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Have You Fought Your ISP Over Bandwidth Limits?
serutan asks: "Recently, a DC++-related mailing list I subscribe to has been buzzing with posts about letters from various ISPs in the U.S., UK, Australia and NZ, warning customers to curtail their download bandwidth usage to an 'acceptable' limit (generally 200 hours/month for three straight months). These are people who thought they signed up for unlimited access. Some of the letters hint that high bandwidth usage may imply illicit activity. All are vague on possible consequences, and nobody has mentioned actually being cut off by an ISP. One guy received an apology after talking to a supervisor about the meaning of the word 'unlimited.' Is this a growing trend? Have you received similar threats from an ISP? What was the outcome?" Of course, would it be so difficult for ISPs to stop advertising "unlimited" access, and instead include in the small (or not-so small) print exactly what the "acceptable" bandwidth usage is? If you did sign up for "unlimited" services and find yourself in this predicament, what have you done to get your bandwidth issues resolved?
Thanks for trying to push your own agenda into this thread from left field.
>1) The service is advertised as 'unlimited'
Did you read your acceptible use policy and service level agreement? You shouldn't sign on the dotted line until you read the got dang contract. Didn't your mother ever teach you anything?
If people started reading their agreements, misunderstandings would not happen.
> 2) They are unwilling to tell customers how much they've transferred
Just check your Kazaa log.
> 3) They are unwilling to tell customers what would constitute an acceptable amount of bandwidth
Sure it isn't in your contract? I am sure they have it in writing somewhere. If they don't, don't worry about the letter. They can't do anything to you in court unless you are breaking the rules.
The most common approach taken is the "Well, the only way you could be using this much bandwidth is if you are doing X, Y and Z, all of which are prohibited in your terms of service agreement."
And you know what, I think they're correct. The only ways I can think of to be using this much bandwidth are:
Servers, which are generally prohibited. I'd say most of the ones set up in homes that are using excessive bandwidth are probably transfering some form of copyrighted content. If you hold the copyright and you're giving it away in mass, you're most likely charging for it; in which case you should be using a busines class and not a residential class service.
This also applies to transfering large files regularly back and forth between work. If the files are hundreds of gigs large, they're probably offsite backups of some sort, and not word documents, spreadsheets....drawings.
These are really the major ones that I can think of excluding P2P which is really just another form of a server.
Yeah I know...you all want a T1 for $40.00 a month, and you feel wronged when you don't get it.
-Chris
--an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
Is there some fundamental brain flaw that prevents slashdot geeks from understanding the obvious? That just because an advertisement claims "unlimited" access that you cannot download all the information compiled in the history of creation and expect the ISP to just sit there and do nothing?
The fact, and yes I know its a fact, that an advertisement says something is unlimited is not defensible in a court of law if the service is abused. One may ask how could a service by definition be "abused" if it is offered in an unlimited manner. Well thats where common sense comes in and courts generally do not like to allow smart ass consumers to take advantage of any company with slick, snide comments like "Well their ads said unlimited so I thought running a gNutella server that uses 120^4petabytes of data a day was perfectly acceptable! How was I supposed to know I'd get billed for ripping a hole in the time/space continuum? Geesh! Tell em to change their ads if they don't want this to happen!"
I believe a short several step program is in order.
1. Acknoweldge the dot.com era of plenty is over.
2. Grow the fuck up.
3. Obtain stable enough employment so that you are able to move out of your mother's house.
4. Begin reading sources of news that are not exclusively scientific or technological.
5. Cultivate a real world lifestyle that involves hanging out with people in physical person and doing things outside your domicile.
6. Try to prevent yourself from getting "the last word" on your next 10 conversations. Increase slowly from there to 15 conversations, all the way up to 100.
I would add another 6 steps but I am wise enough to know that others may have useful tips of their own to add. Please add your own helpful steps if you can and wish to.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
I don't think a lot of you get it. Remember when you had to pay an hourly rate for access? It will go back to that model if that is what it takes to make a profit. The fact is that 1% of users abuse the "unlimited" model. Most users average around 30hrs a month and are almost "email only" users. So that means I can tell the shithead who is maxing out my circuit with a BT download or kaaza to shove off and I become more profitable. What's he going to do? Complain on Slashdot in an article that will only serve to keep away the customers I can't afford to have? Fuck 'em. We could argue all day about what you think "unlimited" should mean but all that matters is how the term "unlimited" is defined in your TOS. And if you read your TOS you 'prolly know that it is a document that can be changed at any time and it is up to you to keep informed of its contents (but you clicked passed that didn't you). You have to be crazy if you think I am going to let you turn a residential DSL into a dedicated fractional t1. Did you see the price of fractional circuits and the price of DSL and think there was no difference? And Dial up... how much do you pay for a phone line? You think for $9.95 a month I am going to let you tie up one of my lines 24/7!? Once again %1 abuse it... if you are one of those people that thinks an "unlimited" dial up means dedicated copper to your house, you are in a minority and kicking your ass offline will have a positive effect on the rest of my users and my bottom line.
me karma am bad
i would prefer to be cut off after X MB download in 30 days rather than after f(X) MB where f() is unknown
We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.