ISP download caps to slow swapping?

[sbp]

High-speed Internet service providers are considering adopting new pricing plans that if widely adopted could take a bite out of file swapping.

For the past few years, many broadband ISPs have been frank in saying that file-swapping services such as Napster and Kazaa have been among the most popular activities on their networks. This has led to a small proportion of dedicated file swappers, known as "bandwidth hogs" within the industry, who account for a hugely disproportionate amount of network traffic.

Now many of the biggest high-speed ISPs are considering capping the amount of bandwidth that their subscribers can use per month, a move that could undermine subscribers' free swapping ways--something that many lawsuits have not yet been able to achieve. If people know they have a limited amount of bandwidth available, the thinking goes, they'll be less likely to download voraciously or allow people to upload songs and music from their computers.

According to Michael Harris, president of Kinetic Strategies, a research company that follows the broadband marketplace closely, the ISPs can't help themselves. "Every major broadband provider is seriously weighing pros and cons of bandwidth consumption caps," he said.

much more here: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975320.html

[Kruno]

This is only in the USA. Down here in the outback we have no limit to cable speeds. :p

[StealthHawk]

this isn't related to file swapping alone. it is also a problem of file leechers, wherever they are.

certain people just use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth compared to the norm. they download all day. or, on the opposite extreme, you have the servers, who upload all day.

lots of ISPs already go after individuals who use an unholy amount of bandiwidth, and tell them to cut down their usage.

[DaveW]

Mine is already capped. Its capped at 768 kbps.

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by DaveW
Mine is already capped. Its capped at 768 kbps.

but do you have a monthly quota :D

[vampireuk]

I dont think many companies here have monthly quotas, if they did I would not be impressed >_<

afaik BT are the only ones with what is close to a quota, if you use too much they moan about it.

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by vampireuk
I dont think many companies here have monthly quotas, if they did I would not be impressed >_<

afaik BT are the only ones with what is close to a quota, if you use too much they moan about it.

well anyway, the point of the article is that companies will start having monthly quotas, at least here.

as long as they aren't something ridiculous like <10 GB/month.

but you know there are people out there using 50GB/month with their cable or dsl connection, which is totally ridiculous.

[de><ta]

Originally posted by K.I.L.E.R
This is only in the USA. Down here in the outback we have no limit to cable speeds. :p

telstra "stinkin" big pond has a cap. I think it is a 600mb bandwidth.

[DaveW]

Originally posted by StealthHawk
but do you have a monthly quota :D

EEEP. I didn't realize that was what you meant by cap, no I don't.

My cable ISP by sells you 768 Kbits, but by default its actually "uncapped" so you can get up to 10 Mbits if you live in a remote area. If network usage of a particular segment gets really high then they impose the 768 limit on every user. I don't mind it since im still getting what I pay for and the ping times are excellent.

But a monthly quota.... that would suck. I sometimes leave my PC on all week running eDonkey.

[styles-T]

Originally posted by DaveW
EEEP. I didn't realize that was what you meant by cap, no I don't.

My cable ISP by sells you 768 Kbits, but by default its actually "uncapped" so you can get up to 10 Mbits if you live in a remote area. If network usage of a particular segment gets really high then they impose the 768 limit on every user. I don't mind it since im still getting what I pay for and the ping times are excellent.

But a monthly quota.... that would suck. I sometimes leave my PC on all week running eDonkey.


Me too...Does this apply cable modems?:eek: or just DSL companies..

[netviper13]

I would be worried because I stream music constantly when I'm at home...I'm not talking downloaded stuff, just streaming internet radio.

[bigC]

my isp (Bell Sympatico) capped downloads at 5 gigs per month, upload at 5 gig, but there is another option to d/l 10 gigs (for more $$, of course). i don't think it has worked tho. ever since they instituted this new policy, i have made sure that i achieved the d/l limit--so, the cap has had the opposite effect. i never downloaded 5 gigs/month, now i make sure i do it every month.

[styles-T]

Originally posted by bigC
my isp (Bell Sympatico) capped downloads at 5 gigs per month, upload at 5 gig, but there is another option to d/l 10 gigs (for more $$, of course). i don't think it has worked tho. ever since they instituted this new policy, i have made sure that i achieved the d/l limit--so, the cap has had the opposite effect. i never downloaded 5 gigs/month, now i make sure i do it every month.

with demos/music and all the other BS I do..I can hit 5 gigs in a week or 2 :(

[exar]

Originally posted by DaveW
EEEP. I didn't realize that was what you meant by cap, no I don't.

My cable ISP by sells you 768 Kbits, but by default its actually "uncapped" so you can get up to 10 Mbits if you live in a remote area. If network usage of a particular segment gets really high then they impose the 768 limit on every user. I don't mind it since im still getting what I pay for and the ping times are excellent.

But a monthly quota.... that would suck. I sometimes leave my PC on all week running eDonkey. They should just reduce the max speed that you can get to cut back on the amount transferred. Because if I'm buying a plan that says I can get 768Kbits/sec, then the limit better be 768 * 60 * 60 * 24 *31 = 2057011200 Kbits/month. So theoretically I could use that amount in a month.

