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How the Raspberry Pi Can Automatically Tweet Complaints About Your Slow Internet (ibtimes.co.uk)

Posted by timothy on from the should-be-built-into-every-modem dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Contacting your internet provider to complain about slow browsing speeds is a tiresome chore which none of us enjoy, but one man has found a solution. He has configured a Raspberry Pi computer to automatically tweet a complaint to Comcast when his internet falls below 50Mbps, well below the 150Mbps he pays for. Wouldn't it be nice if ISPs wrote a rebate check each month to reflect the percentage of their promised throughput that was actually available?

154 comments

  1. Unbelievable! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This Raspberry Pi device has to have something really special inside! I am shocked.

    1. Re: Unbelievable! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Inside what?

    2. Re:Unbelievable! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's the invoice inside the packaging it arrives in which is special.

    3. Re: Unbelievable! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Inside the chip, where the magic genie lives, obviously!

      Also, this sounds like something *I* could do with a Pi and a few hours. If *I* can do it, it's not really impressive. I haven't done it, so I guess it's impressive that they did. It's not a great tech feat, it's a great feat in being less lazy than I - which is no great feat in and of itself. I do wonder how much bandwidth this is actually wasting - as in how often it is being tested and, also important, does it account for errors at the other end or does it assume all slow-downs are due to the ISP?

      That said, seriously? I mean, seriously? Time and time again have I had cause to think my choice to utilize DSL was the best choice - for me. Add to that mix the protections given by the PUC and the nature of the State law, I'm even more often given cause to think that choice was best for me.

      I did have to pay for a good chunk of telephone wire and a CO. It was still not far from what I was quoted for an ISDN line. It is also much faster than the ISDN would have been. I'd had satellite but, suffice to say, even getting two dishes didn't make it such half as much. They'd not even allow me to just pay for fewer limits and I understand why. I didn't even have to pay for all of (most of?) the labor to put the DSL in. I paid for the CO and the physical wires. That's it - I've had DSL since and they've actually increased my speed (multiple times) but not increased my bill.

      It was 2.5 down and .250 up. It's now rated at 12 down and 1 up but I get 14-15 down and 1.5 up. I'm quite happy with that bandwidth but I do wish I could play with the numbers. I'd like to change them to something like 8 down and 4 up. It'd be even more awesome if I could play with those numbers as I saw fit. No reasonable amount of money seems to afford that as an option.

      The thing is, if I don't like my ISP - I can kick 'em to the curb. If they screw with me, I have the PUC and Maine's PUC is pretty active - compared to other States. But, no matter what, I can get service from *anyone* willing to provide that service. The ISP has no choice but to lease the lines, reasonably unencumbered, to anyone wanting to service the area. I can, and have, used a different ISP. As I have multiple physical lines, I've even used more than one ISP at a time - which was by accident.

      They're on the phone lines. That means they can't disallow access to any company wishing to service the area. They also have to do so with fair market rates, reasonable repair times, and things like that. If they don't, the PUC will yell at them, fine them, or even take away their right to do business in the State.

      You don't get those protections with just fiber or with cable. If my internet slows down, I make a damned phone call. I live in a *very* remote area but I have fewer ISP issues than many of the people here - people who live in more populated areas and should have better service. Fairpoint knows that I can call GWI tomorrow, change no equipment, not have a disconnection in service, and have a new provider fully configured without doing a damned thing and only taking a few days to do some switching. I don't even experience a hiccup in service - I know, 'cause I've done it.

      I don't need more bandwidth. I still go through scads of bandwidth. I use far more bandwidth than these monthly caps offer. I'm not home but popping up Slurm via remote tells me that I've used 140 GB since I rebooted (on a machine a half-country away where I'm not physically located) and running uptime says that I've used that much (it's only since last reboot) in the past 11 days. That's without me being home and streaming documentaries all night long, adding torrents, and is almost all uploading. They don't say a word to me and, for my needs, I have plenty of bandwidth. I actually have more bandwidth than I use.

      Oh, I have two more physical connections and one of them does nothing except run torrents. 24x7, it runs torrents. Hmm... I didn't count the actual number. I've got something like

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wouldn't it be nice if ISPs wrote a rebate check each month to reflect the percentage of their promised throughput that was actually available?

    I'd like a pony, too.

    #stupidstory #shouldstayinfirehose #thankstimmy

    1. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm not sure I would use a Raspberry Pi to do this myself tbh - when I was using one as a DLNA server, ethernet throughput was horrific even on a 100MBit switch, so much so that I moved the whole set to something else. Wasnt that specific board or OS either.

      Can't trust the results when you can't trust the device producing the results imho.

    2. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      RPi does not use "real" Ethernet interface. Ethernet port is connected using USB.

    3. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm not sure I would use a Raspberry Pi to do this myself tbh - when I was using one as a DLNA server, ethernet throughput was horrific even on a 100MBit switch, so much so that I moved the whole set to something else.

      If I remember right all of the ports on the Raspi (except for the GPIO pins) go through USB 2 connections, and even then I get the impression it doesn't come anywhere near the usual throughput for USB 2. This is why people regularly recommend against using the Pi for things like a home-made NAS: it's not just that you can't connect a HDD directly through SATA, even if you connect through USB file transfer speeds are poor.

    4. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Interesting

      For a simple speed test the Raspberry Pi might well suffice. I'd be interested in this Internet monitor if it could perform a few more checks. We offer WiFi in a few of our rental properties, and it's frustrating when the tenants complain about intermittent connectivity issues or slowness: by the time I get to the property, the problems have of course magically disappeared. Besides I don't want to get up at all hours to go and check the equipment. Would be great to have a Raspberry Pi monitoring the WiFi and wired connections and performance, logging the results.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    5. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Would be great to have a Raspberry Pi monitoring the WiFi and wired connections and performance, logging the results.

