Comcast threatening to cut my service?!

[damageinc78]

Ok everyone, need some advice, or help. I got a call today from my provider Comcast, saying that they flagged my internet account for "excessive usuage" because I downloaded too much last month. Pretty much because of using this site and other torrent sites. And that they can, if it continues, terminate my service. And that it states in their acceptable usuage policy about bandwith usage. Can they do this? The last thing I want is to get my service suspended. have people heard of this before?

[jdawson]

damn I have comcast. I was worried for just a second until I realized that I've downloaded 131GB in about 2 1/2 years... not 2 1/2 months. ;) Slow it down some. I don't think there is much you can do, some people have gotten letters from ISP's in the past, most have ignored it without consequence (I haven't read of anyone having their service disconnected, except in Canada, that I remember). I've seen mentioned in here somewhere having a downloading buddy, you trade shows (you download one that you both want and they download one that you both want and then trade). You can look into upgrading your service, will cost you some money though... There is DSL, not too familiar with that and that new thing fios (?sp) but that isn't as widely available as broadband.

Have you checked out the vines and trading sections? It might not be as fast as downloading but you still get the shows. good luck.

[trustthex]

they can and will. it will take me a moment to locate the link, but beware!

----
edit

weblink:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/14/nebulous_comcast_cap/

[damageinc78]

Yeah I alreayd actually have a downloading buddy, and actually I was thinking of cutting back some anyway. I was just shocked when I got the call. I mean that's fine, I was just wondering if others have had this problem. I have been trying to snail mail trade more anyway, LOL!

[jdawson]

http://www.physorg.com/news94981460.html

trustthex got me wondering. I found that. There still isn't a number to go by but towards the bottom, if you want to try and figure it out it gives you a very vague idea on how much you can use ;) I know I can't figure it out.

Sounds like DSL doesn't limit your up/downloading. Is the fios in your area? It's been a while but someone I've met on here has it and is happy as can be with it. If I remember right it's about the same amount of money as comcast but better up/download speeds. I think it's through verizon.

I haven't downloaded a lot lately but my kids are playing a lot of games on here, now I'm wondering how much I'm actually using.

[AAR.oner]

i've had both...if i remember correctly, you get higher u/l speeds with cable than with DSL...but it really all depends on yer package and whats available in yer area...

one plus to DSL--i haven't noticed as much fluctuation in speeds with DSL, due to an influx of people online in the local area, was much worse when we had cable...you could always tell when everyone got home from work and got online...and i don't think most DSL providers shape and limit like the cable providers

the worst however are the satellite providers...expensive as hell, not much better than dial-up, and more than 1 or 2 torrents a month would've had my pipes bottlenecked...absolute shite

[katnapz]

Mostly cable gives better download speeds. DSL has higher upload speeds (but lower download in relation to cable). AAR is right about the pipe getting squeezed when others come on line.

BTW, switching to a higher Comcast plan will not give you a better download quota from other reports I've read. Their "enforcement dept" will recommend that you do so...and when you speak to the sales rep they will give you the same vague information on what your monthly quota is....you'll then get a call from them about going over THAT limit too (that they won't tell you what it is).

I remember when I got my first call from Comcasts "Security Dept" about excessive downloads. To be fair, I deserved it as I really did go a bit crazy for about a month for a reason I won't go into here....Anyways, I told them that I had just added a wireless router that I had forgotten to secure and that someone had hacked into my network (those nasty hackers)....and that I had fixed my router. I settled back down after that.

Good luck and just watch your downloads. I will say from past experience tho, that considering the amounts I've downloaded at times in the past, that if you did get a call from Comcast that you probably were going over "reasonable" limits. Comcast gets snippy about stupid things at times, but sometimes it may (sorta) be justified. I have known complete abusers before in the past who just didn't take others into consideration (and I'm not putting the originator in this area, just commenting that there are some folks who go far and beyond).

[randytravis]

the most frustrating part, is that the limit varies from area to area. luckily I've never had a complaint from them, and I've been using comcast for almost four years. for the last year, I've been consistently using around 250-300GB combined up/download per month. I know one day my luck will run out, but I'm prepared to switch to dsl whenever they cut me off.

[sadu]

look up your TOS it will clearly state the amount allowed.

I'm on Rogers (canada) and they cap around 80gb/month on the smaller packages and 100gb/month on the larger.

Go FIOS if it's available in your area 1-4mg up/sec and 20mb/sec down 9(or so they claim)

Just stay within the allowed guidlines and you're fine..if you don't it's only a matter of time.

[katnapz]

look up your TOS it will clearly state the amount allowed.

Comcast does NOT state the amount in their TOS. That has been a running issue for a long time with customers. You're welcome to check out comcast.net.

[katnapz]

...and I'm sorry if I sound a bit out of joint on that last reply. It's been a point of irritation to me for a long time also....

[rherron]

I have Road Runner and have never heard a peep about my usage but I have seen a lot of reports about ComCast limiting people’s usage. I’ve downloaded 800-900 gigs. I would go with them if you have it in your area. I have been, more or less, constantly downloading and uploading shows for 3 years and they haven’t said a thing. It costs about $40 -50/month (I’m not sure exactly as we have Time Warner cable as well and it’s all rolled into one bill – guess I should look more closely!).

