Not to hijack the thread, but AuntiePam, if you’re leaving your computer on and connected to the internet all day, you’ve got a firewall installed, right?
Jesus, all this hand waving about what is acceptable based on their advertised slogan, etc. I might have missed it, but has anyone suggested actually read the TOS agreement?! The term “unlimited” always has limits and is marketing-speak.
You signed a contract when you bought this service… read the agreement you signed. I’m pretty sure it states you cannot run at P2P server or any other kind of server or bandwidth intestive stuff without consesquence.
As was posted before… if you need business-class bandwidth, pay the piper and get a T-1 or T-3. Residential broadband is just that… residential… where 99% of the populace don’t abuse the bandwidth despite their “unlimited” download status.
As long as my usage falls within the terms of my contract, it doesn’t matter if I download 3 TB a month, I’m not ‘abusing’ anything.
And, as i’ve pointed out already, it is quite possible to download a whole shitload of stuff perfectly legalll without running any type of server whatsoever.
Yep. Something called Personal Firewall Plus, McAfee. It came with the system, and I’m assuming (hoping) that it’s enough.
I switched to Mozilla Firefox from Internet Explorer too.
Do you think maybe I should or could do more?
Hey, if it’s within you contract, no one can accuse you of abuse… I certainly never implied so. I simply said to use the TOS as your guideline, since in the end that is the only real yardstick you have to gauge “abuse”.
I was referring to you, specifically, but rather the OP.
mhendo, you are absolutely right and I agree with you… I myself use HUGE amounts of bandwidth for both personal stuff and work. The ISP is fine with that as long as it within the terms of service that I signed.
I subscribe through a private, local ISP and my contract states the reasonable limits. Its been awhile since I’ve had a commercial ISP like SBC or Comcast, so I don’t recall if they actually state those limits in the contract you sign.
Either way, the point I was trying to make is that those threshholds are usually set pretty high for the “normal” internet user. The vast majority won’t hit those limits during normal usage. Your (and my) usage patterns are not the norm, so why should we expect the provider to allow what they consider “abuse”?
Earlier in the thread someone pointed out how ISP’s figure out the bandwidth resource allocation. This model only works when the users within their realm conform to those expected standards of usage. When a group of users uses more than the rest, it does impact everyone, so that is why the ISP has to set limits or warn users about excessive usage.
Well, firstly, despite my earlier references to various websites that offer many large files for download, i doubt that my own monthly bandwidth use has ever exceeded 60GB or so, and for the most part it’s probably less than half that. Most of the stuff i download for school comes in text format which, as you know, requires relatively small files for a relatively huge amount of material. I’m not sure where my usage stands compared to a typical Verizon DSL customer.
What concerns me is your use of the term “abuse,” with quotation marks around it. Similarly, your use of those marks around the term “normal.” The problem seems to be, if the stories in this thread are any indication, that what constitutes “normal” usage and what constitutes “abuse” are never made clear to the user, even in the contract that you and so many others are saying we should read.
Sure, the contract tells me i can’t run a server or do any one of a number of other specific high-bandwidth activites. But you’ve already conceded that very large downloads are possible without violating those terms of the contract. And the rest of the contract never specifies what constitutes “normal” use and “abuse.” You only ever find out what those things are when you get a nasty warning from your ISP. It’s like offering an all-you-can-eat buffet and then complaining when a few gluttons show up.
These issues have been discussed on this board a number of times over the past few years, and i’ve seen them discussed frequently on other message boards too. You would think that the number of cases of excessive bandwidth use that ISPs have had to deal with over the past few years would have given them some insight into the sort of download quantities that might constitute excessive use, and that they could use their own statistics make such a determination and inform their own customers about what an acceptable upper limit might be. At the very least, even if they don’t do this upfront in the contract, when someone llike the OP is warned for excessive usage, he or she should be given a clear and unambiguous idea of how much is too much. Simply asking people to “cut it back some” is just too unspecific.
huh. It’s sort of like the “All-You-Can-Eat” Buffet that sends a scowling manager over to speak with you after you’ve been there for four hours, isn’t it?
Yeah, for that visit, they should suck it up. Unless they display a fine-print sign or notice on their menu or reciept stating there’s a time or food quantitiy limit.
But if they remember your face, they have the same rights any restaurant does to refuse you service next time.
Comcast, unless they’ve specified a download or bandwidth limit in their contract, should suck it up. And when the contract runs out, they have the right to not renew it. But that’s from an accounting/legal point of view. The customer service point of view would be, just tell the customer how much he can use before incurring another nasty phone call! My WAG is that there **is **nothing in their contract, and if he actually told you a number, you’d have an excellent case using their “unlimited” wording against them.
It’s always a risk offering unlimited anything. Most people consume a reasonable and equitable portion of the resources, but there are always those who consume more. Part of the cost of offering unlimited anything is the cost born by the higher-end users for the duration of the contract you made them sign. Trust me, Comcast is more than making it up from my mother, who has their unlimited service and pays for it, but is only online about 2 hours a week and is too frightened of viruses to download anything at all, and my grandmother, who Mom pays for, but hasn’t been online since I showed her how to do it.
Fair enough… I understand your position about the ISP not quoting specifics on usage. As I said, mine does, so I know where I stand on my own usage.
If you are curious, I’m sure you can call your ISP to inquire about the limits. I know most won’t do it, as it should be spelled out in the TOS agreement.
Sorry, to clarify, I meant I know most people won’t call to inquire about their bandwidth limits. They simply don’t think about going over their limit with their usual surfing habits.
But if you know you are a high bandwidth user, you should call. It is good information to have to avoid having your service interrupted or terminated.