Throttle me THIS! Comcast and fair use

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by SEC 330 BIPOLAR, Dec 3, 2008.

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  1. SEC 330 BIPOLAR

    SEC 330 BIPOLAR jive turkey

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    So I recently got Dish and it turns out they have an "on-demand" feature. This of course is a library of free down loadable content that streams. It is similar to netflix view now. Netflix streams are exclusive to microsoft ie and xbox 360. Apparently comcast doesn't feel threatened by microsoft because primarily they write software and make ****ty consoles that play awesome games.

    Ok. This story is kinda of amusing. My satellite installer leaves me perfectly happy today and mentions that I should pick up an Ethernet cable to hook to my router. This is a bandwidth and cost saving measure whose savings are passed along to the participating consumer. Basically, by having it connect to either phone network or broadband the tv listings can be sent to the receiver over LAN. Apparently it keeps the space satellites from working too hard sending updates through the air. They charge almost $100 a year if it isn't continuously connected. Connect it and the monthly fee is waived. He told me to get one and call customer service once it's connected.

    So, I head off to the store to spend some money to save some money and I come back with an Ethernet and slap it on the receiver. I call Dish, tell them what's up. They verify data with me. They put me on hold for a few minutes and come back and tell me not to worry about that fee. The connection has been confirmed by MAC over my IP. Groovy.

    So later on Mrs. BP is sacked out all preggie like on couch and I'm watching these dudes on Discovery HD trying to build an autonomous pizza delivery machine and I pick up the remote and look at this great big button on the middle of the thing. It says "DISH ON DEMAND DVR" and I wonder to myself just what in the hell that is.

    I push the button and a menu comes up for searching downloadble content and I say to myself, "O SNAP!" realizing that I had just hooked this puppy up to a high speed connection. Do you know what happened when I tried to access? Yeah. That's right. Comcast c@ck blocked me. Oh hell no! I pay them $50 bucks a month for what you get for free at Starbucks and they tell me I can't play with that toy on THEIR INTERNET! Like they made it! :irked:
     
  2. GoT

    GoT Strength and Honor

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    AlGore made it, let AlGore fix it.

    seriously Jay. Dish was charging you for schedule updates???? I don't pay for that and I don't even have a phone line plugged into the DVRs. If I understand you right I am working the satellites extra???


    anyways did they get the pizza thingy working cause I see a future for that
     
  3. SEC 330 BIPOLAR

    SEC 330 BIPOLAR jive turkey

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    No. They didn't charge me anything. They would have charged for the updates Chris. Now that I have it plugged into a land based network they are free. Keep in mind that the base costs of the packages are lower. Before when I was on Direct TV the updates came at a cost. It just wasn't an optional cost rather it built into the price of the programming which is simply higher any way it's cut. It appears as if Direct TV would prefer to collect extra money from everyone regardless of whether they are plugged into a land based network and merely urge their customers to connect hard rather than offer an incentive to do it. And yes, as I understand it having the satellite update a box OTA daily makes the satellite work harder much in the same way the forum server can bog down with high traffic. All that aside my issue is with comcast.

    Hey gamers... Imagine if Comcast had a direct competition issue with Sony and Comcast decided to block all PS3's mac addresses from accessing the network just because they don't want you to enjoy your device. How would you feel about that? This isn't a bandwidth issue either. My access speeds are not curtailed. They are denied. My pc with it's dvi can stream netflix which is basically the sane concept as on demand. What Comcast is doing is bull****.

    If you buy shoes at Sears are they allowed to tell you where you may walk? Comcast has no right to dictate to me what internet device I use. They are hiding behind some kind of legal rule about bandwidth over usage. That's questionable on it's own but I could seed a bunch of illegal torrents and they wouldn't care. Try use an internet based service I pay for with my 100% legal device and they say "no way". Comcast is losing me as a customer the minute high speed provided by Electric Power Board launches next spring. I resent being told how I may use what I am paying for.


    ps- Al Gore didn't make anything. He (and others) were behind legislation that paved the way for the information age.
     
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  4. VolnTitan

    VolnTitan Starter

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    I have DSL now, but when I had comcast, I used it with Directv on Demand with no problem.
     
