[GRLUG] ISP bandwidth usage limits

[Douglas Rehfeldt]

Following the discussion related to ISP usage caps; I wanted to change
the subject line to something more relevant.

I've been waiting for years for an alternative to Comcast internet
service in my area and with ATT possibly charging $1.00/GB over
80GB/month it isn't looking good.  

With Comcast my limit is now 250GB, and I use just over 200GB/month.
Without ATT Uverse, I would be charged an additional $170.00/month or
$2,040.00/annually for the ATT 80GB/mo limit.  Holy crap!

It was asked of me by a Comcast technician during a recent telephone
conversation "why do I need to stream audio and video when Comcast
offers all of that and I wouldn't have to be worried about reaching my
limit?" OK, so if I visit Comcast's website, login, and start streaming
music would that count against me?  Oh, he says that I should listen to
the 'digial' music bundled with the cable video service instead.  Also,
I discovered that VPN for work is a business related activity, which
could get me booted.  I should consider their business service if I
needed to work from home.  (even if it's only for remote support
purposes after normal work outside of the home)

I was then informed that only abusers would ever come close to reaching
the 250GB limit.   

I asked to see what my usage statistics were for my account so that I
could self-monitor and scale back if necessary.  He said that Comcast
doesn't provide that information to it's customers, but that I would
receive a warning if I reached the limit.  I would get one warning in
six months and if I reached the limit again I get banned for a year from
Comcast.   

So, per one Comcast representative only abusers have to worry about
using 250GB a month?  

How many of you monitor and trend your internet connection utilization?
And how many regularly use over 200GB/month, COMBINED upstream and
downstream utilization?  

With the proliferation of internet-based services it seems contradictory
to their own advertising to limit use of the internet.

-dr