Comments on: 600GB Comcast “Invisible” Bandwidth Limit

By: Albert

Albert — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:51:13 +0000

Comcast security called me last month (Sep 09) and rudely threatened to terminate my cable internet because I had exceeded their ‘acceptable’ limit. Needless to say I overkilled on the amount big time+++ (I’m very proud). I asked them how much bandwidth the average user uses a month, and they said 2-4 gigabytes, with their allowable limit being 250 gigs-per billing month. REALLY????? According to my reliable 3rd party bandwidth monitor (which you have to find and download somewhere yourself because Comcast doesn’t want you to have a reliable measurement), I can use 4 gigabytes of bandwidth in 30 minutes. How you ask? I multi-task: Watching movies on Netflix while downloading music and surfing the internet at the same time. Everything in different windows. Does that make me an ‘EEEEvil’ internet user as Comcast says it does? Maybe! Muwahahah!. But, I also just used 2 gigs in the last 10 minutes doing stuff while I was writing this…Eat it Comcast! I’m going to use 240 gigs of bandwidth a month. If you cancel me, I’m going to Verizon FIOS and my family will have a faster connection without these ridiculous limits.

By: DLJIM

DLJIM — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:42:09 +0000

I just got the comcast notice of OVER usage But I really can’t find it. Yes I have 5 or 6 computer on line but only 3 can be on the net at any one time. I do record Football and Baseball games on to my computer but Comcast says that does not count as band usage because the tv signal is not recorded (are they lying ???). The computer are left on for updates and to record games. We do not down load Movies so that can’t be it. I write on a few blogs and work on a web site (not hosted at the house) They tell me I hit 600+ gigs last month but can not help with the days or what ever it was. Does anyone know of a router that has a usage meter on it??? I downloaded a little program (networx) and from every thing I can see we would be hard pressed to hit 150 let along 600gig in a month. I wonder it they really do follow the usage because they could not tell me my usage for the past months no clue and they can’t tell me how much I have used this month.
Thanks DLJIM

By: Edward

Edward — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:11:41 +0000

Just say NO to Comcast if you plan on downloading movies. Use AT&T or your local phone line high speed internet. You don’t share the Cable like on the other guys like Comcast or other Cable TV provider. The two wires coming to your house is a dedicated line and there is no limit to how much you can download. The limit is in the speed per residence per telephone line. DSL modems share the band width and if you have multiple high download users, get a second phone line for DSL Only. Ask for a multi-line discount or get their ultra high speed service where available.

By: scott

scott — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:30:48 +0000

hmmmmmmmmmm funny part about all this is that Comcast doesn’t tell it’s customers that if have tv, phone and internet, each one of these use that download bandwidth, i watch a comcast on demand movie, I get charged for it and the bandwidth, that sent info is added to my accont, i use the phone or fax i get charged for this and again this is added too my total bandwidth, my son gets on play station and plays a few hours , again charged for the bandwidth used….now I have 4 computers in my house and 4 tv and 2 gaming systems, do they know that a blueray movie from vonage is like 4 gigs…or utube or even hlu now…..Comcast wake up and catch up with the times files are bigger and bigger, yet your cutting everyone off, do you consider there are people have more then 3 computers in house now? Or even now I work from home and send files as big as 2-20gigs to my company’s around the world “CAD” files for the military…..please people wake up and tell them the truth…tell them wake up and look up the stats..for a family of 4 or 5

thank you

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:44:03 +0000

So we have people using a lower priced residential connection who are downloading 400GB or a TB of data and then crying because they get capped?

Comcast will let you use all the bandwidth you want, you just have to *pay* for it. That’s the real problem. People don’t want to pay for the service they use.

I agree not being able to tell you what the ceiling is for your account is a big problem, but don’t make our like Comcast are the bad guys entirely.

If you want to be able to run your own server or serve an entire household of power users, buy a business account.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:02:18 +0000

This sounds to me like bad business practice in more ways than one. Number one don’t lie to the customer. Two, if your customers want something, ask yourself “How can I give them more of what they want?” Not “How can I make them want this less?” Seriously, that’s just stupid.

By: Justin Walker

Justin Walker — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 20:31:40 +0000

I wish I could get 250 GB am month! I’m in Germany right now serving in the Air Force and I am stuck with TKS who sent me a letter saying and I quote

“We urge you one last time to refrain from transferring massive amounts of Internet Data. Your TKSSurf! account will be monitored to verify that you do conform with the regulations of Fair Use Policy.”

“Professional video pirates for example usually receive more than 100 gigabytes of data downloads per month. This type of use could produce a noticeable hindrance to other customer’s web access in terms of speed and overall performance.”

I see that Comcast is crap but… it could be worse, you could have TKS!

By: Donald Rohrbacher

Donald Rohrbacher — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 22:15:21 +0000

Well, we had Comcast Cable and Internet. We switched to that F-ed up Triple play crap. Why do i say that?

1st: Now i cannot view my website. there wasn’t that much traffic on it – i was learning php and now since we have that Arris modem (maybe it is the service) i cannot view it. What? Do they block port 80? i tried port 8080 and still cannot! Comcast F-ing Sucks!