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  5. SEC 330 BIPOLAR

    SEC 330 BIPOLAR jive turkey

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    that's interesting. how long ago was that? I wonder if you could still do that today.

    ps- and GoT, the Pizza thing was on prototype this, a Discovery show.
    I believe it does have a future...

    http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/series.html?paid=1.15449.25235.32586.6

    but I quit watching when I hit the dvr on demand button and tried to download... a call to Dish customer service ensued. They were reluctant to break it down for me and by that I mean the nuts and bolts of fair use. They just said it was a network issue which in my mind sounded like connectivity... and they troubleshot the connections, which were fine... but somehow they didn't have a good explanation as to why they could send updates yet I couldn't download programs. They were trying to do anything they could to keep from calling out Comcast and throwing them under the bus. Then I understood it like I had some kind of epiphany. Then they confirmed what I said and explained that they couldn't really put it like that to me rather only refer me to Comcast and have them explain it. We had a good laugh at Comcast's expense nonetheless.
     
  6. TitanJeff

    TitanJeff Kahuna Grande Staff

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    I've heard numerous reports on how Comcast internet will shut down someone for using too much bandwidth. Unlimited doesn't mean unlimited.

    My bro-in-law works for Comcast. He said last week they got a call from a customer regarding poor speeds. He goes out there and the guy has a friggin' server in his closet. Apparently, he runs multiple websites from it and the bandwidth was through the roof.

    So now, once he hits a certain amount of bandwidth, things slow down. Is that right for Comcast to be able to do? In this case, he was causing the net to creep for all the neighbors around him as well.

    In your case, it doesn't sound like this is a bandwidth-limiting issue. I would contact Comcast and ask for an explanation. When they hear they are going to lose your business, it may change their attitude a bit.

    I'm in the same boat. The day I get a better option than Comcast for the net, I'm out and I'll be getting satellite.
     
  7. Childress79

    Childress79 Loungefly ®

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    Interesting that you guys across the pond have similar isues to what we have here in the UK.

    There's talk of the government here forcing broadband providers to clarify their user restriction policies for those who they deem to be high bandwidth users.

    I have a 20Mb DSL connection which is marketed as the 'mother of all broadband' & boasts unlimited downloads.

    It's the fastest service in the UK & the providers network is all through fibre optic cable.In theory you should receive the advertised download speed no matter how far away your house is from the exchange.

    What the company don't advertise is their contention ratio.This is the number of customers sharing a connection with their exchange.In my case it's 50:1.If there are 49 of my neighbours all signed up to this same provider we're all going to be fighting to get a 20Mb connection.

    It doesn't mean that the 50 users are literally sharing a single 20Mb connection all the time but if their exchange is running at maximum capacity that's what they're effectively allowed to do.

    There is a noticeable drop in speed when kids come home from school every day as they all hit the internet at the same time.

    They also have a policy to throttle my download speed to 4Mb once I've downloaded 3Gb of data in a day.Something you might not notice if you download with a file sharing program that doesn't often give you the maximum speed for downloading.At 20Mb however 3Gb can be downloaded in 30 minutes.

    I've found that there are ways to beat or get the best out of my connection speed though.

    The more bandwidth you can draw on the less you'll be affected by neighbours sharing your exchange connection.Whoever has the slowest connection gets burned first.

    If I download off peak through the night the provider leaves me alone & doesn't throttle my speed down until midday.

    When you can download & also Stream HD content, high download speeds can still mean that you spend a lot of time downloading.

    All of the other Broadband providers have similar policies but also an extra problem they don't like to advertise.They all use copper wire exchanges & connections.These suffer from signal degrading as connections get further away from the exchange.

    The fastest connection I could have from such a provider is advertised as 8Mb.Because of where our house is in relation to the exchange though we could only get a maximum of a 3.1Mb connection even though we'd be billed for 8Mb.

    Providers are shady when it comes to advertising their services.
     
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  8. Childress79

    Childress79 Loungefly ®

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    Oh I forgot.

    Heavy usage file sharers/torrent users all got a letter in April this year warning them that they faced prosecution if they continued sharing.

    The letter stated that the providers knew that users were downloading illegal content based on their upload bandwidth usage.

    They take your money & want you to buy their fastest service & then they tell you how your allowed to use it.
     
  9. Slackmaster

    Slackmaster Starter

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    Meanwhile, in Japan, an ISP has limited its users to 90 GB. Upstream only. per day.

    If Japan can have truly unlimited inbound bandwidth, and only restrict outbound traffic to 90 GB prer day, while Comcast frets about 250 GB in a month, it becomes clear how far the US is slipping in key technology industries.
     
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