      Attach an ESP-01 to the Raspberry Pi. Write all your WiFi test code on the ESP. Access it through the serial interface. The stock firmware might actually suffice, since it does WiFi stuff with AT commands. The ESP is $2.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Sounds reasonable to me. I'm supposed to get 150Mb, but end up with barely 20Mb many evenings. There is a 20Mb package they offer for a fraction of what I'm paying. Seems fair that if that's all they can deliver that's all I'm paying.

      When I pay someone to wash my car and wax it, if they run out of wax I'm not paying for the waxing. If they don't think it's worth keeping so much wax around then okay, but they can't charge me for it when they run out.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    7. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by paiute · · Score: 1

      New product opportunity?

      --
      If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    8. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're probably getting 20 MB which would be about right if your service is 150 Mb, since there are 8 bits in one byte. You need to be able to interpret the download stats that you're browser is displaying to you correctly before you complain about them.

    9. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gratuitous usage of a "hashtag" including during normal spoken conversation should be grounds for summary execution.

    10. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've noticed that some ISPs sometimes cheat on these tests anyway. For example, my connection sometimes benchmarks at 150Mb/sec down, but actually there is massive packet loss on some protocols (e.g. VPN, seems basically anything UDP related is screwed except for DNS) and downloads never get anywhere near.

      I'm sure my ISP would call it traffic management, and it just so happens that speedtest.net servers are heavily optimized for throughput and low ping times.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    11. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by virtual_mps · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yes, and there are better tools for the job. If you're doing something network intensive, the beaglebone black has capabilities similar to the pi, but an ethernet interface that doesn't go through USB and which can max out 100Mbps for about the same price as the pi. (It's also more open, but the pi is better for graphics-intensive applications. Pick the right tool for the job.)

    12. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the other hand that would at least force the isps to stop advertising false "unlimited" data plans. ;)

    13. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      No, your ISP only promised you *up to* that speed.

    14. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by JimSadler · · Score: 1

      I also experienced crawl speeds on the Pi. I do have a high- speed connection so that wasn't the limiting factor. I haven't tried the Pi2 yet. Perhaps it surfs faster.

    15. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      How so? Even if you got the maximum throughput that doesn't mean anything with respect to data caps n

    16. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Lumpy · · Score: 2

      Why?

      Just use the ESP-01 with NodeMCU and let it do the whole job on it's own. no need for anything else attached to it except power Works great for a tiny $7.00 (with power supply) wifi canary.

      When the public wifi goes offline or has a problem getting out, it then connects to the private lan and then issues the email to tech support.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    17. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      As it happens, the UK regulator is considering my suggestion. Their system would require that the customer is getting consistently low speeds, and is mainly aimed at people who are suffering from low ADSL sync rates rather than network congestion.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    18. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Up to 150Mb sounds like those ****ing Virgin Media adverts that come through my door every other week.
      If you're with them I have no sympathy and you deserve everything you get or are not getting.

    19. Re: Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, Google Fiber is known for crediting customers bills for issues on the network, regardless of whether the customer even noticed. If only it was available everywhere... :(

    20. Re: Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey,
      I started a list of all the irritating things people do here: #summaryexecution.
      Like and tweet!

    21. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Why?
      Just use the ESP-01 with NodeMCU and let it do the whole job on it's own.

      Because you need both wired and wireless interfaces in order to be able to report a failure on one using the other interface.

      You could probably hook up one of the little Arduino ethernet interfaces to the ESP. It wouldn't save you much, though.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    22. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by buchner.johannes · · Score: 1

      For a simple speed test the Raspberry Pi might well suffice. I'd be interested in this Internet monitor if it could perform a few more checks. We offer WiFi in a few of our rental properties, and it's frustrating when the tenants complain about intermittent connectivity issues or slowness: by the time I get to the property, the problems have of course magically disappeared. Besides I don't want to get up at all hours to go and check the equipment. Would be great to have a Raspberry Pi monitoring the WiFi and wired connections and performance, logging the results.

      I think you could make nagios do that.

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
    23. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try downloading a Linux ISO torrent. Relatively slow. At the same time run speedtest.net. See how your torrent download suddenly speeds up.

    24. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      That looks very promising, thanks!

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    25. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Mine didn't. Not only do they not use the term "up to", but they explicitly point that out and claim you will always get 100% of your bandwidth *within their network and to their peers and trunk. $45/m for 100/100 and currently 14ms from Chicago. Used to be 6ms until Level 3 changed routes. uhggg. fml

    26. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If all you need is wired and wireless, why bother with the esp-01? Just use a usb wifi interface...

    27. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've noticed that some ISPs sometimes cheat on these tests anyway. For example, my connection sometimes benchmarks at 150Mb/sec down, but actually there is massive packet loss on some protocols (e.g. VPN, seems basically anything UDP related is screwed except for DNS) and downloads never get anywhere near.

      I'm sure my ISP would call it traffic management, and it just so happens that speedtest.net servers are heavily optimized for throughput and low ping times.

      There are other sites for checking Internet speeds:
      http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=non-flash+internet+speed+test

    28. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      For the issue you speak of, I would look into possible other microwave sources, such as the microwave. It is possible that the shielding on the microwave is failing, or that you may need to move the AP in relation to the kitchen or any other microwave source.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    29. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Jawnn · · Score: 1

      Sounds reasonable to me. I'm supposed to get 150Mb, but end up with barely 20Mb many evenings. There is a 20Mb package they offer for a fraction of what I'm paying. Seems fair that if that's all they can deliver that's all I'm paying.

      When I pay someone to wash my car and wax it, if they run out of wax I'm not paying for the waxing. If they don't think it's worth keeping so much wax around then okay, but they can't charge me for it when they run out.

      Look harder. The typical ISP business model is built around the words "up" and "to", as in "...up to 150Mbps..." The don't sell a guaranteed service level to their low-end customers, and residential customers are all low-end. Want to end this "injustice"? Elect representatives who will look out for your interests, not those of the telecom industry, by enacting real regulation.

    30. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      No you dont.

