What Are You Doing Right Now
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@wirestyle22 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Sister in Law's house just went 100GB over their Xfinity cap for the month. They had never looked and had no idea that they had caps. Whoops.
Capping me would ruin my life
It's a "pay cap" not a "no more Internet for you" cap. Now they are paying $10 for every 50GB. And given that all they do is stream Netflix and download video games, they will eat through that really quickly. They get 120Mb/s (actual measured speed) so buying a game like Shadows of Mordor can easily cost more to download than to buy!
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Definitely seems like the ISPs are turning off the unlimited data plans.
I also thought the US laws definition of unlimited was no limit and no rate changes? If that's true, then how is AT&T getting away with their clear violation of that - they even say in their advertising, you pass whatever their cap is, can't recall actual name, you get reduced to 3G speeds.
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Definitely seems like the ISPs are turning off the unlimited data plans.
I also thought the US laws definition of unlimited was no limit and no rate changes? If that's true, then how is AT&T getting away with their clear violation of that - they even say in their advertising, you pass whatever their cap is, can't recall actual name, you get reduced to 3G speeds.
Xfinity offers unlimited, but they had never heard of people being capped and just assumed that everything was unlimited. The unlimited plan is only $50/mo additional.
US definitely does not define unlimited as unlimited. For some reason, the US allows all kinds of limits on "unlimited" plans.
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So are we running into bandwidth limits due to use? Why the push for caps now?
Or is it because they are losing money to online vendors and they are just looking for a way to capitalize on that? -
@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
So are we running into bandwidth limits due to use? Why the push for caps now?
Not limits, just more cost.
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Why the push for caps now?
Because the speeds are higher now. You can't download very much on 20Mb/s. But fiber with 120Mb/s let's you pull a crap tonne of stuff in no time. Suddenly three streams of 4K video, Steam machines downloading 1TB game libraries.... you can eat up insane amounts of storage on the new connections that were unthinkable before.
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
So are we running into bandwidth limits due to use? Why the push for caps now?
Not limits, just more cost.
Right, I understand that - but more cost isn't the same as unlimited. AT&T is technically unlimited, it's just MUCH slower after their line in the sand.
Unless you're saying that fuel for your car is unlimited in the same fashion? Sure, you can have as much as you want, you just have to keep paying - yeah most people don't consider that the same at all.
When you see a price and it says unlimited (granted many don't anymore), you expect to be able to use as much as you want and the price will never change.
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Why the push for caps now?
Because the speeds are higher now. You can't download very much on 20Mb/s. But fiber with 120Mb/s let's you pull a crap tonne of stuff in no time. Suddenly three streams of 4K video, Steam machines downloading 1TB game libraries.... you can eat up insane amounts of storage on the new connections that were unthinkable before.
When did storage come into this picture?
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
When you see a price and it says unlimited (granted many don't anymore), you expect to be able to use as much as you want and the price will never change.
Sure, but you also expect the speed not to change. Changing the speed IS a cap as well. It changes the total amount that you CAN download in a month. One is not "more unlimited" than the other. Both are very much limited.
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
So are we running into bandwidth limits due to use? Why the push for caps now?
Or is it because they are losing money to online vendors and they are just looking for a way to capitalize on that?You nailed it, all about the Benjamins baby.
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Why the push for caps now?
Because the speeds are higher now. You can't download very much on 20Mb/s. But fiber with 120Mb/s let's you pull a crap tonne of stuff in no time. Suddenly three streams of 4K video, Steam machines downloading 1TB game libraries.... you can eat up insane amounts of storage on the new connections that were unthinkable before.
When did storage come into this picture?
Since the beginning, it's the only thing we've been discussing.
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Why the push for caps now?
Because the speeds are higher now. You can't download very much on 20Mb/s. But fiber with 120Mb/s let's you pull a crap tonne of stuff in no time. Suddenly three streams of 4K video, Steam machines downloading 1TB game libraries.... you can eat up insane amounts of storage on the new connections that were unthinkable before.
