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Is 75 gigs a month enough? (cable modem bandwidth caps)
Lord Jezo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hello.
I am thinking about switching over to a cable modem as it is offering me speed levels at 2 to 3 times what Verizon is offering me.
The issue is that between 5pm and 1am the cable company monitors your download limits and caps you at 75 gigs a month. Unlimited all other times. To uncap it I would have to spend another $20 a month.
I would use it for streaming Netflix, Youtubin', Huluing, online PC gaming, and downloading some standard definition anime. I don't torrent massive BluRay movies and with Steam I am not reinstalling my entire library on a monthly basis. I'll buy a couple games every couple of months but nothing crazy.
I am thinking about switching over to a cable modem as it is offering me speed levels at 2 to 3 times what Verizon is offering me.
The issue is that between 5pm and 1am the cable company monitors your download limits and caps you at 75 gigs a month. Unlimited all other times. To uncap it I would have to spend another $20 a month.
I would use it for streaming Netflix, Youtubin', Huluing, online PC gaming, and downloading some standard definition anime. I don't torrent massive BluRay movies and with Steam I am not reinstalling my entire library on a monthly basis. I'll buy a couple games every couple of months but nothing crazy.
I KISS YOU!
Lord Jezo on
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If you have Comcast (they have a 250GB cap, that is why I am assuming) you can check here:
http://customer.comcast.com/
Click on User and Settings after logging in with your master account. Then click View details under the High Speed Data Usage. It will show you a graph of past months as well.
For OP: We are heavy Netflix streamers and I use Steam quite a bit and I am constantly around 75GB/month. If that is your totally monthly cap, you will probably get close to it.
3 mbps dsl is going to cost me about 44 dollars a month for unlimited use
Local cable company (Service Electric, and no, you haven't heard of them) offers:
5mbps at $35
7 at $40
10 at $44
This is regulated by "peak hours" 75 gig a month limit which is between 5 pm and 1 am.
Uncapping this access to unlimited is an extra 20 a month. I know no one in the area who uses them and all I can find online are a couple of complaints. No personal experience at all with them myself outside the $20 super basic cable I have, which I am just about to cancel anyway because it gets no use. Canceling cable with further increase the internet access prices by $10.
wat do?
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If it isn't too bad I'd probably start at the 75gb cap and then up it later if it looks like I'd have difficulty staying under it with normal use. It doesn't immediately sound like you'd be going over, but if you start streaming a lot of stuff it can go up fast.
I think they boot you in a three strikes sort of fashion or bill you some stupid amount per gig over the limit. I should go ask them that.
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The downgrading is something I'm convinced every throughput-limited ISP should do. At least there isn't some stupid hidden charge. The rest of it, not so much.
I wish they kept more than three months. Not entirely sure what I was doing last month, but I generally hang around 150GB doing fairly normal nerd things. 75GB would be doable, but super annoying.
I live in a house with 2 other nerdy guys, and we download everything ever and play xbox live all the time, sometimes more then one of us at a time, and generally use the internet a lot of every day.
We average around 300gbs a month.
My comcast usage meter makes me laugh.
I'd personally completely avoid any ISP that charges per gig for exceeded bandwidth, its nearly always a way to cheat the uninformed.
I would then get an ISP account that more or less honestly fits my bandwidth usage, and see what happens if I exceed the limits. Their response dictates whether I stay with that company. Use 3rd party email addresses, webspace/online storage providers to make it easy to up and leave the ISP whenever you want to.
In short, stay flexible and avoid long term commitments like 24 month min contract periods in exchange for a free whatever they offer etc.
Here is the price list I have come up with for DSL, cable modem with cable tv service, and cable modem without tv service, capped and uncapped.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ak_ILd9mYWDIdEN5VmdOVVlwbmQ3QTNUUDVYWjU5d0E&hl=en&authkey=CLXfDg
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I haven't heard a peep.
The internet is a big place now, with a lot of bandwidth hungry applications.
Yeah, and the ISPs know this and will gouge us for the privilege of using it.
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It's easy to use a third party firmware on a router now to see what you use without being worried about it. You could also set daily or monthly quotas per computer to see how much you would be limited if you do swap.
Bandwidth caps are still not the norm in most of the US, though I am sure it's just a matter of time as I know Canada has them and so does most of Europe.
I personally barely survive with 95GB and go over the limit every other month. If I was offered a $20 fee for unlimited I'd shit rainbows in joy at the opportunity and pull out my wallet.
Steam | Live
Turbo Telus has terrible customer service but I
The 'net is always being used here in some form or another - a good amount of torrenting by either one or both of us at the same time, or friends whenever they bring their pc's over. We have Sky Player (a subscription service from a satellite television company) installed on the Xbox 360 and media pc and is nearly always playing something, plenty of online gaming (probably not even worth mentioning, that, but still), constant browsing, streaming videos on the media pc through MSN, TED Talks, etc. All that, and our typical monthly usage is still around 35GB.
What the hell are you guys doing that you're using so much?
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
I'm on Rogers. I haven't had any troubles with it other than costing mad cash.
Steam | Live
My usage in June was 154GB.
In July it 245 GB.
In August it was 377GB!!
Ive used 88GB (35%) counting up to the 8th. Im waiting for the possible phone call from Comcast now.....
Do you have cable TV from them? I wonder if that is a factor in them calling people with "over-usage".
no.
I also do not have regular cable tv so I know thats not falsly inflating the numbers.
Needless to say i have asked the renters to cut back just a bit
Doo eet
Edit: Honestly, anyone in Canada who actually uses Bell/Telus/Rogers/Videotron and has significant usage should switch to a reseller. Those major ISPs are seriously taking you for a ride with insanely low caps and insanely high overage charges. I know what wholesale bandwidth costs, and it ain't no $2/GB. Try two orders of magnitude less than that. I know they have to turn a profit and maintain their network and blah blah blah, but what they're currently charging is outright highway robbery.
You are playing with fire, and your experience is completely terrible advice for the OP.
I would switch over to Teksavvy but they aren't available in my area. I'm stuck with the big guys.
Steam | Live
Also apparently telus doesn't even monitor usage on ADSL2+ ports, but that's just a rumour I heard
I can get the DSL but it's not quick enough to live up to my standards.
Steam | Live
I got Teksavvy in Toronto. The DSL is decent; good price, but my speed seems to cap out at ~550 Kbps. Seems odd. Juuust barely fast enough to stream 1080p. Unlimited usage, though.
I ran some speed tests on DSL Reports, and I found that I could get over 1GBps to the Teksavvy servers, but far less to anyone else. I get the feeling Bell is throttling them or something.