      Two wireless networks work perfectly, and 99% of the places that needs that kind of monitoring has 2 networks. hell I have 2 wireless networks at my house. Plus it could always use my wifi tether on my phone that is always active.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  3. Oblig by codeButcher · · Score: 0

    Wouldn't it be nice if ISPs wrote a rebate check each month to reflect the percentage of their promised throughput that was actually available?

    You must be new here....

    --
    Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
    1. Re:Oblig by MPBoulton · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You must be new here....

      Doesn't this miss the point? ISP's will carry on with this sort of behaviour if everyone just lies down and takes it.

      The regulators should of course be doing more, but this sounds like a very useful way to at least increase the hassle the ISP must go through to provide less than a third of their advertised speed.

    2. Re:Oblig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it wouldn't be nice. I depend on my Internet connection for a large percentage of my daily activities. Saving 10 or 20 bucks is very little consolation if it's slow.

    3. Re: Oblig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My advertised speed is 50 and I get 150 (and yeah, it's Comcast). Shit. I have no use for even 50. Can't imagine how bitchy you'd be back when I had 6 computers on a 14.4 modem

    4. Re: Oblig by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My advertised speed is 50 and I get 150 (and yeah, it's Comcast).

      My advertised speed is 6, but my WISP was giving me about 1 and about 10% packet loss for over a week, and arguing with me about it. Using ye olde ping command I could see clearly that the problem was in their network (probably in the first radio shack, there are 4 microwave hops before their actual uplink) and they STILL argued with me about it extensively.

      It's nice that you're not having problems, but why don't you smeg off and let the people who are have a discussion?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Oblig by Tunefix · · Score: 1

      Well, Most ISP specify the speed as "up to", which means that slow speeds are not a breach of contract.

    6. Re:Oblig by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 2

      Except ISPs only advertise an *up to* speed. Nowhere does any ISP so you can get maximum bandwidth 24/7.

    7. Re:Oblig by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Except ISPs only advertise an *up to* speed. Nowhere does any ISP so you can get maximum bandwidth 24/7.

      This is not true. Many do sell services with a CIR (committed information rate). Of course, you pay more, but it's available.
      Even if it's a low 1500 kbps CIR, that may be far better than a 50 Mbps line that's really 0-50 Mbps if you need to run consistent services.

    8. Re: Oblig by Bengie · · Score: 1

      150 isn't that great. I get 1Gb bursts from most websites which would cause ping spikes and jitter if it wasn't for my ISP using an AQM. It's not how slow the Internet is, it's how much faster it could be for the exact same price while they could still make a huge margin. They are purposefully holding us back, it could be better, much better.

      Your argument is we should be happy because it could be worse? I say we should be angry because it could be better.

    9. Re:Oblig by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Yup. We used to have a contract with our ISP. They provided minimal speeds as per our agreement and repaired uptime per our agreement. Failure for them to actually maintain the minimal speed and uptime meant they got penalties. Some of those penalties were actually significantly more than we actually paid them. Assuming a reasonably optimal physical location, you can get a whole bunch of different contracts or even have a lawyer write one for you.

      An outage of any significant duration would have cost us quite a bit of money. We had five offices and connectivity was a requirement. We had redundancy in the form of multiple connections coming in to the network connections - as in physically disparate connections. As it would have cost us a bunch of money to go down, there were penalties that were *higher than our bill* if they failed to give us the uptime per the contract and the minimal speeds in the contract.

      I suspect that many consumers can actually access this service. I suspect that many consumers do not actually want to pay for this level of service. Yes, the penalties might have been tough for them but we paid them far more overall. I think we only had to do the penalty thing twice (that I recollect) and both times were fairly minimal and we just swapped to fail-overs. I do think customers want that level of service, however. Our main office had an OC-4 at the time. Maybe a T-4? I'm not actually sure of the difference - that's why I paid professionals. It did have a 4 in it!

      At any rate... I'm not sure if people are actually aware of what they're wanting and what it costs to get that level of service. We paid a whole bunch for our connectivity. But, we paid for uptime and minimal throughput guarantees. We paid for true 24/7 support. We paid for something like a four hour window to have someone on-site if there was a problem that needed it. We paid for something like a 15 minute window for support. Those sorts of things were all line items in the contract(s) filled.

      Oh, we paid out the ass but we got good service. The longest was an outage due to a weather incident and yes, we even penalized them for that. It was only out a few days but we had to flip on the backup, lost some valuable time doing so, and had to pay the costs associated with turning the backup on and buying bandwidth from a totally different provider. So, technically, there are options - the options are just not that feasible. The consumer (myself included) wants the best possible service at the lowest possible price. Most folks are unwilling or unable to negotiate either of those two things unless they really want a big internet connectivity bill.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  4. Promises, promises by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't it be nice if ISPs wrote a rebate check each month to reflect the percentage of their promised throughput that was actually available?

    I'm sure what they promise in the fine print is to do their best to try and deliver you atleast some fraction of the advertised bandwidth some of the time.

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    1. Re:Promises, promises by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      I'm sure what they promise in the fine print is to do their best to try and deliver you atleast some fraction of the advertised bandwidth some of the time.

      For the most part yep. There may be a minimum required speed in some places, but overall there isn't anything in law that actually says that they "have to" unlike the old dial-up days, where phone lines had to maintain a minimum of 2400 baud, then 9600 baud and later 14.4k. The law is way behind on this stuff, then again the law was way behind roughly 12 years in the case of dial-up when the minimum requirements were introduced into either law/consumer protection codes/industry requirement codes/etc. Give it another 4-5 years and you'll probably start seeing something happen.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    2. Re: Promises, promises by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eh? Was never any law that stated mode. Speeds had to be ha fled by a landline.

    3. Re: Promises, promises by maitai · · Score: 1

      There was never a law that modems had to work. More or less min speeds. Where'd you get that from?

    4. Re:Promises, promises by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      I'm surprised I've not seen anyone mention that this is the reason they are capping accounts, they can manage high speed transfers but have to many subscribers to be able to maintain the traffic. In order to create a smoke screen for their failure to provide the product they already sold you they start capping accounts hoping not everyone will try to use it all at once.