I understand that we are downloading/streaming more than ever before - but so what? Are they incurring costs due to higher transmission rates/more data flowing through the pipes? If so, where?
I'll agree that infrastructure upgrades need to be made, but frankly they need to be made anyway, the internet, even as we know it, isn't young and requires new equipment every few'ish years. Just like my WiFi getting upgraded.
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If they are charging you for bandwith usage I assume they are giving you an accurate way to monitor it...?
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An important thing is that I'm the only one that saw the cap because I'm the only computer user in the house. No one else uses web or email, they only use "devices" with Netflix or Steam. They don't use computers. So the web and email alerts that they were way, way over their cap had all been missed. We used 30% of the month's usage in a single day without anyone knowing.
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
When you see a price and it says unlimited (granted many don't anymore), you expect to be able to use as much as you want and the price will never change.
Sure, but you also expect the speed not to change. Changing the speed IS a cap as well. It changes the total amount that you CAN download in a month. One is not "more unlimited" than the other. Both are very much limited.
OK sure, so you're implying that there was a cap before, and simply because they now offer more speed, the cap itself hasn't been raised.. OK i can get that to a point - but again, why increase the speed if those old caps (old physical limitations) are a real limit?
If it's money - just say it's money @scottalanmiller
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Why the push for caps now?
Because the speeds are higher now. You can't download very much on 20Mb/s. But fiber with 120Mb/s let's you pull a crap tonne of stuff in no time. Suddenly three streams of 4K video, Steam machines downloading 1TB game libraries.... you can eat up insane amounts of storage on the new connections that were unthinkable before.
I understand that we are downloading/streaming more than ever before - but so what? Are they incurring costs due to higher transmission rates/more data flowing through the pipes? If so, where?
I'm confused. They pay for pipes the same that we do. Use a lot, they have to pay for more. It's just like gas. Why do they charge you for more gasoline? Because it costs them money to get you the gas.
ISPs pay for Internet identically to you. If you use a lot they either have to buy more GBs or they have to get bigger pipes. Both cost more money.
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
I'll agree that infrastructure upgrades need to be made, but frankly they need to be made anyway, the internet, even as we know it, isn't young and requires new equipment every few'ish years. Just like my WiFi getting upgraded.
I don't follow this bit. How is this related?
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Updating my headset... wth? How does a headset need a firmware upgrade?
First experience with Steel Series. Mrs nadnerB scored me a set of Siberia 150's.Having a sticky beak at the software does... LED colour change ("yay"), DTS (some Dolby thing) is unconvincing for music. Have to test it in game...
Standard sound seems to be pretty good minus all the "enhancements" that I an change. Might not be worth keeping the software.
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
Why the push for caps now?
Because the speeds are higher now. You can't download very much on 20Mb/s. But fiber with 120Mb/s let's you pull a crap tonne of stuff in no time. Suddenly three streams of 4K video, Steam machines downloading 1TB game libraries.... you can eat up insane amounts of storage on the new connections that were unthinkable before.
When did storage come into this picture?
Since the beginning, it's the only thing we've been discussing.
We have? I understand that total throughput on a pipe's known size does present us with a storage value, but so what? Most people who are downloading aren't storing it, they are streaming it, then dumping it... so the storage aspect has little or no baring at all - unless the ISP is keeping copies of everything moving through their network for some predetermined amount of time for some reason we are unaware of?
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:
When you see a price and it says unlimited (granted many don't anymore), you expect to be able to use as much as you want and the price will never change.
Sure, but you also expect the speed not to change. Changing the speed IS a cap as well. It changes the total amount that you CAN download in a month. One is not "more unlimited" than the other. Both are very much limited.
OK sure, so you're implying that there was a cap before, and simply because they now offer more speed, the cap itself hasn't been raised.. OK i can get that to a point - but again, why increase the speed if those old caps (old physical limitations) are a real limit?
Because speed and caps work differently. Are you equally happy with a shower than can drip all day long a with one that can clean you in five minutes twice a day?
