[michaelwalsh]

What do you guys think of this....


I am (or rather WAS) on an "unlimited use" plan with a major ISP based in Pasadena, CA ( I'll leave it to you to figure out which one

).


I'm a fairly large bandwidth user, being as I use my PC as a PVR for several Internet based TV stations and record a 4 hour Internet radio show into mp3 each and every day for use on my PMP. It is not uncommon for me to move 1gb or more worth of data per day.


Well on Monday access to the site providing me (on a paid subscription basis mind you) with the TV streams suddenly quit. The provider looked to be having some technical troubles during the course of the weekend so it didn't really bother me, but then when I could reach the site from my office and not from home for an additional two days beyond that, I started to smell something rotten!


I was left feeling that only one of several things could be happening - the content provider was blocking my IP (why would they do that to a paid subscriber?), the provider was blocking my ISP (since I also tried dial-up on my laptop to see if a different IP address would solve the problem), or the ISP was blocking my access to the site.


Of course, since my gut feeling was the latter, I immediately called the ISP's Tech Support for an answer. Actually that's not true...I called to cancel the account, knowing that such a threat would get me fairly quickly to a "Master Technician" (as they call them), but the customer service rep assured me that, yes, the plan I was on was indeed unlimited and that restricting access to content was not something they did to customers.


After a couple of calls back to "cancel" which got me into a hold queue for a "Master Technician" for at least 30 minutes each time (I never did actually get to speak with one), I finally called back and insisted on cancelling.


Right after that, since I was a customer of the ISP via connectivity provided by Time Warner and already had the equipment in place, I called Road Runner customer service and had the account switched over to make me a RR customer. Access to the site in question was restored almost immediately!


So, did my ISP really restrict my access of the site? And if they did, was it a punitive measure for using excessive amounts of bandwidth? I guess I'll never know. But if it was, they'd better get used to it. We're only on the cusp of a huge number of people taking digital delivery of almost all their entertainment!


Views? Opinions? Anything similar ever happen to you?

 

[qz3fwd]

Yes your provider saw you were a bandwidth hog and penalized you. Comcast does this and will suspend your account for 1 year after 1 warning and will not tell you what the limits is you have to stay under-just substantially reduce your bandwidth consumption. Unlimited means unlimited access and not unlimited bandwidth. Switch to DSL and you will not have this type of problem and it will cost less for the same line speed.

 

[michaelwalsh]

Could you explain to me why there would be no limitation on DSL? My reluctance to get DSL mostly centers around us also using the phone line for our home alarm.


I might just switch to doing my recording at work using our commercial cable account, and then bring the files home on USB media. That way I'll also be able to monitor the recordings to make sure I'm getting everything.


Edit: I found this on the subject http://news.com.com/2100-1034_3-5079624.html and I now see why DSL would be better. But saying that, if RR caps at 40GB a month, the only way I could be over that is on days off when I could conceivably tune to a TV station of flip channels for the entire day.

 

[qz3fwd]

You can use the telephone at the same time as DSL.

The AUP for DSL's is much more consumer freindly and if you do some research you will see that MANY have gotten the boot from cable and NOBODY has gotten the boot from DSL. Heck, I point blank asked both the sales lady as well as the district tech support manager (called when I got a bogus "there may be a problem with your phone line getting DSL" recording) if there were ANY bandwidth limitations-NO. To be clear I asked "So if I leave my computer downloading 24/7 at full line rate (6 mbps) will there be any problems? Manager says you can pull down all you wnt and there are no limitations.


Doing it at work may get you fired.


No-you could easily go over that in 1 day. Say watching 6 hours of DVD quality video would just about do it.


The caps are arbitrary and depend on geography and the cable networks local network infrastructure. There have been CC subs who got the warning for 60gb and some who go it for 600 gb per month.

 

[PSound]

This issue has been in the news lots lately. A great article on the subject, and an online petition:


Petition: https://secure.freepress.net/site/Ad...rAction&id=311

Quote:
I, like many people, have been subscribing to Internet connection services since the days of 300 baud modems. Then I upgraded to 14.4k, 36.6k, 56k, DSL, and now cable. Unfortunately, due to where I am living today, I'm stuck on 3 Mbit Verizon DSL service, which is often running at less than 1 Mbit. Thankfully, my service doesn't have a download cap on it--at least not yet anyway.


Much like everyone reading this article, I'm a genuine supporter of advancement in hardware and technology services. Suffice to say, I was happy with the progression of Internet connection services over the years. Recently, however, I would have to say that Internet connection advancement in the U.S. and Canada has been purely an interest of the corporations that provide them and not about serving the consumer--you--and the advancement of technology in America in general.

Quote:
Cable companies have a vested interest in protecting their business, which is providing TV and movie services to their millions of subscribers. The more online movie and music services that pop online, the more threat there is to their bread and butter. The only way cable providers can slow this process down or stop it, is to limit how much you're able to download.


This week, TWC released a new set of tiered connection plans ranging from a ridiculous 1 GB per month plan to something TWC calls the 100 GB "super tier" plan. Super?


"We need a viable model to be able to support the infrastructure of the broadband business," said Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt. Despite what Britt claimed, 2008 was actually a great year for TWC: 10-percent more subscribers, but operating costs didn't go up. So what kind of math did Mr. Britt learn in school? Not the kind of math I learned; but that doesn't matter since Britt had an annual comp of $16.2 million.


Here's some more logical math for your consumption: consider TWC's 40 GB tier. It costs a whopping $54.90 per month. If you only watch 7.25 hours a video per week, via Netflix, your Xbox 360, or any other service, you will be slapped with a bill of $200 at the end of the month.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/tim...-drm,7530.html