    5. Re: Promises, promises by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you sure? I could have sworn there was a minimum rate required for phone lines - due to a minimum rate being needed to carry voice data. It wasn't much but I seem to think it was somewhere close to what they mentioned - 9.6k?

    6. Re: Promises, promises by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      There was never a law that modems had to work. More or less min speeds. Where'd you get that from?

      Here in Canada, the CRTC and Industry Canada required a minimum of 9600 baud on telephone lines from all of the providers of POTS. There was also a few states(I remember Indiana had a law on the books), that also required 9600 baud to be a minimum attainable speed. In the case for Canada, it was because the government had moved a lot of stuff over to dial-up services for their service offices. I'd have to dig up the actual regulations and laws though, I haven't looked at them in over 20 years.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
  5. How does it know? by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

    How does the raspberry Pi know it's not just the servers being slow.

    And if it works, can I have a windows version for my VPN provider PrivateVPN, who suck when it comes to slow downs and strangling torrent uploads.

    --
    Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    1. Re:How does it know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I highly recommend VPN.ac who I have been using for a few years now.

      However...if all you assholes sign up the speed will go down, on second thoughts, ignore this post...

  6. Advertised Speed by MadX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not too sure about the rest of the world, but in South Africa the adverts in fine print say "UP TO (x)Mbps".

    So if your service is slower, it still falls into their accepted limits ...

    1. Re: Advertised Speed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I pay for 50 and get 150 for free. I'm honestly sick of hearing people bitch about Comcast.

    2. Re:Advertised Speed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My ISP (Finland) sells me 20-50 Mbps, but it's always 50. Obviously they would not (and should not) get too concerned over complaints until it actually starts dropping below 20.

    3. Re: Advertised Speed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I get what I pay for. Damn it DSL (AT&T U-Verse)! You are too stable.

    4. Re: Advertised Speed by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      If you are sick of hearing people bitch about Comcast, it seems the problem is at your end, not theirs.

      Comcast is notorious for slowing connections down, but you have a different experience. This does not invalidate all of the complaints people have about them, you just have a different experience. One data point does not disprove a problem.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    5. Re:Advertised Speed by DewDude · · Score: 1

      Pretty much every ISP advertises "UP TO" in the fine print. The problem is, people ignore that and think because the ISP gives them 150mbps in the contract that they are guaranteed that speed.

  7. Interesting opportunity. by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 1

    1) Automatically measure browsing speed for each web link published on Slashdot.
    2) send compliant letter to ISP asking for refund.
    3) ???
    4) Profit!

  8. Re:Whiny asshole Spammer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    OK look, all you idiots hate Comcast, but this guy is clearly spamming. Spamming is bad, right? You people advocated the death sentence for spammers, and this guy is spamming. He's pure evil, right? Oh! He's spamming Comcast, so it's OK.

    You're all hypocrites.

    No, spam is unsolicited commercial communication. From the summary, this seems that the guy is not soliciting new business, and is providing feedback to a commercial services provider via a channel they themselves put into place for the purpose and are ostensibly monitoring. Not spamming at all.

    Disclaimers: I don't have a Twitter account, nor do I live in a country where Comcast operates. Nor do I read TF articles.

  9. Promised throughput by NormalVisual · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wouldn't it be nice if ISPs wrote a rebate check each month to reflect the percentage of their promised throughput that was actually available?

    They do if you want to negotiate a SLA that guarantees it, but that tends to be kinda expensive for the average residential customer. Otherwise you get best-effort.

    --
    Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
    1. Re: Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Best effort?

    2. Re:Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Still, care should be taken that best effort does not start to mean promise 100mbps and deliver 1mbps. At least the speed should be theoretically possible. An ISP here was providing 25mbps contracts, but the used wireless modem only had 10mbps ethernet interface(!!). This is not a home wifi router, the actual internet was delivered over a wireless link with an antenna on your roof.

    3. Re: Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you are talking about 10Base-T ethernet, it's 10 MBps (80 Mbps), not 10 Mbps. Bytes, not bits.

    4. Re:Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't understand why nobody understands that paying for 'up to 150mbps' doesn't mean you will always get 150mbps. Heck if this guy wanted to do more than troll he could just upgrade to Comcast Business. The customer service isn't even as awful.

    5. Re: Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      10Base-T is 10mbps not MBps... You are thinking of 100base-T...

      Though it seems odd to see a 10baseT interface in the last 15 years.

    6. Re: Promised throughput by internerdj · · Score: 1

      Best effort: they will oversubscribe until a good percentage of customers are complaining about not getting the speed they are paying for and then just refuse service to anyone else who asks for it.

    7. Re:Promised throughput by Rob+Riggs · · Score: 1

      negotiate a SLA == Consumer Protection Laws.

      However, the telecom industry has done a bang-up job of bribing your negotiating team. So, good luck, America!

      --
      the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
    8. Re:Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "150 Mbps" is a lie if I'm only getting 50 Mbps. "best-effort" is a lie if I'm not actually getting their best possible effort. We have laws about lying in advertisements; we just need to enforce them.

    9. Re:Promised throughput by DewDude · · Score: 1

      No one bothers to read fine print. If they read the fine print on the contract, or website, or even pausing on a commercial; the fine print mentions this. Anyone who has any understanding of how cable internet works and how the cable system has been built; would immedately understand why getting 150mbps all the time like it's your own dedicated bandwidth is *NEVER* going to happen.

      I have FiOS; even my download speeds aren't guaranteed; though Verizon, if you go through the proper channels, will make attempts to keep your speeds running that way. Then again, that's a fiber network. Less crowding per fiber, more bandwidth per fiber.

      Cable's problem...is the cable itself. You can't run a "21st century network" using an over 100 year old transmission line; at least not for last mile.

    10. Re: Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In network connections, everything is bits not bytes. There are no bytes. Modems used to need start/stop bits on every byte, which made byte counts misleading in the context of a network transmission, and the convention of using bits-per-second (bauds, originally) has stuck.