However, you're at best getting 25% of your max speed (on broadband), unless you're using multiple file sharing programs at the same time. So why not cut back the max speed to 50% of what their currently offering? By doing that, they'd cut back the leechers that are hogging bandwidth, while allowing their current equipment to handle more users. It would seem that by doing this, the average user would feel see higher average speeds. It's not like we ever see that max speed anyway...

The only reason this won't happen is because they couldn't market it as well against dial-up. They'd lose their claims of 500 times faster than dial-up, etc. :rolleyes:

[Gehenna_CA]

If they cap too aggressively they'll lose their customers anyway. People will decide that it just isn't worth it and quit buying their product. The fact that you can get free stuff is why alot of people want highspeed internet. If the ISPs take that away they'll be shooting themselves in the foot.

[The Baron]

Hey, I see those max speeds just because I'm the only schmuck on cable within a mile, I think :p

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by DaveW
EEEP. I didn't realize that was what you meant by cap, no I don't.

My cable ISP by sells you 768 Kbits, but by default its actually "uncapped" so you can get up to 10 Mbits if you live in a remote area. If network usage of a particular segment gets really high then they impose the 768 limit on every user. I don't mind it since im still getting what I pay for and the ping times are excellent.

But a monthly quota.... that would suck. I sometimes leave my PC on all week running eDonkey.

naw, when i say cap i refer to exactly what you are calling cap :D

[sytaylor]

Originally posted by vampireuk
I dont think many companies here have monthly quotas, if they did I would not be impressed >_<

afaik BT are the only ones with what is close to a quota, if you use too much they moan about it.

you'd be suprised actually with nt-hell and a few adsl isp's they moan if you use a lot of upload simply because of the financial hard times that the industry is in as a whole... they can't afford these huge users taking the majority of everyeons bandwidth... I know Bt's stance is that if they're still gonna make money from the users who would fall below quotas then the "big spenders" of bandwidth may as well jump elsewhere

harsh but logical

[stncttr908]

With my ISP, there is no speed cap and no set cap on download or upload, but I've heard that if you start abusing the upload features (over 1mbps) that they'll cut down your speed to make you cut it out.

[vampireuk]

which is why I have my cable connection with Telewest, kickass service:cool:

[legion88]

Originally posted by sbp
High-speed Internet service providers are considering adopting new pricing plans that if widely adopted could take a bite out of file swapping.

For the past few years, many broadband ISPs have been frank in saying that file-swapping services such as Napster and Kazaa have been among the most popular activities on their networks. This has led to a small proportion of dedicated file swappers, known as "bandwidth hogs" within the industry, who account for a hugely disproportionate amount of network traffic.

Now many of the biggest high-speed ISPs are considering capping the amount of bandwidth that their subscribers can use per month, a move that could undermine subscribers' free swapping ways--something that many lawsuits have not yet been able to achieve. If people know they have a limited amount of bandwidth available, the thinking goes, they'll be less likely to download voraciously or allow people to upload songs and music from their computers.

According to Michael Harris, president of Kinetic Strategies, a research company that follows the broadband marketplace closely, the ISPs can't help themselves. "Every major broadband provider is seriously weighing pros and cons of bandwidth consumption caps," he said.

much more here: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975320.html

I guess you haven't noticed that ISPs already use bandwidth capping on their customers.

ISPs realize that users are not at their computers 24/7 while downloading MP3s and the like. ISPs have taken advantage of this fact by periodically dropping the users' internet connection if the bandwidth usage is too high. One of the annoying features of Verizon.

[Blakhart]

All of this foolish capping/limiting when the internet was designed to be from the start, what?, symetrical! That's right. Wide Open Throttle. Both ways. All the capping is simply a ploy to make money on what you should get anyway. Just like the differing levels of "service".
May never see it ("it" being symetrical full bandwidth) due the money factor. Probly not in my lifetime, at least.
Whose net is it anyway?

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by Blakhart
All of this foolish capping/limiting when the internet was designed to be from the start, what?, symetrical! That's right. Wide Open Throttle. Both ways. All the capping is simply a ploy to make money on what you should get anyway. Just like the differing levels of "service".
May never see it ("it" being symetrical full bandwidth) due the money factor. Probly not in my lifetime, at least.
Whose net is it anyway?

unless you paid for the infrastructure it's not yours nor any other users'. you can get uncapped access, you just have to pay large sums of money for it.

[JonathanM]

Originally posted by bigC
my isp (Bell Sympatico) capped downloads at 5 gigs per month, upload at 5 gig, but there is another option to d/l 10 gigs (for more $$, of course). i don't think it has worked tho. ever since they instituted this new policy, i have made sure that i achieved the d/l limit--so, the cap has had the opposite effect. i never downloaded 5 gigs/month, now i make sure i do it every month.

Hell... I didn't even notice that I was capped until I started seing fluctuations on my bill. Capped at 5GB with an additional 7 bucks per GB? They're nuts.

So I hit Canadian ISP (http://www.canadianisp.com), found a decent DSL service provider that's uncapped and voila. Not only am I paying 20 bucks less per month, but my new modem allows me to reach 128KBps wereas it was only 100KBps with Bell. Oh and BTW, most Canadian DSL ISP's just rent out sympatico's equipement, so the service is still great, costs less and it's uncapped.