Something I gotta talk about, Bandwidth caps.

[jeffmeyer5295]

Alright, full disclaimer, I don't mean to sound like an ass, and I'm at work so I am not going to be the best at formatting this and making sure of proper spelling/grammar, so please, excuse it.

 

 

Something that is literally a day to day concern of mine is my bandwidth limit on my home internet, its bad, I have 200 mb/s speeds down and like 15 mb/s up with a 500 gb cap(very low imo) and I can't be bothered to buy into their higher caps cause they are just stupid expensive.

 

My setup in my house, consists of 5 people, my girlfriend and my self each have a laptop, and a gaming pc, with a tv and an Xbox one. My Roommates collectively have pretty much the same stuff going on. However only one of them connects to my internet. 

 

Now, I understand if I am streaming in HD/4k bandwidth will be eaten up very quickly, but we don't, I keep my YouTube at like 360p and my Netflix is throttled via their website to the lowest possible setting, and it still just eats it up. I just simply don't understand these bandwidth caps? I don't know how to get it down, it just doesn't make any sense.  

 

Just a rant, I really don't mean to sound douchey, I know I'm just gonna have to put up the cash to upgrade to a higher bandwidth. It just drives me nuts.

 

(side note I am a pretty techy guy, but not the best at this kind of stuff so I am going to avoid really specific terminology and arguing about the difference between megabit and megabyte like it always seems to come up in network talks, seriously, I don't care.)

[tlink]

you should put up static ip's and monitor bandwidth usage based on that, that shows you exactly where everything went. 500gb sounds like a lot to me but then again i don't have a bandwidth cap and live alone on a 50mbit balanced network.

[Freezanator]

2 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

your speed is ridiculously fast, you could have a very enjoyable experience with half that. Switch to a different plan where they don't cap. Which country?

He's from Idaho, United States of America.  

[jeffmeyer5295]

7 minutes ago, tlink said:

you should put up static ip's and monitor bandwidth usage based on that, that shows you exactly where everything went. 500gb sounds like a lot to me but then again i don't have a bandwidth cap and live alone on a 50mbit balanced network.

Yes its pretty fast and I do monitor it closely, I have a nighthawk router with a modern modem, most of my bandwidth goes to Netflix, HBOgo, Prime, and YouTube, even with them all at their lowest settings, aside from youtube I cannot watch 240p. 

 

4 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

your speed is ridiculously fast, you could have a very enjoyable experience with half that. Switch to a different plan where they don't cap. Which country?

I live in the US, specifically Boise, Idaho. No ISPs provide service without bandwidth cap, I have a secondary network(which my other two roommates use) that is 2mb/s down and 1 mb/s up. with no bandwidth cap but that is 200/month(I dont pay for that, they do) and is just simply to slow for us.

[WkdPaul]

Moved to networking

 

500GB cap, is it a hard cap or is it a throttling cap?

 

I have an unlimited service with an "abuse" clause, past 70GB in 7 days and I get throttled, so technically I have a 70GB/week cap. That means my last Steam purchases have been stuck in my download queue because of that, I have Steam throttled to 128Kbps.

 

I would be happy with 500GB, but I understand your frustration! lol

[jeffmeyer5295]

1 minute ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

Then yeah. Don't deal with bandwidth caps if you don't have to

Unfortunately most, if not all ISP's I've seen are switching to this format(Cox, Cable one, Century Link, ext), I lived in las vegas before and they had bandwidth caps, but didnt enforce them, they have recently started force upgrading people or charging them if they go over.

 

I appreciate the convo tho thanks guys! Makes my time at work go by a little faster ;D

[jeffmeyer5295]

3 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

Moved to networking

 

500GB cap, is it a hard cap or is it a throttling cap?

 

I have an unlimited service with an "abuse" clause, past 70GB in 7 days and I get throttled, so technically I have a 70GB/week cap. That means my last Steam purchases have been stuck in my download queue because of that, I have Steam throttled to 128Kbps.