      10BaseT is 10Mbps (not MBps), which is around 1.25MBps.
      100BaseTX is 100Mbps, or 12.5MBps.
      Gigabit Ethernet is 1000Mbps, or 125MBps.

      Bytes are only used when a computer is decoding the network stream into actual, logical data bundles. Then it can tally up the byte count of the data that was sent across the wire. Until then, it's all just bits on a carrier signal.

    11. Re: Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... and then just refuse service to anyone else who asks for it.

      Refuse service? I don't think this ever happens.

    12. Re:Promised throughput by internerdj · · Score: 1

      When I was on cable, it never really bothered me that they weren't delivering the advertised speed until they oversubscribed the neighborhood. Everyone gets home from work/school and uses the network at the same time. Speed crawled to a snail's pace and primetime TV went blocky and unwatchable. It is one thing to do best effort, it is entirely a different thing to oversubscribe to the point that you can't provide usable service during peak usage.

    13. Re:Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you bothered to read the article, you'd see that he's only "trolling" Comcast if the speeds fell below 50mbps. Getting 100-120 when I'm paying for 150 isn't too bad, but regularly having it drop to less than 1/3 of what you're supposed to be getting is pretty sad on Comcast's part.

    14. Re:Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody bothers to read the Fine Article, either...this guy is only tweeting when his speeds drop below 50mbps, or 1/3 of what Comcast is advertising.

      Sorry to interrupt the "customers are whiny brats" circlejerk.

    15. Re:Promised throughput by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I will pay up to $70 a month, then"

      this should be the response and contract addendum being written by everyone at every service location.

    16. Re:Promised throughput by DewDude · · Score: 1

      The fact is, no speed is guaranteed; period. If Comcast is giving you 1/100th of the speed; according to the contract nothing is guaranteed and "network conditions" are so vague it will get them out of anything.

    17. Re:Promised throughput by DewDude · · Score: 1

      But they're not lying. They're selling you a service that is capable of that speed. Just becuase they've sold the same small sliver of bandwidth to 4000 people in your neighborhood doesn't mean it's not their "best effort".

      "Best effort" is just a CYA term for "you'll get what we give you."

    18. Re:Promised throughput by DewDude · · Score: 1

      But that's how cable internet works. Rreserve maybe 24mhz of bandwidth for DOCSIS; share with a few hundred (or thousand) people. Call that your "best effort" since it's "too expensive" to build out more infrastructure.

      There mere fact is, his trolling is doing nothing but wasting time. Does Comcast care? No. As long as he keeps paying for his 150mbps service, they don't care how much he complains about it.

    19. Re:Promised throughput by DewDude · · Score: 1

      primetime TV went blocky and unwatchable.

      Television "channels" are provided over RF. If they went blocky and unwatchable, that meant there was as serious connection issue somewhere. Just because 500 people come home and turn the TV on at the same time; it does not affect one-way RF transmissions. Even multi-cast IPTV shouldn't be affected.

      Turning a device on does not draw any more "power" from the cable signal; the signal is lost once it's gone through the splitter.

    20. Re: Promised throughput by DewDude · · Score: 1

      Typically they just keep selling the network; but will limit new subscribers to a slower speed.

      It's like when I got FiOS; 5 years ago I could actually get the 500/300 package if I wanted to give them $325/month for it. But as more people in my neighborhood got connected to my node; the 500/500 option went away and the max I can get is now 300/300.

      They may also reduce everyone's speeds across the board to make up for it. Nothing says "screw you" like getting a notice from the cable company saying your subscribed speeds have been downgraded by force.

    21. Re:Promised throughput by DewDude · · Score: 1

      This is a huge media conglomerate that has a legalized monopoly in 99% of the places it operates. You think they care? For many people, it's Comcast or nothing...and they know this. You can tell because you will see cheaper prices in areas with competition than you will in areas without competition.

      When you're the only game in town, people will take what you give them regardless of what they demand because they have 0 alternatives.

  10. procmail rule in five minutes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Want to guess how fast they start automatically sending this guy's complaints to the bit bucket?

    1. Re:procmail rule in five minutes by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Is procmail compatible with Twitter?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  11. First World Problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm reading this from my 500/125Kb/s DSL connection. It's the best that money can buy in this neck of the woods.It's amazing what douchebags with too much time on their hands can complain about.

    1. Re:First World Problem. by Calydor · · Score: 1

      448/96 kbit/s looks enviously in your direction ...

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    2. Re:First World Problem. by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      If you were getting only 50Kb of that 500Kb, would you complain about failure to deliver what you are paying for?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  12. I'm sorry but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Advertised speed is often the maximum speed, if you read the fine print, there is a much smaller guaranteed speed.

  13. So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are many more interesting Raspberry Pi projects out there.

  14. Re:Whiny asshole Spammer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It is not spam when "you already have a business relationship with someone". Providers (ab)use this for telling us about new offers we don't care about. This guy simply goes the other way - and he even has legitimate complaints!

  15. Not Routing by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    Oh, my, it's not even routing. The script just tries a speedtest service without concern for whatever else might be competing with the Pi for transfer.

    The usefulness and appropriateness of complaining like this can be debated, but when he connects to a big torrent and his Pi starts complaining that Comcast is being slow - well, that's just an asshole move.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    1. Re:Not Routing by virtual_mps · · Score: 1

      Oh, my, it's not even routing. The script just tries a speedtest service without concern for whatever else might be competing with the Pi for transfer.

      The usefulness and appropriateness of complaining like this can be debated, but when he connects to a big torrent and his Pi starts complaining that Comcast is being slow - well, that's just an asshole move.

      Yeah, it seems pretty pointless/lame. Using a speed test at all for this is kinda sketchy. A better implementation would watch for signs of network congestion (retransmits, etc) and look at the bandwidth consumption at that time, preferably checking that there are multiple congested destinations. (To try to avoid blaming the ISP for a problem on the remote side.)

