Putting the Cap in Comcasts @!@#!$

[Hammy]

For those of you who arent in the know, my wife gave me a nice present in the form of a virus that destroyed my gaming rig.

I spent all day yesterday rebuilding it, only to fight corrupt files and a dramatic bandwidth problem.

At first I thought it was a virus still lodged in the computer.
I reinstalled.
Then I reconfigured every component in the network.

then I called Comcast and said "My bandwidth has been dropped so dramatically that you guys have made it impossible to even use my phone"

The operator said "well what are you using all this bandwidth for"

My very italian reply was along the lines of "Nun of yer business" with a four letter word thrown in there along the way.

After a shouting match, I finally told them "you idiots have no idea what you are doing. I have two small children in my house, and because you percieve me as a bandwidth hog, I cant even use my phone."

"we'll have someone out in the net 48 hours- but no one has reported anythign so its not really a priority yet"


I said "so apparently I am a nobody, and you are waiting for a somebody to call- because I have this [expletive] problem"

"WE cant confirm that sir"

Just then my TV went green boxes all over and the sound wouldnt work.

"well listen- either the problem is my modem- or its the area network. Being that my [expletive] TV just green boxed, and the fact that my modem has nothing to do with that, I'm going to call horse [expletive]."

She says "sir, we can send anyone out until its a problem"

I say "So I cant work, I cant dial out, and I can expect more of the same for 48 hours- because I am no one? This pattern of behaviour suggests you capped my bandwidth because I am rebuilding a computer that got destroyed by virus that travelled your pipe. I think we can have an interesting conversation about that in court at some point."

She didnt do anything for me. BUT in 2 hours I had all my bandwidth back.
I hate these douchebags.

[Apache Warrior]

Are they owned by EA?
Apache

[BenKenobi]

Lol, I laughed while reading that.

In ohio, time warner has a monopoly on the cable, but luckily they're pretty reliable. We've had high speed internet for at least 5 years and it's hardly ever been down. Plus they offer the 7.0m/s which we got.

[juneau]

I hate ISP's too. I had a problem at the end of last year where as soon as my upload or download speed peaked my modem would drop dead. I rang Tech Support knowing that the modem was dying and that my modem is known to be 'twitchy' under high speeds. They blamed it on my PC as a whole, spyware, virus' and even a router..... i don't have a router!

Luckily i was on at them for so long that they gave up and sent an engineer my way. 2 days later, problem fixed. Smooth 20mb speeds without a single problem.

[-IRC-MIKE]

As much as I'd like to have cable internet, THIS is the exact reason I haven't switched. I will stick with my 6mb DSL, with which I have probably downloaded one million gigabytes since I've had it. I hear too many cable companies capping the EU's who are elevating their usage and even cutting off people who go over a certain amount in a month's time. It is BALONEY.

Not to mention, for the last 10 years I've had free cable TV so that'd just add another bill onto the monthly chunk.

Thats AWESOME Juneau. There's a story somewhere (I'll have to find it) where a woman over your way has the fastest home internet connection in the world. She is 75+ years old and somehow has the perfect conditions where she is getting a 40+GB/s download speed.

[Jeffro]

all these cable companies are just monopolies man. but the problem is with internet, what are the better alternatives? there are none that are cheap

[-IRC-MIKE]

A 75 year old woman from Karlstad in central Sweden has been thrust into the IT history books - with the world's fastest internet connection.

Sigbritt L?thberg's home has been supplied with a blistering 40 Gigabits per second connection, many thousands of times faster than the average residential link and the first time ever that a home user has experienced such a high speed.

But Sigbritt, who had never had a computer until now, is no ordinary 75 year old. She is the mother of Swedish internet legend Peter L?thberg who, along with Karlstad Stadsn?t, the local council's network arm, has arranged the connection.

"This is more than just a demonstration," said network boss Hafsteinn Jonsson.

"As a network owner we're trying to persuade internet operators to invest in faster connections. And Peter L?thberg wanted to show how you can build a low price, high capacity line over long distances," he told The Local.

Sigbritt will now be able to enjoy 1,500 high definition HDTV channels simultaneously. Or, if there is nothing worth watching there, she will be able to download a full high definition DVD in just two seconds.

The secret behind Sigbritt's ultra-fast connection is a new modulation technique which allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000 kilometres apart, with no intermediary transponders.

According to Karlstad Stadsn?t the distance is, in theory, unlimited - there is no data loss as long as the fibre is in place.

"I want to show that there are other methods than the old fashioned ways such as copper wires and radio, which lack the possibilities that fibre has," said Peter L?thberg, who now works at Cisco.

Cisco contributed to the project but the point, said Hafsteinn Jonsson, is that fibre technology makes such high speed connections technically and commercially viable.

