Paul’s comment regarding ‘bandwidth hogs’ is interesting. Comcast has adopted a flat rate model but does apparently target bandwidth ‘abusers’ with sanctions should they exceed some unknown boundary. Those customers might agree to pay for bandwidth, but are not offered that option. The difference between a dedicated T1 line and shared cable service is substantial. Such a dilemma might be resolved by charging a bandwidth surcharge – exceeding 3G/per month will cost x$/GB; but that option isn’t offered. Further, those ‘abusers’ affect others on a largely area basis. Should that be a factor? Gross usage for a provider like Comcast is a difficult factor with those authorities that regulate service rates.

I know of folk that process TIF photos at ~ 15M each. The downloads go OK from companies with 512k lines. His processed images at the same resolution are still ~ 15M but are uploaded at ~ 40kb/s because of Comcast caps (independent of Mark’s experience). He is now considering DSL because of the faster upload speeds.

I find it rather remarkable that when folk actually use the bandwidth they have available they can be penalized or filtered for using more than their unknown share. I find it equally remarkable that as we approach TV on-demand on a wider basis, Comcast would like to shut down so-called bandwidth abusers. Perhaps there is a connection?

You want to do lots of downloading? Pay for a faster connection!

Not sure why comcast gets such a bad name…sure…its a cable company that does normal cable company things…but i’ve had cable and internet for years through them and they are always upgrading internet without me asking and adding HD channels to their cable…ALL OF THE TIME..

stop the hating! :)

Where in the world the public expressions of pride in being a thief, or the public outcries concerning loss of the ability to commit theft are coming from is way beyond my ability to justify. In the world I grew up in, thieves were the absolute dregs of society, scum-sucking low-lives (which they still are, despite their newfound popular “legitimacy”) whose diseased brains couldn’t grasp the concepts of self-worth and self-sufficiency. This was also the same world where one would rather die than become a welfare recipient sponging off of the honest hard work of others, in contrast to today’s world where masses of people publish how-to works on how to beat “the system”, and millions of able-bodied and able-minded people live off of “government money” and think it’s completely normal. Obviously they either failed elementary Civics or were high-school drop-outs, because they fail to realize that there is no “government money”, it’s all sweat and blood being taken from the worthwhile working members of society in the form of ever increasing taxes, and being redistributed to the spongers living merrily on the slippery slope leading down to Marxism.

All ISPs should be blocking the piracy channels, as well as performing stateful packet inspection and blocking to prevent the spread of malware. They’re being utterly irresponsible otherwise, and at worse, performing as the middlemen in intellectual property theft and malware distribution. By not doing these, they are accessories to the rising organized malware and spyware crime syndicates, and leaving themselves wide open for liability suits by the owners of the software and artwork whose theft they are enabling.

It’s really simple. Every ISP I’ve ever signed-up with has you sign for acceptance of an acceptable use policy, which among other things says they can disconnect a subscriber if they perform illegal acts using their bandwidth and network infrastructure. If they DON”T disconnect such abusers, they are condoning illegal activity. Let the ISPs beware and the prosecutions begin.

The best part of that company is some pretty good installation/repair guys. Other than that, nothing surprises, most especially the cruel and
underhanded stuff Comcast does. The company appears to actively recruit AOL castoffs, especially those who worked in the think tank.

I hear that we returned a kickoff 90 something yards for a touchdown… that would’ve been awesome to watch.