    2. Re:Not Routing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the original article he specifically indicated he doesn't download anything large, or torrent. He's just plain not getting even remotely close to what he should be.

    3. Re:Not Routing by kenh · · Score: 1

      In the original article he specifically indicated he doesn't download anything large, or torrent.

      Then why on earth does he feel he needs a 150 Meg Internet link? I mean, he's certainly welcome to buy whatever service he wants and use it however he chooses, but it really seems like he's looking for something to get upset about.

      --
      Ken
  16. Re: Mildly interesting but, by n0creativity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't get the RasPi hate in this thread. The Pi is clearly not intended for applications such as a high powered NAS, but I've got 3 RasPi 2's running OSMC\Kodi as media centers on my TVs and they do awesome streaming full HD movies and TV shows from my 16TB piecemeal server! Of course, once 4k becomes more prevalent, I'm going to have to make a change, but for now my family uses them happily on a daily basis. Does anyone complain when their hammer sucks at tightening screws? Use the right damn tool for the job!

  17. Response from ISP by craigminah · · Score: 1

    Next, the ISPs will develop a Raspberry PI device that can automatically do nothing in response to the flood of these automated tweets...and the cycle continues...

    1. Re:Response from ISP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Better: have one on the ISP side that monitors for tweets, in response automatically apologize profusely, promise to fix the problem and make it better - but actually do nothing. >:-)

    2. Re:Response from ISP by DewDude · · Score: 1

      Next, the ISPs will develop a Raspberry PI device that can automatically do nothing in response to the flood of these automated tweets...and the cycle continues...

      ISP's already have something that does this. It's called Customer Service.

    3. Re:Response from ISP by adhdengineer · · Score: 1

      i've got one that will already do this! mainly due to the fact that it hosed the SD card and no longer boots...

    4. Re:Response from ISP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realise you can change the SD card and use another computer to write an OS to the SD card, don't you? ;p

  18. Hah! Take that fairness you jerks! by sabbede · · Score: 1

    If you approach the arbitrary/BS monthly cap, you get an automated message. Good job turning that around on them.

  19. Not Buzzfeed by clickclickdrone · · Score: 1

    You don't need to start stories with "how..." or "why..." or worse still "ten reason why you must ..."

    --
    I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
  20. Guaranteed? On what planet? by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

    Consumer internet is never guaranteed a rate from cable providers. There's an advertised speed, and they give you whatever the fuck they feel like. And you'll like it, because in most places they operate you've got no other choice!

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:Guaranteed? On what planet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wireless ISP's (WiMax... is that still a thing?) in Europe sell (or used to sell) a very well-defined SLA. They would let you pick your contention ratio, even. I worked for a company that made billing and sales software for Irish Broadband and various Clearwire regions (Clearwire USA eventually bought that company, shortly before Sprint bought Clearwire.) In the US, you only picked your maximum speed. In Europe, you picked your speed and contention ratio.

    2. Re:Guaranteed? On what planet? by kenh · · Score: 1

      Consumer internet is never guaranteed a rate from cable providers. There's an advertised speed, and they give you whatever the fuck they feel like. And you'll like it, because in most places they operate you've got no other choice!

      And you can thank your local elected officials for that. Typically communities are 'bought off' by offerring free internet access to libraries, schools, and local government, along with a "community access channel" to air town meetings on in exchange for a monopoly over a given geographical region, so that the ISP can be assured of recouping their infrastructure investment. Many such deals were cut long ago when the technology involved was much more expensive, but renegotiating them is tough.

      --
      Ken
    3. Re:Guaranteed? On what planet? by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      in exchange for a monopoly over a given geographical region,

      Example, please? I keep looking for these exclusive franchise agreements and I can't find them. Every one of them I've looked at, and been involved in, has been non-exclusive.

      but renegotiating them is tough.

      They are contracts between the cable provider and the municipality, and they don't get "renegotiated" until near the end of the existing contract. Renegotiating them happens on a regular basis, it just may be a ten year cycle.

  21. Re: Mildly interesting but, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pity I already have no mod points anymore. The OP has made a valid point, and was modded down by some idiots based on opinion only.

  22. Well, to be fair... by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...having an inexpensive, low-power, general-purpose machine around to automate some tasks is actually rather nice. I've got a Pi plus a USB drive as a bittorrent server/client hung up on the wall in my basement. My wife's little website/email account is set to forward to gmail, and that's how she accesses it. But the emails build up and can hit the storage limit. So, presto, a little command-line POP3 client and a cron job later, the account never fills up again.

    Certainly there's nothing special about a Raspberry Pi for such purposes, but they are common and inexpensive. I just wish that Pi Zeros were actually available. I've got some old webcams I'd love to turn into security cameras...

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
    1. Re:Well, to be fair... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Your wife has more than 15 GB email routinely enough that you built a cron job for it? That is pretty extreme email usage.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  23. WHOA, You have a "server" attached . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't know about you, but, Comcast gets a bit upset when you have a "server" hooked up to a non business account (assumed).

    I'm sure once they track down the source of the tweets you'll get a CD letter.

    I'm also all for getting a discount when they don't deliver on the product.
    While they do make it clear that they don't guarantee the speeds, they should find the lowest guaranteed speed and charge based
    on that. How else do you measure performance?

    Maybe if they worried less about DPI and focused on performance we would get a better infrastructure out of the deal.

       

    1. Re:WHOA, You have a "server" attached . . . by kenh · · Score: 1

      I'm also all for getting a discount when they don't deliver on the product.
      While they do make it clear that they don't guarantee the speeds, they should find the lowest guaranteed speed and charge based
      on that. How else do you measure performance?

      Comcast (ISP) only guarantees what it controls - the connection speed between your on-premises hardware (router) and their head-end equipment, they have no control over the speed Amazon streams content to your FireStick.

      To measure performance Comcast could send test packets from the head-end to your router and calculate the speed at that moment, but that in no way is an indicator of how fast NetFlix streams will arrive at your Roku, since that stream originates outside Comcast's control. Oh, and by the way, now that Comcast and other ISPs are being forced to treat all packets the same, they are prevented by law from doing anything that treats NetFlix, Amazon, etc. streams as a priority on their networks, because, you know - all packets are equal!

