Monthly data usage is the amount of data, such as images, movies, photos, videos, and other files that customers send, receive, download or upload each month. Comcast measures total data usage and does not monitor specific customer activities to determine data usage.

The current data usage allowance for the Comcast High-Speed Internet service is 250GB per month. This means that the vast majority of our customers - around 99% currently - will not come close to using 250GB of data in a month, and do not need to check the usage meter.

To view your current data usage, please visit http://customer.comcast.com and sign in to customerCentral (shown below).



After signing in, click on the "User & Settings" tab and click again on "View details" under "My devices". The usage meter shows the current calendar month's data usage for your account starting on the 1st of the month. Over time, you will be able to see the previous three months data usage as shown in the sample image below.



The usage meter is only available to Primary user accounts and Unrestricted Secondary user accounts with billing access.

If you would like to learn more about the usage meter, and how it works please visit http://networkmanagement.comcast.net/datausagemeter.htm for more information. Please visit our customer support forums at http://forums.comcast.net if you would like to ask us more questions or post comments. You can also click here to chat with a customer service representative, or call 800-928-1614 for assistance.

Thank you for choosing Comcast!

This is a service-related email. Comcast will occasionally send you service-related emails to inform you of service upgrades or new benefits to your Comcast High-Speed Internet service.

[DrNip]

That blows big balls that have you guys are on a cap! I can't believe that. :finger: that!

[Afterburner]

I agree.... I came VERY close in November of going over.... Scares me a bit... Makes me wonder what the heck and how the heck this much usage is possible.. Most months it shows no more than 60gb used.... Now over 200 three months in a row (Counting current tracking of Jan)

[Kal-EL]

Man, no wonder the net has been slow lately!

[DrNip]

What that tells me is you need to get up, get out and do something you fool!!! I tell you what, you break that 250GB cap and I'll see what I can do to get you in the club!!! Whatcha think supes? HAHAHAHA.

[Afterburner]

Looks like I may have to cut back on my p0rn =[ BUAwahahahahahaha

[DrNip]

o0.

[Afterburner]

I am kidding of course.....





I would cut back on something else first =].....

aaaaaanyway.... I think our Ipods are to blame as I think on it.... Probably downloaded close to 1000 sounds plus our normal surfing.... And all the Youtubes I watch now are in HD... Not to mention it is winter and dark here @ 4pm.... Not much to do outside....

[Buckeye]

Oh man that sucks now. Any idea where we can find when its coming to different areas ?

[FACE]

Once you break the 250gb mark, a letter is issued to warn you of disconnection. But since it takes them a while to get the letter out, by the time you get it you will already be shut down.

It may be time to go elsewhere for your interwebs....... Comcast is the only isp that does this to my knowledge. They are planning on raising rates on top of this, so I'm thinking of getting out from under the comcast ball and chain myself...

I would pay for a t1 line before I let anyone tell me how much bandwidth I can or cannot use.....

....btw, I average ~250gb a month, but I also run a satellite shop at home that runs with my shop at work.

[DrNip]

Hold the BLEEP up. You mean to tell me they disconnect you? I thought they would just charge you by the GB or something. Kinda like if you go over on minutes with your cell phone.

[punx223]

no.... they reserve the "right" to disconnect your service


I say if you have a service.... you paid for... well dammit give it to you

[Gutterz]

EEk I got comcast... Time to do some digging. An Time warner started caps I do believe an the rest are fallowing suit.

[Kal-EL]

I'm not looking.

[FACE]

This all stemmed from when entertainment companies were threatening to supina Comcast and other isp's for customer's personal info in the battle for intellectual property...... or file sharing.

Comcast then put in "sandvine" boxes at the edges of all their networks. At first, sandvine would kill your connection temporarily if your ip had a non-http style protocol going to or from it. This lead to a class action suite against Comcast, and now sandvine mon itors usage, and caps bandwidth when non-standard ftp and http protocols are in use.

How to prove sandvine is on your exterior cable network..... Go to a few different sites and grab a few ftp downloads (one at a time). The d/l will start as normal, usually a mb/s or two depending on the server. Then something screwy happens.... your download will mysteriously throttle down to ~700-800 kb/s. It will stay there until the download is completed. That is, imo, horseshit business.

I complain to them almost weekly about net capping, and that is probably the only reason I haven't received a "too much internet" letter or call yet, and probably won't. As soon as the dsl carrier for my 'hood upgrades their equipment on my street, I'm gone.... SCREW YOU COMCAST.....

.....

[Neuromancer]

AT&T does it on their "unlimited data plan" too last I heard. If you use too much data they charge you LOL

[Gutterz]

Phew
My devices

No device information is available.


But now I know its comming, bastards.


So would sandvine ping your router to loose internet making you do a reset on the network? To regain internet access. I was having a problem about a month ago downloading toarrants.

[FACE]

No, I'm thinking they are not legally allowed to kill your connection for using torrent clients anymore. They will cap the hell out of your bandwidth though for peer2peer, usenet (newsgroups), and known sites like sourceforge. Even a few legal pay subscription sites using ssl and other encryption are capped as filesharing protocols.


It's not even about the money.... It costs Comcast no more or less to allow you to grab all you want..... it's about control, and some booty kissing to avoid an entertainment company lawsuit.

