Topic: How would you like your Internet raped today?
started by: The_Stomper
Posted by The_Stomper on Apr. 17 2002,18:45
I need to rant.High-speed Internet providers (specifically Shaw and Bell) suck. Here's a little story of events that led up to this moment.
First off, you have to realize something. I'm a software junkie. I snag on average five builds of Linux a month, and I'm on six betas. Some public, some private - plus I play a fair share (okay, a LOT) of Counter-Strike. Naturally, this leads to a whole shitload of traffic - almost all downstream.
Now, I'm paying $40 a month for cable internet. Well what the fuck am I paying for? The first 6GBs? They're sending me these snooty "acceptable use violations" and shit just because I don't fit the cookie-cutter profile of The Happy Family With 2.4 Kids In The Shaw Commercial.
Earth to fucktards. I'm not uploading. I'm not costing you money. Why are you bitching at me? And don't try to tell me I'm stealing all the bandwidth from your network. Your routers can pump eighty megs a second. I've seen it, and a friend of mine works there. My modem getting 200KB/s won't dent a neighbourhood of fifty users.
So as an alternative to cable, I look to He- I mean "Bell" and their wonderful little DSL pipeline. Sure, it's only 1184KBits down and 160KBits up, but they don't say that I'm stealing the network bandwidth. Only person I'd be lagging is myself, right?
Wrong. I call up Bell, and now not only has the speed dropped to 960/120 - they're imposing a 5GB/month bandwidth cap. And after that, they don't send you a little note - they charge you a "nominal fee". What the fuck is this shit? If my roommates and I go to route that line four ways through our router, not only will our speed suck balls (240/30 anyone?) but we'll have to only get an average of 1.25GBs each per month. I can run up more than that playing CS on weekends!
Fucking hell. Well, I have to go call the "Acceptable Use" hotline now and explain to them that no, Linux is not some "war-ez" program, and that betas are legal.
Fucknuggets.
(Edit - I got an intelligent tech. He actually knew what Linux was, and didn't care about me getting 7GBs in a day. His exact words - "Just try to spread it out a little more.")
Posted by veistran on Apr. 19 2002,06:11
my provider doesn't care how much you whore up the bandwidth downstream, all they ask is taht you try and keep it around 1GB or less upstream a day 500KB/s down 50KB/s up
Posted by The_Stomper on Apr. 20 2002,01:34
| Quote (veistran @ 19 April 2002,01:11) |
| my provider doesn't care how much you whore up the bandwidth downstream, all they ask is taht you try and keep it around 1GB or less upstream a day 500KB/s down 50KB/s up |
Fuck me! What's your provider? I wanna sign up for that shit. "Keep it to a gig a day" - jeez, I have to keep it to a gig a MONTH upstream!
Posted by veistran on Apr. 22 2002,07:27
you'er going to envy me more when I say it only costs 27.50 a month... anyway it's a local-ish company, < their page. >
Posted by just_dave on Apr. 22 2002,16:15
Verizon has yet to complain to me on my dsl its 768 down 128 up ... believe you me I don't see that upside but heck I don't lag durning UT so I don't complain.dave
Posted by Wiley on Apr. 22 2002,16:54
| Quote (The_Stomper @ 17 April 2002,10:45) |
| I'm not uploading. I'm not costing you money. Why are you bitching at me? |
All bandwidth cost money. At some point you are leaving your service provider's network and they gotta pay somebody for the connection.
Lets say I have a kick ass CS server sitting in a datacenter with an upstream connection to UUNET, MCI, and Sprint. If you are using a connection from Verizon then at some point Verizon must pay to connect with UUNET, MCI or Sprint so that the data can be handed off. The cost of these connections is subject to some pretty wacked 90% average bandwidth charges that I have never truely understood despite building three datacenters. Some connections are charged by a monthly average removing the highest 3 traffic days, some take out random days, some calculate the average and then take off 10% off and one other uses only the days accounting for 90% of your bandwidth to bill you. The bottom line is that if they give a shit about how much you upload or download it's because you cost them money. If they are really cool they can tell you what days it would be cheaper for them if you used more bandwidth.
Posted by CatKnight on Apr. 22 2002,17:53
thats the only thing im not looking forward to when moving outta this damn hotbox. here we have 1.5 gig up/down a week limit, but we also have a fast proxy server which lets us get around that. i get good pings at night, and its free. though I'm movin outta here in just a week and I'll have to get cable or dsl (if im lucky, I've heard they aren't taking any new customers in this area).
Posted by Nikita on Apr. 22 2002,18:22
oh waah, and the grad students get shitass dialup while you guys dl porn! 
I had to twist arms and nads just to get a 2nd phone line. Bleh.
Posted by kuru on Apr. 22 2002,19:04
My cable company is pretty good about not caring how much data I'm uploading or downloading. It works out wonderfully for me because I really can't be bothered to think about it.Hopefully the DSL guys will be just as happy to not give a damn once I move. And considering the area I live in, I think they'll also ignore the hell out of me.
Posted by Rhydant on Apr. 25 2002,04:58
wow, that sucks.im really not sure if theres a bandwidth cap here. since the first of the month, ive download 1.8gigs of porn/music/apps/crap. thats not counting the basic internet use and all of the Ragnarok Online ive been playing.
bwuahahahaa.
Posted by editor on Apr. 25 2002,05:01
fyi, the Detnet server sometimes gives up 2 G per day.