      --
      Ken
    2. Re:WHOA, You have a "server" attached . . . by DewDude · · Score: 1

      Let's just put something in to example. While I'm using some old figures from memory and making some up; let's go with it.

      Let's say there's 1000 people in your neighborhood; it's a bit of a remote area so you're happy to have cable. There's a node that sits just outside of your neighborhood that serves all 1000 people. LEt's be kind and say they have 8 channels of DOCSIS 3.0 available in the RF spectrum. Each DOCSIS 3 channel gives you about 38mbps of downstream; so that's 304mbps available.

      Here's where the issue comes in; if the node only has one RF line serving everyone; then they've got 304mbps total for all 1000 people. If all 1000 people get on and hammer the connections, that's under a megabit per person. It's probably not that bad, so let's say they have 10 lines coming out. That's 304mbps per 100 people. If they had 100 coaxial lines coming out of the node serving 10 people each; that's still only 30.4mbps available per person if everyone is full on hammering connections.

      But the ISP's work on the assumption that not everyone will be hammering at one point...and they hope the average person's usage will be such that they won't notice speed drop.

      It's a shared resource; and cable does it as cheaply as they can. Overselling the network on the hopes your customers aren't going to make the same high demands is exactly how they operate. If they did it based on the lowest guarnteed speed; who know how low that would be and they would never be able to market it.

  24. Whats the point of using a Rasp Pi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why run this on a Rasp Pi??? It would be much more interesting if they added this functionality to an open source router.

  25. Glad you brought this up by bangular · · Score: 0

    This could have been done with a beaglebone or million other similar boards. A more impressive story would have been if he did this on his home router.

    1. Re:Glad you brought this up by mitcheli · · Score: 1

      What's to say he couldn't? A pfSense router has monitoring tools built in to track performance. You could easily wrote a minutely cron job to poll the last few values and fire off an email/tweet/whatever to the provider and all that would be needed is a little shell scripting.

      --
      Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
    2. Re:Glad you brought this up by mitcheli · · Score: 1

      Declaring peace on the horrid typo... that should be write not wrote.

      --
      Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
    3. Re:Glad you brought this up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A pfSense router has monitoring tools built in to track performance.

      Actually, I used pfsense logs to successfully diagnose an ISP packet dropping issue and have them issue a refund for the months of service that was almost unusable while they dicked me around trying to blame my equipment.

      Agreed. Doing this on a RPi is not really impressive. I get exactly the logs from pfsense that he would have generated using his RPi. With a little scripting magic I could have looked for a firewall state showing a connection to my cloud server and looked at the performance of the link while my syncs were running. They can easily saturate the link in both directions. If the traffic is more than 10% too low then there's an error.

      Using a RPi is boring. Can we change the article title to "Man uses computer to do something that is best done on a computer"?

  26. My Internet is Fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe they have shitty Internet in England??? Mines fine in the US.

    1. Re:My Internet is Fine by DewDude · · Score: 1

      Are you kidding? England for the most part has vastly better internet than the US. You want an 80/20 connection? IT'll run you maybe $28/month. That's a VDSL2 connection to a fiber cabinet located somewhere near you.

      The UK, with the exception of some rural areas, far surpasses us internet wise. It's cheaper, faster, and vastly more reliable. Granted, most of the infrastructure is owned by British Telecom and the ISP's merely lease from them; it's vastly different than the free-for-all ISP owned infrastructure we have here. Prices are actually a bit more regulated over there than over here.

      Their TV is far superior to ours as well. More channels OTA, more channels for free, 75% fewer commercials and 100% less censorship after 2100GMT.

    2. Re:My Internet is Fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where the fuck did you get England from? Was it the part that the Raspberry Pi was designed and manufactured in the UK? Because that is the only link. The article was written by someone living in the US and complaining about a US ISP. We don't have Comcast in the UK.

    3. Re:My Internet is Fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong, because warm beer, NUMBER ONE! and total misunderstanding of libel laws and what a constitutional monarchy is.

      Oh, and guns.

  27. 'news' a la slasdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    boaah - that's news ! someone wrote a script on a pi ! boah. Slashdot ! suupper !

  28. Unscientific Measurement by Canth7 · · Score: 1

    Unless the device knows what bandwidth utilization is like on the connection, this is nearly useless. The measurement needs to be done at the router or egress port level or for all the raspberry pi knows, there a dozen other devices on the network segment using 90% of the bandwidth for torrents, netflix, etc.

  29. Re: Mildly interesting but, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have a look at the lamobo pi r1...as for new SBCs I have not yet find another to my liking with a good quality/price ratio.

  30. Hmmm 50Mbits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    About what you need for streaming a 4K h264 video. What type of video, one wonders?

  31. Complaing to Comcast... by DewDude · · Score: 1

    Will do no good. "Speeds are not guaranteed" and pushing 150mbps, down DOCSIS, with an entire neighborhood using the same DOCSIS frequencies...you're NOT going to get the 150mbps you pay for. Not to mention speedtests download so little data it's not an accurate picture.

    You should use some simple RF science to figure out why you'll never get those speeds on a reliable basis. Last I looked; they weren't even giving more than 200mbps total on each node

    Maybe that's changed; but the real problem is you're on a over-sold network that's shared with who knows how many people. Good luck.

    1. Re:Complaing to Comcast... by omnichad · · Score: 1

      DOCSIS 3.1 supports up to 10Gbps/1Gbps....and I'm sure they're not using that.

    2. Re:Complaing to Comcast... by magarity · · Score: 1

      with an entire neighborhood using the same DOCSIS frequencies

      And the important thing to note here is that because of how the bandwidth is shared in a neighborhood, by constantly hitting the speed test servers this whiner is slowing things down for his neighbors.

