# Comcast Limits Download Volume



## TechGuy (Feb 12, 1999)

[WEBQUOTE="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122004003325884079.html?mod=googlenews_wsj"]In the latest move to rein in the heaviest users of the Internet, Comcast Corp. announced a cap on the amount of data its customers can download.

Starting Oct. 1, residential high-speed Internet customers will be limited to 250 gigabytes of traffic a month. Typical customers use between two gigabytes and three gigabytes a month, Comcast spokeswoman Jen Khoury said.[/WEBQUOTE]


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Typical customers use between two gigabytes and three gigabytes a month.

Almost need this just for MS updates but no way do I use 250 gigabytes of traffic a month.

Wonder if that is the same cap they alway had but would never tell you what it was but they would just email you and tell you that you was using to much and to stop or they would stop you internet.


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

I read a while back that providers were going to start charging for however much you use. I wonder if this is a first step?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I'd love to know where they got the 2-3 gigabyte number.


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## BoDySNaTcHeRz (Aug 28, 2008)

Too bad you have to subscribe to see the full article lol. I have never downloaded 250 gb worth of stuff anyway so I'm not worried about it.


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## new tech guy (Mar 27, 2006)

IMO, still a generous number but a little rediculous on the 2-3 gb a month. If your counting both up/down traffic you would probably use that much in your home within a week. Consider backups online, web browsing, gaming online is a TON of bandwidth, on top of that if you have a network its more traffic. Still ridiculous the FCC doesnt slap them with anything.


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## Skivvywaver (Mar 18, 2001)

I wonder how much bandwidth youtube uses up? I am a youtube junkie.


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## new tech guy (Mar 27, 2006)

Well you think, they have a 100mb limit, so prob a few megs per video... That definitely adds up, i say on average the average pc user has to generate around 1-200mb per day at least considering any backing up, downloading, email...etc.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

I do a backup each day of a forum and there are two backup files. 19 MB and 121 MB so that ads up. Then now and then I got to redownload the bigger file because it is not 121 MB but was a lot smaller for what ever reason like 68.4 MB when it should of been 121 MB.
Then all the other things I do each day with other downloads that are smaller.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I doubt I use 250gigs/mo, but I do have an on-line backup application running, not to mention there are about 9 computers connected here, so that's updates for Windows and AV/spyware applications for each of them many times a month.

Finally, I have to have a lot of bandwidth to run up my post count here at TSG!


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

I got no way of knowing the total bandwidth I use with everything from web pages loading, updates on programs and what programs or files I download.


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

Skivvywaver said:


> I wonder how much bandwidth youtube uses up? I am a youtube junkie.


I've thought about that, too. I read an article, I'll try to find, that said because of youtube, the internet will fill up by the year 2011...Not withstanding the internet promises of 2 and 3...


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

BoDySNaTcHeRz said:


> Too bad you have to subscribe to see the full article lol. I have never downloaded 250 gb worth of stuff anyway so I'm not worried about it.


A bit more can be read here:

http://dialzero.blogspot.com/2008/09/comcast-limits-download-volume.html


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## RootbeaR (Dec 9, 2006)

hewee said:


> I got no way of knowing the total bandwidth I use with everything from web pages loading, updates on programs and what programs or files I download.


Your ISP generally has a location to look at your usage.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

RootbeaR said:


> Your ISP generally has a location to look at your usage.


I sure don't where it is at but they should if we are to know how much we are using.


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## RootbeaR (Dec 9, 2006)

hewee said:


> I sure don't where it is at but they should if we are to know how much we are using.


I can't help you much.

I go to Cogeco home page and it is under "selfcare."

How would you add an e-mail account? Look in that area.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Really don't think comcast has any think like that or I would of seen it posted at the forums where I have seen many post on what the caps are that they never would tell you because many asked and wanted to know how much they were using but was never told how much they used or what the cap was. They only got told something if they used to much.