[Afterburner]

So who do we use then? Sprint is trying to take business from Comcast right now with their 4g adapter... And claims their 4g is faster than Broadband... Not sure I understand how one version of broadband can be marketed as something different and still be faster :softhands:

[LiquidNitrogen]

I would object on the grounds that your original contract with them contained no such "capping clause", and they can't arbitrarily "change the rules" once the game has begun.

I mean, what's to keep them from changing the cap to any random value, such as 100 MB, or even 12K? If they get away with this current foray into "initializing the cap", you can bet your bottom dollar the cap rate will decrease (less downloading) and the penalties/cost will increase.

I ditched Comcast long ago for Verizon, then even they started adding "price creep" and hidden charges to my bill.

I jumped ship with them, and went with Clear.

Down with bandwidth metrics!

[DrNip]

I'm glad I have Cox and even more glad I don't have to pay for it!

[Gutterz]

My buddy has the sprint adapter an it seemed snappy on his old ass laptop. But I dont know how it would hold up to gaming. 4G I dont know if I can believe that. Cause isnt FCC limitation on wireless only 3G? which was changed in 09 from 2.4. Then every other commercial was a 3G phone.

[LiquidNitrogen]

I'm glad I have Cox and even more glad I don't have to pay for it!

Well, it's a good thing you don't think that Cox sucks... because... well... you know :)

[DrNip]

Hahaha

[Kal-EL]

Well, it's a good thing you don't think that Cox sucks... because... well... you know :)
:blink:

[Afterburner]

My buddy has the sprint adapter an it seemed snappy on his old ass laptop. But I dont know how it would hold up to gaming. 4G I dont know if I can believe that. Cause isnt FCC limitation on wireless only 3G? which was changed in 09 from 2.4. Then every other commercial was a 3G phone.


There are times I am a little off my info... But yes. I am certian.. http://www.nextel.com/en/solutions/mobile_broadband/mobile_broadband_4G.shtml

[Gutterz]

Im saying the way their marketing this stuff. Wasnt calling you out. didnt mean for it to come out that way

[Afterburner]

Not a worry one bit... I wondered.. and frankly that's why I responded with out being a big baby.... I am douching though =]....

[FACE]

So you get that "not so fresh" feeling, too? :ohcrap:

[Gutterz]

The cap has arrived :( . As a comcast user Im only allowed up to 250G a month up an down combined.
Guess in 27 more days I'll see what I use a month, already used 3Gig since the first an I havnt realy been home.

[FACE]

That sucks ass dude... I wake up in the morning and piss 250gb.... :thumbdown:

[Gutterz]

Im a movie buff an with me watching Netflix an Zune on the 360 all the time plus whatever else, this should be interesting.

[Neuromancer]

The cap has arrived :( . As a comcast user Im only allowed up to 250G a month up an down combined.
Guess in 27 more days I'll see what I use a month, already used 3Gig since the first an I havnt realy been home.

Cap has been there for a long time (october 2008 I think it was implemented)

I crossed 250GB on april 31 (was at 243GB on the 20th and stopped doing anything requiring downloads lol)

FYI.. passing it once gets you a letter, passing it TWICE in 6 months gets you a disconnect.


In my case, it was trying to grab every disney movie ever made :ohcrap:

[Gutterz]

Well It was just implemented here. I checked when this thread began back in January an I had no cap. Got the email on the first telling me. Either way it sux.

[Neuromancer]

Well It was just implemented here. I checked when this thread began back in January an I had no cap. Got the email on the first telling me. Either way it sux.

The monitor is new and what the email we received was about, the traffic limit has been in place officially since oct 2008, and unofficially since about 5 years before that!

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-250GB-Monthly-Cap-Goes-Live-October-1-97294

[Gutterz]

Yep guess your rite. Funny thing is when I moved I asked about a cap an they told me no.
So I must not have gone over it yet if its been in effect since 08.

Found this in the FAQ. I cant see customers calling up asking for a cap lol BS
Why is Comcast providing a monthly data usage threshold for its residential high-speed Internet users?

We have been evaluating a monthly data usage threshold for quite some time and we have heard from high-speed Internet customers who have asked that we provide a specific number for excessive use. By providing a specific monthly data usage threshold, we are providing greater clarity to our customers about excessive use.

Your rite first time is a warning second time is a 1 year ban wtf
What will happen if I exceed 250 GB of data usage in a month?

The vast majority - more than 99% - of our customers will not be impacted by a 250 GB monthly bandwidth or data usage threshold. If you exceed more than 250 GB and is one of the heaviest data users who consume the most data on our high-speed Internet service, you may receive a call from the Customer Security Assurance ("CSA") team to notify you of excessive use. At that time, we will tell you exactly how much data per month you had used. When we call you, we try to help you identify the source of excessive use and ask you to moderate your usage, which the vast majority of our customers do voluntarily. If you are contacted by the CSA team again for excessive use within six months of the first contact your service will be subject to termination for one year. We know from experience that most customers curb their usage after our first call. If your account is terminated, after the one year period expires you may resume service by subscribing to a service plan appropriate to you needs.
Our practice for the past several years has been to call only our heaviest data users, and this practice remains the same now that the 250GB data usage threshold is in effect. We may change our practice but will, of course, provide notice to you of any change.
So all in all if you use over 250G a month you need to upgrade to business class. Bstrds

[Neuromancer]

Yeah business class is not cheap either.. $200 a month for 50/10Mbps internet.