    3. Re:Complaing to Comcast... by DewDude · · Score: 1

      It's not about how much bandwidth DOCSIS supports; but how many channels on the cable they devote to it. They would be lucky if they were getting 150mbps of bandwidth per node out.

      Cable is a total waste of bandwidth. You're already cramming 4 or 5 HD channels in a 6MHZ QAM channel; every On-Demand stream eats up QAM...the more they crap they add, the smaller the pipe becomes.

      If more people realized that; they'd stop buying Comcast's BS.

    4. Re:Complaing to Comcast... by DewDude · · Score: 1

      Exactly. And the speedtest servers *may* have enough priority to give a good result. This would not be the first time an ISP was prioritizing speedtest connections to make themselves look good.

    5. Re:Complaing to Comcast... by omnichad · · Score: 1

      DOCSIS 3.0 on 4 channels is pretty standard. That's why 150Mbps per node. Even if it is serviced by fiber, it's limited to 150Mbps without more channels dedicated.

      Cable is trying to get around bandwidth limitations by moving to switched digital video. That way, you've only got one channel per tuner sent across the wire. And if two neighbors are watching the same channel, that only requires one stream. That leaves a LOT of open channels to add into a DOCSIS 3.0 configuration.

  32. Meanwhile "broadband" is 3Mbps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Verizon provides 3 Mbps DSL and calls it "broadband".

  33. Wouldn't it be nice if... by kenh · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't it be nice if ISPs wrote a rebate check each month to reflect the percentage of their promised throughput that was actually available?

    ...people actually understood what their ISP sold them?

    The only thing guaranteed is the connection speed between your router and the cable company head office - buying a 150 Mb/sec data plan from your cable company doesn't guarantee you'll get data from a remote server anywhere near 150 Mb/sec. The actual speed of a connection to a remote web server depends on the various speeds of the links that comprise the path between your Raspberry Pi and the remote server, most of which are not under the control of 'evil' Comcast.

    --
    Ken
    1. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So...when we're getting shit speed on our "supposed to be blazing fast connection", we're supposed to sit down, shut up, and take it because Comcast wants to blame everyone else for their shitty network? Get real.

  34. Re: Mildly interesting but, by pak9rabid · · Score: 2

    I don't get the RasPi hate in this thread.

    Because the neckbeards here have grown into conservative luddites. See also: Uber, systemd, any programming language that isn't C or Perl, etc, etc, etc....

  35. Re:Whiny asshole Spammer by JSC · · Score: 1

    Fine. You don't want to spam the poor mega-corp. How about you open a trouble ticket with them instead? http://makezine.com/projects/s...

    --
    Time's fun when you're having flies. - Kermit the Frog
  36. Re: Mildly interesting but, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The error was posting this article at all, the Raspberry Pi is inconsequential. The author describes himself as not a programmer. His script indicates that.

  37. Re: Mildly interesting but, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...or maybe it's because of the silly stories with titles equivalent to "You won't believe what the Raspberry Pi can do now".

    There are A LOT of cool things to do with mini (micro? tiny?) computers, running a script that checks your bandwidth and posts to Twitter is hardly exciting news for nerds.

  38. It's for a business. by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 1

    Lots of pictures of, and for, cakes.

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
    1. Re:It's for a business. by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      In that case, you might want to consider Amazon Webmail, $4/user/month, and gives you 50GB of storage for email.

      https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/a...

      I am testing it for a @lastname.email domain that I might resell to my extended paternal family.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  39. Re:Whiny asshole Spammer by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    http://www.merriam-webster.com...

    YOU don't get to redefine words. AC gave you the definition of spam, unsolicited commercial email. You don't get to claim it is something that it isn't just because you want to use the word where it doesn't belong.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  40. How does he tell if the problem is his or Comcast' by Barbarian · · Score: 1

    Having had two consumer WiFi routers crap out in the last 4 years (start dropping packets like crazy), I wonder how he differentiates with issues on his network or on Comcast's when running this speed test. Even something as simple as the cat yanking on the network cable could affect the results.

  41. Re: Mildly interesting but, by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Thank you for that, I will order a couple of those. These look like they might be useful for many different purposes.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  42. Re:Mildly interesting but, by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    The Raspberry Pi sucks

    For what? Your assertion is rubbish without describing your use case. If it sucks chances are you're not using it for the right use case and you're probably an idiot for buying into it.

  43. Any OpenWRT or similar FOSS router OS can do this. by dsmatthews9379 · · Score: 1

    Rewrite the code in Lua (which is usually already installed) or install python if you have the room. https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/s...

    Not that I'd recommend participating in such pestering campaigns, mostly due to a lot of ISPs having some form of "no speed guarantee" clause in their contract.

    (The article is really more about selling the Raspberry Pi than it is about ISP accountability, and it uses the most (actionable) emotional hook that people have about technology, access speeds.)

  44. Fuck You All by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck all of you so called experts.

    If you don't like a Raspberry Pi or feel that the ~90Mbps speed limit of it's ethernet interface is too slow, then use the script on a more powerful machine. I thought that those of superior intellect, such as you all fancy yourselve's, would be able to figure that out without help.

      This is a great little Python script and the automated public shaming via Twitter is genius. I hope everyone starts doing it and shames the lying ISPs to improve their service or stop with the willfully fallacious advertising of speed and unlimited transfer(bandwidth).

    Fuck you all. This guy's the real MVP and he published a script to do it before any of you "experts" thought of it. Hahahahahahaha!

  45. Re: Mildly interesting but, by BeaverCleaver · · Score: 1

    The Pine A64 just exceeded its kick starter funding. It sounds very promising for cheap 4k media boxes. https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...

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    sustainable living
  46. Re: Mildly interesting but, by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    The Pine A64 just exceeded its kick starter funding. It sounds very promising for cheap 4k media boxes. https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...

    Well, fairly promising anyway. It can only do 4k at 30 fps. That's fine for digital signage, where the base ($15) model should mop up. It's not as exciting for a media player. I backed the 2GB model, but I'm not planning to do 4k output, only 1920x1200 or less.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"