Warning: Comcast is Now Throttling Broadband

[daft]

ive noticed the throttling for about 2 weeks now. i don't like it at all. not one of my downloads has ever reached above 200KB/s during the last 2 weeks. parents refuse to change though

 

[blackened144]

[citation][nom]liquidblue[/nom]This just in: "Comcast and their overpriced and shitty service is now being limited for an all time low!"[/citation]
I can get 6mb DSL for the same price as the 8mb Comcast internet. Not only that, but in the last 4 years since I have had Adelphia/Comcast, my service has never gone out. So, I dont know where you get the whole "overpriced and shitty service" thing. Granted their customer service sucks, but their service itself is top notch.

 

[Jarvis]

If I lived in one of these affected areas I would probably get a hold of a hacked modem off ebay and go to town. But that's just me, shrug.

 

[masop]

[citation][nom]doomtomb[/nom]So you pay for X Mbps but if you use up more than 70% for 15 mins you get throttled. What a bunch of bullshit, we shouldn't have to put up with this.[/citation]

Yeah, that is retarded isn't it? What if a user was downloading an ISO of Windows 7 from the msdn site or a Linux Distribution? How about another random app or game that is 500MB to 1GB in size? Then there are downloadable movies, such as those being streamed through Netflix. What is the point in paying for something you can't fully utilize? I'm just glad I'm throttle and cap free wiht my FIOS service, but we aren't all that fortunate to have a better option besides Comcast to choose from.

 

[blackened144]

[citation][nom]daft[/nom]ive noticed the throttling for about 2 weeks now. i don't like it at all. not one of my downloads has ever reached above 200KB/s during the last 2 weeks. parents refuse to change though[/citation]
Is that just for torrents? Ive been downloading from newsgroups all week at full speed. I usually limit my torrent uploads to a max of 100k anyway, so I'd never get to 70% of my available upload bandwidth.

 

[Rahbot]

its so easy to use up 50GB of internet BW in a month I so. I listen to muisc online, I download movies, download games, play online games all the time. Not only that but when you take almost all the internet providers out there and thier service is like 1.5Mbps-10Mbps+ download but they only allow you 768Kbps upload you know more and more games are needing higher than that just so that you don't get disconnected from thier network. One game I'll tell you that needs that is MAG for PS3. So there is a few others but I cant connect because my internet is 1.5Mbps/768Kbps which really runs like 1.8Mbps/365Kbps. I always call my ISP and tell them get my internet fixed I need faster upload. The only time I can MAG is closer to the afternoon hours.

 

[santeana]

I live in Ontario. My ISP had a different answer. Although they were quick to hop onto this capping bandwagon, they saw a dollar to be made. Rather than simply throttle it back, they instead charge extra for the overages. It adds up fast too. I was over on my last months BW usage and my bill had $17 in additional charges. ($1.50/GB) This month was shaping up to be even more according to the phone conversation I just had with my ISP. I was looking at a $30 overage charge. The bill would have worked out to be the same as their top-tier 16Mbps/125GB package so I just upgraded today lol

 

[daft]

[citation][nom]blackened144[/nom]Is that just for torrents? Ive been downloading from newsgroups all week at full speed. I usually limit my torrent uploads to a max of 100k anyway, so I'd never get to 70% of my available upload bandwidth.[/citation]
no, its for everything. a simple 2 minute youtube video is even taking upwards of 3 minutes to finish downloading. toms homepage is averaging about 40 seconds as well

 

[doc70]

so, lemme get this straight: is this trigger applied only to upstream limitation, or is by downstream as well? IN general, upload speeds are anyways more limited than download, maybe except for T1 lines, so theoretically it should not limit the ability to , say, watch Hulu or other videos at full available speed.
Knowing the weasels at ISPs, though, I suspect the throttling will apply to both, upload and download.

 

[Codesmith]

Don't forget the 2nd trigger condition. You got throttled for being an "offending subscriber.

A friend of mine her ISP recently oversold her area and now she can no longer steam netflix without the movie halting every 15 min. I wonder her attempt to use neflix makes her an "offending subscriber" and she is being throttled.

 

[liquid0h]

[citation][nom]hillarymakesmecry[/nom]I, for one, am glad I have comcast.Bandwidth throttling could be a good thing. If I'm trying to play some online games and the neighbors kid is slowing down my local internet down by up and downloading 1 tb or more a month and preventing me from playing my games on the connection I'm paying for. Then throttle away.I probably use 50gb a month.[/citation]

Are you a member of Comcast's marketing dept?

