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Ask Slashdot: How Do You Fight Usage Caps?

Posted by timothy on from the but-your-username-favors-such-restrictions dept.

First time accepted submitter SGT CAPSLOCK writes "It certainly seems like more and more Internet Service Providers are taking up arms to combat their customers when it comes to data usage policies. The latest member of the alliance is Mediacom here in my own part of Missouri, who has taken suit in applying a proverbial cork to their end of a tube in order to cap the bandwidth that their customers are able to use. My question: what do you do about it when every service provider in your area applies caps and other usage limitations? Do you shamefully abide, or do you fight it? And how?"

6 of 353 comments (clear)

  1. Start your own provider? by crucifiction · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What would you do if all of the ISPs had 14.4k lines and you just bought that awesome 28.8k modem? They are running a business and have decided to put a cap on your rate. If other providers around you are doing the same thing, suck it up, lobby for a new uncapped plan (good luck), or start your own provider without a cap.

    1. Re:Start your own provider? by smash · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And how are your customers going to get transit to your datacenter? That's right, equipment in the exchange, cellular airtime or satellite airtime. None of which is free.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    2. Re:Start your own provider? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't streaming part of the problem? I know a few people that use their favorite classic shows in a way that I would call background noise and end up streaming them over and over. I have fallen asleep with netflix running a series and several episodes were streamed before it stopped. Had to stream them again. How many times over do we need to send the same bits before it's reasonable to keep them (and not call it hoarding)?

  2. My Favourite Question Of All Time by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I first ordered Internet service here, and asked them what my monthly bandwidth cap would be, their customer service guy responded with the following question:

    "Bandwidth cap? I'm sorry, is that some sort of hat? And what does that have to do with your subscription to our service?"

    Sometimes I really do love living in Sweden.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    1. Re:My Favourite Question Of All Time by multriha · · Score: 5, Funny

      Back when there was some competition and choice in my area for DSL service, my standard question was "Could I run a commercial porn busisness off this connection and max it out 24/7/365?". (Assuring them that wasn't my intended use, but I wanted that freedom).

      One ISP responded by saying, 'Of course, actually until recently one of our customers was one of the biggest porn companies in the US'.

  3. Fight back with compression! by hawguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I fight my carrier's bandwidth caps by only downloading compressed content. For exampe, if I dowload a zip file that contains 100MB of data, but the Zip file itself only consumes 10MB, then I've effectively downloaded 90MB of data for "free" through my ISP and bypassed their cap. Ha! Take that Comcast! Sometimes when I find a file with a really good compression ratio, I'll download it 3 or 4 times just to screw them over even more.

    It takes a little more of my time to calculate how much I've exceeded my cap, since I keep a spreadsheet of everything I've downloaded (which can get tedious when adding up all of the requested objects from a website that uses gzip compression) but the satisfaction is well worth it.