Comcast's Official 250 Gig/month Cap Notice

[digip]

Just got my email from Comcast letting me know about their new AUP.

Comcast

Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer,

We appreciate your business and strive to provide you with the best

online experience possible. One of the ways we do this is through our

Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). The AUP outlines acceptable use of our

service as well as steps we take to protect our customers from things

that can negatively impact their experience online. This policy has

been in place for many years and we update it periodically to keep it

current with our customers' use of our service.

On October 1, 2008, we will post an updated AUP that will go into

effect at that time.

In the updated AUP, we clarify that monthly data (or bandwidth) usage

of more than 250 Gigabytes (GB) is the specific threshold that

defines excessive use of our service. We have an excessive use policy

because a fraction of one percent of our customers use such a

disproportionate amount of bandwidth every month that they may

degrade the online experience of other customers.

250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of bandwidth and it's very

likely that your monthly data usage doesn't even come close to that

amount. In fact, the threshold is approximately 100 times greater

than the typical or median residential customer usage, which is 2 to

3 GB/month. To put it in perspective, to reach 250 GB of data usage

in one month a customer would have to do any one of the following:

* Send more than 50 million plain text emails (at 5 KB/email);

* Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song); or

* Download 125 standard definition movies (at 2 GB/movie).

And online gamers should know that even the heaviest multi- or

single-player gaming activity would not typically come close to this

threshold over the course of a month.

In addition to modifying the excessive use policy, the updated AUP

contains other clarifications of terms concerning reporting

violations, newsgroups, and network management.

the threshold is approximately 100 times greater

than the typical or median residential customer usage, which is 2 to

3 GB/month. - Not sure how that works for people who work from home, but it does seem like the average user probably uses more than 3gig/month. I mean, I probably use that much in a 2 week period, so a month would get me somewhere around the 6-7gig mark. Still, I don't think I will ever come close to 250 gig, but if they are putting a cap on it at 250, I want to know who these customers are that go over it, and what kind of bandwith they get, because I get pretty crappy speed compared to some people I know on Comcast.

Im almost ready to go to Fios, only, I have one year left on my lease and do not need to be locked into any contracts. Especially with Verizon. I hate them more than I hate Comcast, only I like their network speeds a lot more than what I have now.

[Swathe]

I only get 12gig a month and uploads count towards my usage. :(

[digip]

I only get 12gig a month and uploads count towards my usage. :(

But what kind of speed do you get? You probably have faster connections than I do.

[dr0p]

Personally go through ~15gb a day... will have to cut back.

[thisiam]

Personally go through ~15gb a day... will have to cut back.

you must d/l alot of porn, i got 100gb limit a month but my isp does not monitor it, you can log into your online account and see what you are at at any time but i have checked and sometimes it shows no usage for so many days that i know should be like 5GB atleast. Most i have seen myself use a month was like 30GB to 40GB.

[digip]

It would be nice if comcast had a thing on your bill or email to show you your usage.

[dr0p]

you must d/l alot of porn, i got 100gb limit a month but my isp does not monitor it, you can log into your online account and see what you are at at any time but i have checked and sometimes it shows no usage for so many days that i know should be like 5GB atleast. Most i have seen myself use a month was like 30GB to 40GB.

Nah, just uploading ~150kb/s all day every day (thats about 12gb) plus whatever I download for the day.

It would be nice if comcast had a thing on your bill or email to show you your usage.

But then people would know when to slow down and not have to pay the overage fees... and the company would make less money.

[super opus]

my speed is 10mbx1mb and i know i hit at least 250gb a month no complaints yet. i watch everything online and scripting over the net is 24/7

i have Time Warner cable

[digip]

my speed is 10mbx1mb and i know i hit at least 250gb a month no complaints yet. i watch everything online and scripting over the net is 24/7

i have Time Warner cable

You hit 250 GIG(Not megabytes) a month? What the hell are you doing with your network?? Supporting a small pirate farm?