Rob

[jcrab66]

my fios connection was 15Mb/s down - 2Mb/s up for 44 bucks a month, if you can get fios, get it

[AAR.oner]

surprise surprise, fios is not available in my area...hell, DSL just became available last year, and there's still no cable service out here...but the view is great :lol

[Homebrew101]

I have AT&T/Yahoo DSL and the up speeds are less than cable ISP's but you can get equal download speeds - I just can't pay $50/month for an ISP.

You can encrypt your connections in uTorrent and probably other BT programs. Try this and they will probably not notice your traffic.

FWIW, I think AT&T is getting wise to heavy BT traffic. I was having connectivity problems where my modem was on and all light indicators looked OK but WinXP would indicate no connection so I reboot the modem and all was well, for a few hours and then the same problem. After a week of this I give up and called AT&T's CSR's in India thinking I had a modem going bad (it was over a year old and on 24/7 the entire year). Well, long story short, I bought another modem and everything was fine for about a month and the same starting happening again. I set uTorrent for encryption and everything has been normal for the last week or so.

[spiritinaphoto]

I have Road Runner and have never heard a peep about my usage but I have seen a lot of reports about ComCast limiting people’s usage. I’ve downloaded 800-900 gigs. I would go with them if you have it in your area. I have been, more or less, constantly downloading and uploading shows for 3 years and they haven’t said a thing. It costs about $40 -50/month (I’m not sure exactly as we have Time Warner cable as well and it’s all rolled into one bill – guess I should look more closely!).

Rob
A guy I knew told me that Time Warner called to contact him for excessive bandwidth usage and asked him to upgrade to a commercial plan, but he was doing an insane amount of stuff: several servers (mailserver, P2P, etc.), one computer was running SETI@home, and another for Rosetta@home.

[carlton68]

i got that call last month and i was told that i downloaded 278 gigs the month before and they wanted to up grade my acc to a commercial because of all my activeity.he said i crossed the line but wasnt able to tell me where that line was.fuck comcast,i already swiched to a wireless plan.shouldnt unlimited mean unlinited usage

[delfman]

I'm not entirely sure this helps but when I notice my speeds really starting to slow down I just change ports and this seems to work. :wave:

[xequence]

I'm on Rogers (canada)

I had them. Horrible. Extremely horrible. I was really lucky to get over 30KB/s download (on a 3mbit connection I think it was). Then I switched to Bell (3Mbit DSL) and got 500KB/s download.

Rogers shouldn't call its self an "internet service provider", they should call themselves a "website access provider" because the internet without downloading things is... Not godd :/

shouldnt unlimited mean unlinited usage

It's just a marketing gimmick, they use some odd technicality to get past their obligations to provide what you signed up for :/

i've had both...if i remember correctly, you get higher u/l speeds with cable than with DSL...but it really all depends on yer package and whats available in yer area...

Cable seems to be more shared (many people on one line), while DSL seems to not be. Also uploading at max speed on cable often makes downloading slow.

[captain beyond]

Comcast SUCKS! They just switched over here from Time Warner. I have'nt had any problems yet using BiTorrent but my brother in law says they were limiting newsgroup or Usenet DL's to 2 gig! That's 2 not 20. He just switched to DSL. Not sure yet how he likes it.

[katnapz]

Comcast SUCKS! They just switched over here from Time Warner. I have'nt had any problems yet using BiTorrent but my brother in law says they were limiting newsgroup or Usenet DL's to 2 gig! That's 2 not 20. He just switched to DSL. Not sure yet how he likes it.

If you're referencing the Giganews service that comes as part of your Comcast plan, it's always been around a gig or two per month. Get a private usenet account through Giganews and they don't limit you....BUUUT...they WILL still contact you if you go over their unknown limit. Doesn't matter where you pulled the traffic from (usenet/ftp/bittorrent). So you're still back to square one. I think I've pulled somewhere around 50-60 gigs in one month just from Giganews before (not counting other sources). Don't use usenet like I used to though (not enough time)

[Voodoochild137]

2 gigs of bandwidth is not 2 gigs of data, I have current limit of 20 gigs, and I have dl'ed over 40 gigs from various sites in 1 month, no letter. That was a torrent or two a day. Nothing extreme, and be careful, change your client from the standard ports and encrypt, other than that, don't go wild and you should be fine.....
40 gigs is still alot, some of you must be realllly busy on bitTorrent sites, best of luck,
Brian
edit: also, stay away from shady torrent sites i.e. Piratebay.org, demonoid.com, etc. they seem to result in more letters, to put it basically, if you're not an uberleech and you dont dl Copywritten stuff, there will be no issue.

[xequence]

edit: also, stay away from shady torrent sites i.e. Piratebay.org, demonoid.com, etc. they seem to result in more letters, to put it basically, if you're not an uberleech and you dont dl Copywritten stuff, there will be no issue.

I think they don't care where the downloading is coming from when they send you letters about too much bandwidth usage.

The issue of copyrighted material only matters to them when they get a letter from the RIAA, MPAA, etc.

[Voodoochild137]

I just literally got a phone call from Comcast telling me that due to "a sudden spike in activity" they think someone has busted into my "unsecure" wireless connection. No threats, no RIAA, just a "check yo shit cuz you suckin band width" call. I was very surprised. Almost like when you spend alot on your credit card and they call to see whats going on.....

[sadu]

Rogers shapes their p2p traffic.
You gotta know which ports to use.

I'm on rogers and always max out my connection.
On another note: I hacked the sb5101 and got x10 speeds up/down so it does work!