"The most difficult part of the whole project was installing Windows on Sigbritt's PC," said Jonsson.

[Rand{CLR}]

Mike, can you please try to avoid that shade of blue? It's really had to read on the dark backgrounds. Thanks!

-Rand

[-IRC-MIKE]

WOW. I'm still using the white background. Sorry I'll edit. Thats one of the problems I've ran into using a php site with user selected themes.

[Trooper110]

Read that a few months back when the story came out. So who wouldn't you kill for a bandwidth like that? *grins* Only problem is that whoever is hosting what you're connecting to probably wouldn't give you that entire pipe :P

Luckily we haven't had any issues with the local cable company who hosts our service. 15 down and 1.5 up, although occasionally they send letters to b*tch if we exceed some unkown bandwidth cap. Think it has happened twice now.

[Hammy]

As much as I'd like to have cable internet, THIS is the exact reason I haven't switched. I will stick with my 6mb DSL, with which I have probably downloaded one million gigabytes since I've had it. I hear too many cable companies capping the EU's who are elevating their usage and even cutting off people who go over a certain amount in a month's time. It is BALONEY.

Not to mention, for the last 10 years I've had free cable TV so that'd just add another bill onto the monthly chunk.

Thats AWESOME Juneau. There's a story somewhere (I'll have to find it) where a woman over your way has the fastest home internet connection in the world. She is 75+ years old and somehow has the perfect conditions where she is getting a 40+GB/s download speed.

BINGO-

Comcast has an intelligent program running the ecosystem at the area sys ops centers. When you trip a certain level of usage, they start throttling your throughput and will not allow concurrent downloads. When you try to do that- they disconnect the packet from one and start the other.

Between Steam, Windows Updates, and other downloads, I am guessing that all the alarms went off. I pulled down several GBs of data in the last 48 hours.

A follow up call from Support to further inquire about what I was doing forced me to pull out additional firepower.

"If you are suggesting that you need to limit the total usage of my service, Im going to have to refer you to the promotions running on print ad, Television, and in internet market places that promise both a range and unlimited "always on" access. Fine print me all you want, however I happen to have access to a team of lawyers that work for free and specialize in prosecuting large corporations."

"si you can't-"

"no you can't understand what I am saying because the problem is beyond your role. But I can tell you this- if I dont continue to have the same access that I have enjoyed for the last 1.5 years following this event, that is, I suddenly experience the worst of your spectrum- Comcast and my team will be having a different sort of conversation."

I popped an email off to an executive in Philly and I'm waiting for him to tell me why I'm being treated like a douchebag.

This is a p***ed off Hamster now.

[mapes]

I say "So I cant work, I cant dial out, and I can expect more of the same for 48 hours- because I am no one? This pattern of behaviour suggests you capped my bandwidth because I am rebuilding a computer that got destroyed by virus that travelled your pipe. I think we can have an interesting conversation about that in court at some point."

Actually safe harbor regulations protect providers. Meaning they're not responsible for what travels on their network.

As for caps I don't know. I thought what they were doing was sending a TCP RST on any inbound to you, bit torrent connection

[JohnyRico]

My dsl is through embarq (phone company) but since I closed on a new house yesterday I've been checking out cable/dish network/direct tv to see who I'm gonna go with. Since dish refuses to do a free upgrade on my 5 year old dvr they're out. Direct tv is where I'm headed if for no other reason than that Comcast is crazy expensive compared to the satelite companies. HBO, about 100 channels and a dvr is like $100. From direct tv I get HBO, Showtime, 250 channels and a dvr for about $80. Prices are quoted as the actual rates not the 6 month promo period.

[GeneralSnake]

My dsl is through embarq (phone company) but since I closed on a new house yesterday I've been checking out cable/dish network/direct tv to see who I'm gonna go with. Since dish refuses to do a free upgrade on my 5 year old dvr they're out. Direct tv is where I'm headed if for no other reason than that Comcast is crazy expensive compared to the satelite companies. HBO, about 100 channels and a dvr is like $100. From direct tv I get HBO, Showtime, 250 channels and a dvr for about $80. Prices are quoted as the actual rates not the 6 month promo period.

Satellite internet pings really high.

[Mobojo]

Read that a few months back when the story came out. So who wouldn't you kill for a bandwidth like that? *grins* Only problem is that whoever is hosting what you're connecting to probably wouldn't give you that entire pipe :P

Luckily we haven't had any issues with the local cable company who hosts our service. 15 down and 1.5 up, although occasionally they send letters to b*tch if we exceed some unkown bandwidth cap. Think it has happened twice now.

It would be ok with me if I didnt get the entire pipe. I would even love a 500 mb/s connection.