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## TechGuy (Feb 12, 1999)

Nope, Comcast doesn't (yet) have a place to check to see how much you've used. They've promised to make a "warning" phone call before cutting you off, though.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Here is Comcast Excessive use Page



> *How does Comcast help its customers track their usage so they can avoide exceeding the limit?*
> 
> There are many online tools customers can download and use to measure their consumption. Customers can find such tools by simply doing a Web search - for example, a search for "bandwidth meter" will provide some options. Customers using multiple PCs should just be aware that they will need to measure and combine their total monthly usage in order to identify the data usage for their entire account.


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## RootbeaR (Dec 9, 2006)

hewee said:


> Really don't think comcast has any think like that or I would of seen it posted at the forums where I have seen many post on what the caps are that they never would tell you because many asked and wanted to know how much they were using but was never told how much they used or what the cap was. They only got told something if they used to much.


I'm not sure how fast your connection is, but, 250 GB should do most people.

The more I learn about Cogeco and other ISPs', the more I like Cogeco.

"Usage Last Updated: 2008-09-04 03:25:00
Plan Type: Residential Internet Standard

Monthly combined bandwidth limit3: 61440 MB
Current month's bandwidth used to date (MB)
Upstream1: 5351
Downstream2: 5130

Current month's percentage of combined limit used: 17 %
Current month's estimated bandwidth usage4 (based on the current daily average usage): 78600 MB
Estimated amount current limit will be exceeded by5 (based on the current daily average usage): *17160 MB*

Estimated date to exceed your monthly bandwidth limit: *10/01/08*

Monthly Usage History
Upstream Downstream
Previous Month's History 29853 MB 35401 MB"


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

I know that Comcast is watching .. this may be good.
The prez of a nearby computer club just had his Email shut off.
Comcast called him and told him he was sending out spam.
They gave him the instructions to remove the virus  before they would turn him back on.
That must have been embarrassing considering his skill and position.
I need to check and see if his kid is still healthy.

Someone else got a call to shutoff his p2p uploading.
Seems they didnt mind the downloading .. just quit chewing up their bandwidth uploading.

Ive had a massive project lately  and have been using Comcast personal pages to pass the work around for preview .. which included a video creation.
Dont think Ive come close to 250G .. but Im wondering if this includes personal pages uploading and downloading.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Wish comcast did the same thing RootbeaR with giving us info like that.

Goes to show you Noyb that something can happen to anyone and we all need to watch out. 

What get me is comcast is testing newer speeds of 50MB down and 10MB up. 
If they later have it so everyone gets these faster speeds you know more people will be downloading bigger files, movies etc that will use up more of the bandwidth.


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

Noyb said:


> The prez of a nearby computer club just had his Email shut off.
> Comcast called him and told him he was sending out spam.
> They gave him the instructions to remove the virus  before they would turn him back on.
> That must have been embarrassing considering his skill and position.


I had something similar happen to me. Comcast disabled access to their SMTP server on port 25 and I had to configure a SSL connection because they thought my machine was sending out spam. They figured it was a virus of some kind. Of course, my running Linux on the machine rules out a virus and of course they never did provide evidence of spam originating from my machine.

Furthermore, they block access to port 25 on remote SMTP servers and my attempt to get this changed failed.  *sigh*

Peace...


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Try port 26.


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Comcast wants me to use port 587 for the outgoing.
I've known some who suddenly couldn't send Email.
Put them back to port 25 and they worked for a while ... 
till Comcast changed their mind (again) ...
without any notice of course.


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

AcaCandy said:


> Try port 26.


I did but port 27 was better... until they blocked it too. 



Peace...


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

Noyb said:


> Comcast wants me to use port 587 for the outgoing.
> I've known some who suddenly couldn't send Email.
> Put them back to port 25 and they worked for a while ...
> till Comcast changed their mind (again) ...
> without any notice of course.


Yeah, that's what happened to me. The funny thing is, they DID send me an e-mail notification about the port change but I thought the message was spam and didn't read it.  I went back later to see if it actually was spam and found it wasn't. 

Peace...


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