[super opus]

nope just i watch ever show online ever movie i dl and watch that i wanna see and playing online game with at least one computer running a script at any giving time that computer is receiving at least 200kb a sec start to add up

[Swathe]

My speed is 1500x256 :(

[digip]

My speed is 1500x256 :(

How do you calculate that? What is 1500x256? 1500down 256up? KBs,Kb's, MBs, etc?

My cuent results(which vary day to day)

Download Speed: 19600 kbps (2450 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 1566 kbps (195.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

That is pretty close to my max. I have gone as high as "Download Speed: 33000 kbps" but never any higher than 1600 kbps for uploads. Comcast also seems to throttle my connections. I notice considerable slow downs when downloading something(while doing nothing else) and the at times it jumps up almost double about half way through a download. Like a 700meg Linux distro might start at about 1200KB/s then drop to 300, then start climbing up to about 700 or so, but usually slide down to about 2-300 and stay there. Other days, I get shit speeds, even in off peek hours and days, like 7am tuesday mornings.

[Swathe]

150kbps down 25kbps up

[deleted]

4608kbps Down and 774kbps Up.

I am on a "Fair-Usage" policy, but a closer look it says I have a 200GB a month cap.

[Saxon]

I am on Virgin Media they have the speed I want an no fiar use pollacy as far as i know, I downloaded every linux distro I could find once (even the legacy ones) and I didn't encounter a fair use cap.

Oh an before you ask I was downloading them to give to the local library when they where trying to start up a IT sharing program, which faild when some scumbags broke into the store room an stole all the equipment.

[Xarf]

I am on Virgin Media they have the speed I want an no fiar use pollacy as far as i know, I downloaded every linux distro I could find once (even the legacy ones) and I didn't encounter a fair use cap.

Oh an before you ask I was downloading them to give to the local library when they where trying to start up a IT sharing program, which faild when some scumbags broke into the store room an stole all the equipment.

Virgin will have a cap, they're bastards like that.

==Further research from Virgin Media's website revealed..

1) What is our Acceptable Usage Policy?

Here at Virgin Media, we want all our customers to get the best service possible from their broadband. That means speedy downloads for all users - not just a few.

When someone is downloading a particularly large amount of information over a long period of time, it can slow down the Internet speed for other users who might just be checking their email or browsing online. So, to make sure our service is fair for everybody, we monitor network performance and if someone is downloading a large amount of data and impacting others we may moderate their speed during the peak times (4pm till midnight weekdays and 10am to midnight on the weekend). This ensures that the service doesn't get blocked up with people using more than their fair share on our unlimited service.

http://www.virgin.net/helpme/broadband/faq...cs_traffic.html

[tactix]

I am on Virgin Media they have the speed I want an no fiar use pollacy as far as i know, I downloaded every linux distro I could find once (even the legacy ones) and I didn't encounter a fair use cap.

Oh an before you ask I was downloading them to give to the local library when they where trying to start up a IT sharing program, which faild when some scumbags broke into the store room an stole all the equipment.

they dont have a fair use policy as such however they will cap your download speed after a certain limit

M tier users who download over 350MB will have their speed capped at 1Mbps during peak

L tier users who download over 750MB will have their speed restricted to 2Mbps during peak

XL users who download over 3GB in peak hours will have their speed restricted to 5Mbps

but there are ways and means around this if you get you hands on a hacked modem.

[Saxon]

I am on the XXL package, thing is I never encouted speed capping at all so it must be either something new OR something they mustn't monitor that much because as far as I know it's only me an one neighbor that has Virgin in round 65 / 70 houses in my close so after that I am not to sure.

[tactix]

its probably because your ubr ( local gateway ) isn't crowded enough for them to need to monitor it.

i just change the modems mac addess ( clone with a valid mac address from one of the other ubr gateways in my area ) then spoof my nic mac and im back to full speed

[digip]

but there are ways and means around this if you get you hands on a hacked modem.