 

[sqhacker]

glad i live in the souht no comcast sucks when you think that other countries have way faster speeds than the US and we are still being limited

 

[cruiseoveride]

Well then basically we can't use more than 70% of what we pay for. So then prices need to drop by 30%

 

[sidran32]

[citation][nom]Codesmith[/nom]Don't forget the 2nd trigger condition. You got throttled for being an "offending subscriber. A friend of mine her ISP recently oversold her area and now she can no longer steam netflix without the movie halting every 15 min. I wonder her attempt to use neflix makes her an "offending subscriber" and she is being throttled.[/citation]
An offending subscriber is one who is using over their threshold over 15 minutes. Like we call one who breaks laws "offenders".

The top bandwidths are peaks. It's what you can get up to, but you aren't supposed to be using that much constantly. Similar to how you can redline your car engine but you aren't supposed to do so for long periods or else it will damage it. The network isn't designed to sustain such usage for long periods, or else you get congestion. This is why they should upgrade their infrastructure, though.

 

[Jarvis]

[citation][nom]doc70[/nom]so, lemme get this straight: is this trigger applied only to upstream limitation, or is by downstream as well? IN general, upload speeds are anyways more limited than download, maybe except for T1 lines, so theoretically it should not limit the ability to , say, watch Hulu or other videos at full available speed. Knowing the weasels at ISPs, though, I suspect the throttling will apply to both, upload and download.[/citation]

I think they actually mean the upstreams on the CMTS itself. An upstream is the "local group" you are a part of, generally consisting of between 50-200 users. These upstreams are fed by fiber to the CMTS in the headend facility. If memory serves, an upstream, depending on modulation frequency used (QPSK, QAM64, etc) typically has 44 megs of available bandwidth.

Although I could be wrong, I think above story indicates that if you are using 70% of your upstream's bandwidth (44 megs) for 15 minutes you might hit that trigger. This would make sense to me as you would actively be affecting other users in your neighborhood. Perhaps this might suggest that only someone with a fairly high download rate, say a 16 or 20 meg package, would be in trouble whereas a 5 meg package would be ok? I don't know, doesn't seem clear.

And point #2 is crazy as well, as your CMTS box will typically be a very powerful Cisco 10k or equivalent. You'd have a tough time pushing that box to anywhere near it's limits, I've seen well over 10,000 customers on them before with no issues. I will say though that I've seen customers with viruses causing havoc on the network that had to be shut down.

 

[m3kt3k]

For those going off the deepend. Its Upstream so HMMM LETS see when YOUR UPLOADING. Does not kickin when your streaming TO YOU. I mean WTF My upstream in 2Mbs on comcast. Meh I always throttle 100KBps anyway.

 

[invlem]

I can just see my next steam game download:

Estimated time for the first 15 minutes - 2 hours
Estimated remaining time after comcast wrongly decides I'm a pirate - 6 hours

How the hell is this an allowable practice? Services like steam use 100% of my bandwidth and quite frankly I’d expect no less from them. I pay monthly for the service from my ISP is it too much to ask that I actually get what I’m paying for?

 

[sidran32]

[citation][nom]invlem[/nom]I can just see my next steam game download: Estimated time for the first 15 minutes - 2 hoursEstimated remaining time after comcast wrongly decides I'm a pirate - 6 hoursHow the hell is this an allowable practice? Services like steam use 100% of my bandwidth and quite frankly I’d expect no less from them. I pay monthly for the service from my ISP is it too much to ask that I actually get what I’m paying for?[/citation]
Who said you were a pirate? It's just for network management. Pirating has nothing to do with it. It's about preventing a couple heavy users from effectively causing other subscribers from getting horrible performance for what they, also, paid for.

Also, the 70% threshold is UPSTREAM. If you read the paper, the threshold for DOWNSTREAM is 80%.

 

[invlem]

Hmm never mind its upstream, failed to read that word. I have mine throttled by default to max out at 50% of my bandwidth so as to not screw everyone else in my house over lol.

 

[invlem]

[citation][nom]sidran32[/nom]Who said you were a pirate? It's just for network management. Pirating has nothing to do with it. It's about preventing a couple heavy users from effectively causing other subscribers from getting horrible performance for what they, also, paid for.Also, the 70% threshold is UPSTREAM. If you read the paper, the threshold for DOWNSTREAM is 80%.[/citation]

In that case Comcast should advertise 70% of the available upstream and 80% of the downstream speeds as the rated speeds when they sell you the product. Problem solved, people get what they pay for.

What they're doing right now is advertising 100% of the service with no intention of actually providing it.