 

I would be happy with 500GB, but I understand your frustration! lol

Hard cap, no exception forced upgrade to adequate plan if I break it three times. The plus side is bandwidth between midnight and 6 am doesnt count, so steam downloads/updates and such are done then. Its the streaming that kills me.

[Freezanator]

@jeffmeyer5295 Dude, 200 Mb/s is sick. I'm on a 2 Mb/s plan for 30 USD per month (albeit unlimited) but I feel this speed is above average. I recently went to my friend's house and he's got a 100 Mb/s connection (unlimited as well) at the same price as mine but the ISP that offers those speeds is only in 3 regions of my state. Dammit Asians! Why so slow to new technologies?! Back to the topic. 500 GB is massive. I mean, MASSIVE. I only use up to 70 GB per month based on Windows' data usage overview and I stream 480p of YouTube nearly every day for approximately 2 hours (as well as game for about 6 hours). I'd suggest turning off background updates as those unknowingly (especially on fast internet) download Windows updates and you won't notice them since 200 Mb/s is more than what you need and only those running on slower internet speeds will feel the difference and check what's going on. Also, periodically go to the Windows Store and see if any updates for your apps are downloading there, too.  

[WkdPaul]

1 minute ago, jeffmeyer5295 said:

Hard cap, no exception forced upgrade to acquit plan if I break it three times. The plus side is bandwidth between midnight and 6 am doesnt count, so steam downloads/updates and such are done then. Its the streaming that kills me.

ah that sucks.

 

I wish I had uncapped hours like that, I could download my games overnight and be done with it! It's taking forever @128Kbps!!! ?

[Freezanator]

1 minute ago, wkdpaul said:

ah that sucks.

 

I wish I had uncapped hours like that, I could download my games overnight and be done with it! It's taking forever @128Kbps!!! 

I used to suffer the same fate till I upgraded..... to 2 Mb/s (256 Kbps)
 

[Freezanator]

4 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Beats the shitty uncapped plans I get over here.

Shitty? Try these plans on for size.  

[jeffmeyer5295]

2 minutes ago, Freezanator said:

@jeffmeyer5295 Dude, 200 Mb/s is sick. I'm on a 2 Mb/s plan for 30 USD per month (albeit unlimited) but I feel this speed is above average. I recently went to my friend's house and he's got a 100 Mb/s connection (unlimited as well) at the same price as mine but the ISP that offers those speeds is only in 3 regions of my state. Dammit Asians! Why so slow to new technologies?! Back to the topic. 500 GB is massive. I mean, MASSIVE. I only use up to 70 GB per month based on Windows' data usage overview and I stream 480p of YouTube nearly every day for approximately 2 hours (as well as game for about 6 hours). I'd suggest turning off background updates as those unknowingly (especially on fast internet) download Windows updates and you won't notice them since 200 Mb/s is more than what you need and only those running on slower internet speeds will feel the difference and check what's going on. Also, periodically go to the Windows Store and see if any updates for your apps are downloading there, too.  

First off I do thank you for the advice and appreciate it.

 

But, My updates and almost any form of downloads are done after midnight, which doesn't count towards the bandwidth(thankfully), 500 gbs is really honestly not that much, like people say it is. Netflix running on 2 machines on a nightly basis for 3-4 hours as well as youtube(doesnt sound right but I do that for R&d on a channel that I someday plan to create) will chew that up easily. I do feel for people that do not have access to speeds like this(cause I've been there) but speeds up to 1gb/s are actually very common here, and in the last two places I've lived. Like I said I do have a secondary network, and I could switch to something like FIOS or like that, but not only are most of them not supported in my area, the only internet where I live is sattilite(fuck that) Cable one, or Century link(all have caps or sloooow speeds) their speeds/cost/reliabilty is just stupid lol. 

 

Again, I know, the simple answer to this is; I am a user of higher bandwidth/speeds I should pay extra, I just don't think it's right. 

[jeffmeyer5295]

2 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

I'm just here with my unlimited 120Mbps connection like \(-_-)/

Bruh. Color me jealous.