2nd: Now i cannot view ny ftp site. My job requires my to occasionally download some files i need to fix computers but now i CANNOT. This happened when the switch happened.

3rd: ONLINE GAMING SUCKS! You ever try and play a graphic intensive game on a system with a crappy video card? I have a ‘cable’ connection, a Dual Core system w/3 GBs, a nVidia 8600 GT w/512 MBs. Before the switch was made i was playing seamless games in the multiplayer community and now i cannot even play. I get ’somewhat’ good ping but in a game of Quake Wars, it is choppy and it jsut makes you want to quit the game.

IF – you are thinking of switching – DON”T!@!!!!! Use Comcast for either – Just your cable and get another service for the Internet. You will be happier and you won’t have the aggravation.

By: {FoN}BaDbOyZ

{FoN}BaDbOyZ — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:01:52 +0000

comcast says the limit is 250GB a month i’m doin over that i run an underground website from my house for my town to share files i build this site to make it easy on us to work on computers the site is over 1.5TB i’m downloading more then 250GB a month i’m always downloading and seeding out. I been doing this ocver 5 years now and comcast never said a word plus i have a Unreal Tournament Demo server running ver 348 with the mods my buddy’s made I host a team speaker server and i do remote administrating all over the country. the usage can be used without thinking. the normal person that just goes online to watch videos on youtube they wont have a problem but for the people that like to download albums and seasons of their fav. tv shows they will have some problems for years they never said a word and now they want to change every thing. where I live comcast is the only high speed ISP its a monopoly its illegal comcast is the biggest monopoly out there. people pay to watch movies TV and listen to music online they paid for it they have the right to use it as they please if you got the hard drive power then fill it up you bought the service you have every right to use it any way you like.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:19:05 +0000

Unlimited does indeed mean unlimited. Without an asterisk there is no hole big enough for the corporation to suck that out of you. They can easily avoid conflict by stating clearly what the consumer is ACTUALLY receiving. This all just seems to be the initial beginnings of internet control, etc. e-Fascism.

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:09:47 +0000

gmastr85, the 2gb a month actually makes sense. I know plenty of Comcrap users that do very little with their connection. Plus, you must average in all the comcast customers that don’t use their internet at all / on a daily basis. There are many people that have Comcast internet at multiple houses / locations and only live in one location at a time.

That being said, I think a cap makes sense, but it is not fair to leave the cap ambiguous.

By: gmastr85

gmastr85 — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:43:00 +0000

I second that! Unlimited means unlimited. Fios can’t come soon enough!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:18:21 +0000

Capping the abusers is good? It’s not my fault you don’t use it as much as some people…abuse is in the eye of the beholder, or downloader. I pay for unlimited, and I want to use it dammit…

By: Mack

Mack — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:18:56 +0000

Comcast is trying to maximize download speeds for their customers. Mine cable hit 16mbits one day. That’s fast.

Capping the abusers is good.

By: gmastr85

gmastr85 — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 06:33:24 +0000

I just got the call… yes the dreaded call from Comcast. They told me I used 1.1 TB of bandwidth last month, which is 1100GB. Just like everyone else on here, I agree it is excessive… But when I think about all the things I do online, I can’t imagine ever being down around 250GB. I was reading forum posts and blogs all night about this whole situation, and it seems like Comcast is really only targeting abusers if they get a complaint.

The Comcast rep told me I was in the top 0.1% of all bandwidth users. And just like everyone else they refused to give me a number that would be acceptable…. I was told that I needed to drastically lower it. And that the “Average” Comcast user only uses 2GB per month!?! Who are they kidding. You go on youtube for an hour and you’re over 1GB! Are they telling me that no one else consumes video or HD content online? C’Mon Comcast Stop Lying!

On the other side of the arguement… If they tell people to stay under 250GB a month, then everyone would think they had to use it up or lose it…. So I can see where they wouldn’t want to state a definite number… But please Comcast! Give me something… A safe area! A ballpark figure! I can’t go from 1100GB to 2GB! Now I might be able to curtail it to 300GB! They wouldn’t even tell me yes or no! I said I could cut it in half and all the rep would say is that I better not appear on the report again or I’m done for 1 year!

COMCAST! DON’T LIE ANYMORE! Stop the false unlimited ads. Stop being such a terrible company. Throttling torrents, terrible customers service, downgrading HD content, and now lying to customers and not giving them an acceptable bandwidth limitation…. it needs to stop! You are under investigation by the FCC right now…. and I’m sure you’ll grease your way out of it!

I only have one computer and I hit 1100GB last month. But I run a 24 hr. voice server on it. (which is what really did it) I constantly watch videos and consume quite a bit of web content. I download torrents. I play online games. I run instant messaging programs. I also use a VPN connection for work related purposes. Five years ago this sort of bandwidth was unheard of.. With all the video and content on demand sites we have today, its really easy to surpass 250. How can Comcast say the average user is 2? In another 5 years the average will be 1000. Unless something changes! The very second another provider option is available to me I will leave Comcrap forever!