Here's some bandwidth and internet usage software, mostly shareware that can be demoed from Tucows. http://www.tucows.com/connectionmonitoring95_default.html Unfortunately I just have a dialup connection right now but had a cable modem and will have one or dsl again soon. Sounds like a horrible problem. I agree this is probably to avoid pirating activities. It does sound like it could get VERY expensive. I use eSignal, RealTick, and usually have a couple of browsers and maybe a couple of live mIRC trading rooms open. Booooo
"When you consider the fact that the largest American telecommunications firms are often part of the same mega-corporation with music, video or movie-producing entertainment divisions -- such as AOL-Time Warner -- you can see how an industry-regulated Internet would handily end music and movie industry worries about Napster-like file swapping by people who donât want to pay industry-monopolized retail prices for content." http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6600
If they cap you, don't ever un-cap it... http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/22/013226&mode=thread&tid=123
Bea-uty! So, all those hosers that have their computers taken over by virii and are scanning your ports looking for a weakness will be adding to your DL limit, effectively costing you money. Then if the cable company needs more revenue, or they think you'll pay more, they start scanning your system all the time as well. Oh, and you can enjoy paying to delete SPAM, knowing that every single bit that comes down the pipe is costing you money. Count on the cable company to have lots of GIF friendly emails. Animated GIFs, that is. Big ones. And say good-bye to web email from your cable company - everybody has Outlook express, right? Sweet. And people complain about a Microsoft monopoly. The minute my cable company decides to do this, I'll be switching.
SubEtha Thanks for sharing this article http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/23727 which is the link from the one you posted. Wow! Obviously about more than just bandwidth but about civil rights. This is the type of abusive, excessive activity that really bothers me and is unfortunately bound to get worse.
I'll tell you I have no patience for uncappers. I was with CableAmerica last year and I frequently had slow connectivity due to one of their clients on the loop drawing so much bandwidth from our node it caused noticeable degredation. Every time I called to find out why my 3.2MBPS connection was achieving 256k speeds I was told "someone in your area must be downloading large files." Nothing was done about it. While I don't condone the FBI's harsh action in any way, there has to be a way to keep everyone in line. There's only so much bandwidth a node can handle and it needs to be respected.
It may be a problem for the cable company - that's what service agreements and civil litigation are designed to handle. But there is no way to justify that kind of action by the state.
I fully agree. That kind of harrassment/confiscation/etc is totally unfit for the alleged crime. I suspect this war on terrorism is only gonna make this abusive shit an everyday affair. Imagine if an FBI operative suspects a person who uses higher-than-normal bandwidth or total volume of 'suspected terrorist activity', the new catchword of the 2000's? This could get ugly and fast.
Don't count on your cable company to tell you the truth. Mine had a gateway problem that caused amazingly bad delays during peak times. Everytime I called them, I would say "I can tracert to your network just fine, it's the gateway and beyond that is the traffic jam." So, they would always send a tech out to my house to check my line, and replace all my cables. Finally they fixed their network. Another time, they rolled out new modems they knew weren't working. The techs would install them, and run out of the house before the user could fire up the net. I'll bet that Large File DL excuse has a TLA at the cable support call center. Maybe they call it LFD. Anyway, I wouldn't trust that as a reason. And, I'm confident that just one person doing a major DL will not cut your speed from over 3 mbs to 256k.
GCI charges per gig in Alaska for their cable broadband product. They claim the added costs of piping the data up from Seattle via their fiber backbone justify this. The basic allowance is 5 gigs/month before they start charging, then 20 bucks/gig after that. I haven't exceeded the 5 in a trading environment, but I suppose its possible.