Speaking of hacked modems, I can log on to my modem at the normal http page (192.168.100.1) but was not able to determin if there is any other ways to login or change the firmware. Anyone have experience with a linksys BEFCMU10 Ver. 4 cable modem? I don't think there is a built in panel for updating it, but mayb there is a way to exploit its http server to forge some options or tweaks.

It uses a micro_httpd server and Microsoft Frontpage asp files for its internal pages. Given they are asp pages, I assume some sort of hack would be available to gain full control(from the users desktop, not webside) of the device and make changes or tweaks.

This is what I asusme is the software it uses: http://www.acme.com/software/micro_httpd/

In other news, my modem has needed resetting at leas tonce a week since about a month ago. Interestingly enough, I foudn this: http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r211...sys-BEFCMU10-v4

Looks like they downgraded my Firmware somehow at the Comcast side of things. How can they do this, yet I can't find a way to do it from my end? How do they push updates to my modem(I did not rent it, I own it!) without my consent? I'm going to research this a little more, but I smell a lawsuit about to happen.

[tactix]

usual ways would be to jtag it if its at all possable on that modem then direct flash of the tsop with a hacked firmware

or telnet over max232 and see if its got an open boot loader then tftp the firmware over

but both methods need the relevent connection on the board

however i cant comment on that modem as i have never used or had my hands on one

also im sure in the states on some ( maybe not all ) Initialize Baseline Privacy (BPI) is a problem with uncapping your modem speeds

[digip]

Check this out.

BEFCMU10

Standard Specification Compliant DOCSIS 2.0

Hardware Version v2.0

Software Version 2.0.3.4.2-1212

Cable Modem MAC Address xxxxxxxx

Cable Modem Serial Number xxxxxxxx

CM certificate Installed

Stock version was: Firmware Version: 2.0.3.4.2-1212

Changed version: Firmware Version: 2.0.3.3.9-1014

Modem issues after downgrade:

Standard Specification Compliant DOCSIS 2.0

Hardware Version v2.0

Software Version 2.0.3.3.9-1014

Cable Modem MAC Address xxxxxxxx

Cable Modem Serial Number xxxxxxxx

CM certificate Installed

So, comcast at some point in the last month or two flashed my modem with new(Older versions of) firmware. I have been having to reset it at least once a week, sometimes more, and needed to power off the modem to get it to come back. If they can find a way to flash MY modem, then there should be a way for me to do this as well. I still don't undestand how they did it, or if legally they are aloud to, since its my hardware. Thats like someone installing a program on my machine remotely without my consent. As far as I know, its breaking the law.

[gcninja]

Well call them up. But me personally I have Qwest high speed. 7mbs.. No IFOS here for another 5-10yrs :( if ever.... 7mbsx1.5mps if i i remember correctly. But do to my location its not even close, downloading ubuntu i cap out at about 170 MAX...it sucks...so ya if i was in a city them MAYBE id be getting max performance. and yes i have noticed time when i just CRAWL around the net it SUX. least they dont let the gov tap into the phones and net like ATT&T :P

[tactix]

digip if i was you i would ditch that modem and get hold of a motorola sb 5100 a jtag cable and flash it with one of the sigma firmwares then you will have total controll over your modem.

however unless you plan to uncap your connection speed or clone somebody's mac address to get free internet ( great for when you dont want to be seen as yourself on the net ) then it aint really worth it

but i would read up on it first as im sure comcast changed some setting recently

try TCNiSO.net or sbhacker.net

but have a sniff around as if comcast can do over the wire updates then there should be a back door

[digip]

Problem is, even if I can get in, there is no firmware available from Linksys/Cisco. They only offer it to ISP's, so yeah, that Motorola Surf Board sounds like my next step. I just hate to lose money though, as I only upgraded to this within the last 2 years. Its really fast, but lately has been suxors for everything.

Thanks Comcast, you can suck my balls...I so hate them anymore I am seriously thinking of going to Fios, even if I have to pay for the contract after my lease is up.