How Much Broadband Usage is Too Much?

Semprini2k asks: "I just came home from work to find a letter waiting in the old snail mail box from my Broadband ISP. It has very nice titling on it: 'Notice of Acceptable Use Policy Violations' and also has an 'Abuse Ticket Number' associated with it. Has anyone else received these from their Broadband ISPs lately? Are they being overly cautious or are they working towards throwing off any users who might possible tax their network? I am trying not to be paranoid about this, but what are other people seeing and/or doing in this situation?" The "proper" bandwidth is liable to vary by region, but it would be interesting to note usage patters of people who are getting these letters versus those who aren't.

"'Oh, no!' I think to myself, 'They think I'm a spammer!!!' But further reading sheds more light on the subject:

According to our aggregate bandwidth usage records, during December 2003 your [...ISP...] account exceeded [ISP's] bandwidth usage limitations. The activity associated with your account was more than 100 times the national median. This level of activity violates [ISP's] AUP.

"I freely admit to using a lot of bandwidth. From the day Fedora Core was released via BitTorrent I have kept an active BitTorrent session going to help others get it too. So I find this a bit of a concern.

I called their toll-free number to inquire whether I could get access to their data. No, I cannot. All I can do is try to use less bandwidth and hope I do not see any more of these letters. 2 more and my service will be terminated."

Comments

Re:Comcast

[tsaler]

I don't even know what my comcast.net e-mail address password is. I guess this is a good thing. I have no reason to read that garbage anyway, though I guess it would be nice to have a proper e-mail address, POP3 style, instead of that piece of trash Hotmail. Certainly less spam, I'd guess.

Maybe I should call and get my password reset or something, not like the Comcast people (in India? perhaps) would do it or know what I was talking about. I called them before to find out whether or not there was a router out in my area, and they told me that, not only did they not provide service in my area, but that I'm not a Comcast customer. Some real sharp tacks working for that company, let me tell you.

Re:Cox Cable

[burnsy]

Looking at their AUP I also came across this...

How do I add a second computer to my Cox High Speed Internet service?

To request additional computer access, do the following:

1. Click here to add multiple computers.
2. Log in using your primary email address and password. Click Submit to continue.
3. Click the Multiple Computer Access link to continue.
4. Click the Add Computer link and follow the directions.

Note: You can have a maximum of three Computer Connections per Cox High Speed Internet account (including your primary computer). Adding additional computers to your account does require a monthly fee. For prices, call your local Cox Communications Office.

Even better....

[Trolling4Dollars]

#!/bin/bash

while(1)
do
feltch http://goatse.cx &
done