TheMurph

December 04, 2008 at 12:03pm

Well shut my mouth.  I guess I owe Will a beer now -- I forgot what Podcast number it was, but I do recall our heated argument about whether Comcast would give users an application to figure out how much bandwidth they use.

You win, good sir.

ajuhawk

December 04, 2008 at 11:22am

I can think of another name for Comcast...

Anyway, seriously, I'm not worried about hitting their cap, half the time I can't even get on the internet.  Ok, so it's not quite that bad...and I'm hoping it's because they're working on upgrading my area to the higher speeds...

 Personally I think they should've introduced the ability to check your bandwidth usage (even on the web under your account info) BEFORE they ever introduced the cap.

 Qwest has started to advertise fiber in town, so maybe I can switch to that before long...

marudd2002

December 04, 2008 at 9:43am

 Ok. So I'm a Comcast customer. I really disliked Comcast's P2P practices before the FCC stepped in. My ubuntu and other legal torrent downloads were crawling at about 4k-15k. Now since the FCC threatened Comcast my exact same torrents are getting over 500k-700k. Talk about improvement! I have never monitored my usage, but even with tons of online gaming, Hulu, torrents, constant browsing on heavy video, etc sites, and much more, I still don't think I even made it halfway to Comcast's 250GB limit in just one month.

This monitor is a really great idea. I like it. It makes my life as a consumer easier because now I don't have to worry about getting a notice from them. I can check out my account and if I'm getting close I'll just spend more time outdoors or with my family and less time on TF2.

I typically dislike Comcast out of principle as their cable TV is way over priced and they thought it was right for them to limit certain types of internet traffic. I believe in Net Neutrality. I don't like that Comcast is basically a monopoly for anything over 3M in a LOT of the areas they service.

However, I have yet to have an aggravating call, long wait times, or horrible service from Comcast, whether it's online, on the phone, or in person at a local customer service location. They've always been friendly and helped me. My account has always been updated correctly and when my 2 year old modem died I was back online in less than 1 hour with a new one at no cost. Plus they are literally doubling my speed from 6M to 12M and Powerboost from 12M to 20M on December 16th at NO additional cost. Even with more speed I don't see me hitting their bandwidth limit. After all I do have a life away from a computer or gaming console. Fresh air is nice, no? The bandwidth cap is a reasonable size for monthly use IMHO.

The idea of a cap might appear frightening or wrong to some, but I have no complaints unless the limit is ridiculously low or abused in some way by the ISP that set it (I'm looking at you AT&T). I see no reason to complain about getting 12M/2M internet with a Powerboost of 20M/5M for less than $45 per month, especially considering my torrent speeds and the service I have received so far. IT's a damn good deal IMO.

----

Fanboys are annoying. Price/Performance is top priority. Patience=Awesome.

cigar3tte

December 04, 2008 at 9:30am

How do they ever expect Cloud computer to take shape if we have a bandwidth cap?

"Ass so fat that you can see it from the front" -- Mos Def

Crazybillybob

December 04, 2008 at 8:30am

Boy, I'm glad I moved! I had Comcast for 4 years the Speed was good, but
it's expensive! And their Customer service SUCKS! Now they want to Screw users
into submission!

I thought that the days of the metered usage died with Dialup, but I guess
an old trick is the best when you don't want to spend capital on infrastructure.
I understand them wanting to limit the illegal p2p users (I also know that not
all p2p is illegal, I use it myself from time to time). But smacking a
limit on all users, just as digital delivery is taking hold with the masses,
and VoIP has left the office to come home with the average Joe is just
backwards! To think that a "usage meter" is going to make it all
better is even sillier! I agree that an .EXE just shows you how backwards this
company has it, show me an average house hold that has only one Device on the
internet... Most have 2 or 4 (mom/dad's work laptop, the Family's PC, little
Johny's Xbox/Wii/PS3, the Netflix’s box) So unless that little .exe connects
back to a central server (and using some of that bandwidth that they've
limited) to pull up a report how's it going to track the usage accurately.

It time for the US ISP to get their heads out of the sand and catch backup
with the World leaders in high speed internet and forget the usage Caps! 

mls067

December 04, 2008 at 7:17am

What I don't understand is why they are doing this when services like movies, phone, music, iptv, etc. all are internet based any more. Even the ISP's that are doing this offer some of these services. If things keep going this way then the ISP's are going to stiffle creativity with these and other services not yet invented. They need to stop stealing from the cutomers and start using the outrageous fee's they charge to upgrade thier networks. Maybe they are trying to keep a lot of the services I mentioned from happening so they can keep a monopoly on them, like tv.