broadband internet data cap

My Comcast broadband service has a 250GB internet data cap, which I understand includes both upstreaming and downstreaming. I did not realize I exceeded it until I received a "courtesy" call from Comcast indicating that I did and that I would be cut off from their broadband service for a year if I did it again. I'm not proficient at estimating my internet usage. Is there a method or program for estimating such usage?

Thanks,
PG

 

Ask Comcast for access to your account online. I think it's there. Their tool is going to be the most useful for determining whether you go over their limit. Anything on the user end is going to be off b/c unauthorized users, different usage measurement standards, or PEBCAK.

 

I would see if there is another internet provider that you can use. Or see if they have a plan you can get without the cap. It is also possible that they are incorrect in there assessment of your usage.

 

Whether or not they are correct on usage, their measurement is the one used for billing, so use their tool.

And if you can, jump ship for another provider.

 

Definitely jump ship for another provider if you can. The data cap in itself isn't too much of a problem, but terminating the contract because you went over it, seriously?

Most ISPs charge an extra if you go over the data cap but they don't just terminate contracts for it. Sure, i have a friends who ended up with $400 of internet bill (4 students on the same connection isn't a good idea ) but they never received a call/notice that their subscription would be terminated.

Most ISPs have some access to an estimation of your bandwidth usage on their website.

 

Thanks for the responses. I'd love to get another provider, but my options are severely limited. I am disabled from a spinal injury, with resultant paraplegia, severe neuropathic pain, and impairments of several other physiological functions. Hence, I am living with my sister and brother-in-law until hopefully I recover enough function to live independently. They recently changed from Frontier to Comcast because Frontier is reportedly planning to shut down its FIOS television within a year or so and Comcast offered a nice introductory price to jump ship. They don't want to change again for a while. [I apologize for being somewhat deceitful earlier about ownership of Comcast account, I was initially somewhat reluctant to mention my disability and true living circumstances.]

We live in the Portland, Oregon area. I am willing to pay for a separate internet account, can one house have two internet providers (and I presume 2 ISP's)? If so, any suggestions for a 2nd provider?

Thanks much again,
PG

 

You should look at comcast business plans also. They have unlimited plans for small business that may be less than purchasing two plans from them that are limited.

 

Thanks for the business internet plan suggestion, reb1, I'll investigate further. In the meantime, I have an additional question (please pardon if question is inane)--does having multiple browsers open and mostly idle add significantly, if at all, to the 250GB broadband limit? I usually open 30-odd websites and leave them open for easy access when using my PC.

Thanks again,
PG

 

No that doesn't affect you Internet quota.
Browsing in general is very unlikely to cause it to grow significantly- you should look at video- streaming (youtube included), torrents or P2P in general and to lesser extend VoIP (although again if you use a video chat video streaming uses quite a lot of bandwidth).

All in all 250GB is a reasonable cap (if any cap can be called reasonable) but the way that handled this is preposterous. One thing Comcast can be sure of is that when you recover enough to move out (which I hope you will soon) you'll never make business with them.
I wonder if it was worth it Comcast?

 

Thanks downloads for your informative response. I didn't realize video-streaming, such as YouTube, also eroded the 250GB cap, which also accounts for my cap "violation"--my toddler nephew often watches YouTube videos (trains, airplanes) with me on my PC, sometimes for 2 hours at a time. You are correct, I will certainly seek another internet provider when I "blow this joint" (actually, given my unfortunate situation, my sister and her family have made my life much more pleasant than expected and I am indebted to them) if available.

Thanks again,
PG

 

The Comcast Teleworker plan is what you want at home.

If you try to attach a Business-class internet plan that is intended to be used by commercial offices to a residential account, you'll have no end of grief for billing and service.

Teleworker | Comcast Business Class | Telecommuting | Work from Home

Cost is $60- a month (approx $10- more than a standard residential plan) and does not have ANY up/download caps. Speeds are a hell of a lot better too.

Also check with CC on 'registering' yourself with them as a disabled user who depends on their services for 'lifeline' support. Don't be shy about this. State of Oregon or even the City of Portland may have subsidized rates available to you.

As for threatening to jump between potential ISPs, don't bother. Just about every ISP in the 'states is going to a monthly cap of approx 250Gb.

CC is just implementing the 250Gb cap in my area. Once they get around to limiting VPN and bittorrents I'm going to have to make the jump to Teleworker. Another $10- a month isn't onerous for me, just putting it off as long as I can.

 

Is that 250GB per month?

You should consider yourself lucky. I'm limited to 300MB per day (9GB/mo). If I exceed the daily use, they cut off my internet for at least 24 hours.

 

Never had a cap before but reading this thread made me go check and sure enough, my AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet has a 250GB/month cap as of May 2011. At least they aren't as draconian about overages though. $10 per every 50GB over isn't a deal breaker.

My town also installed "free" internet and I can get a fairly decent signal in my neighborhood. Not as fast, but good enough for normal surfing. Too bad I'm usually on the other side of the planet with limited access.

 

Yeah you don't want to add a business plan to a residential plan. You want the business plan instead. If you have a headache with billing. You just take them to small claims court.

 

Seriously, i don't get the idea of cutting the connection if people exceed the cap. Sure, they could charge a prohibitive amount or use some throttling on the connection speed if you go over and that would be enough to prevent most people from going over. With things as they are now: Steam, Netflix and more and more streaming they are working against themselves if you ask me.

 

It's about driving revenue and monetizing peoples browsing habits.

Blame the cell companies. Ever since they successfully redefined 'unlimited' to mean 'whatever we say it means' everyone else has jumped on it.

 

Hi paradoxguy,

Try using DU Meter for measuring your data usage details. It will give you warning messages at the time which you have specified earlier. I have been using it for the past one year and found it to be really useful on data networking. The only problem that I found with it is that it doesn't have the capacity to measure data flow in multiple devices. For that you must depend your carrier provider. My Internet Service Provider is Terago Networks and they have data monitoring website which shows the used data and so it is possible to know how much data is left.

 

It's always interesting to see what internet service is like around the globe.

Neither the cable company or the DSL company available in my area charge for bandwidth overages. Technically their plans have bandwidth caps, but there's no penalty whatsoever for violating them. Even if you significantly (and by that I mean twice the cap or more) exceed your bandwidth cap every single month, the worst that'll happen is that you'll have to deal with a marketing calls and letters from your ISP convincing you to upgrade to a higher tier - there's people who use several terabytes of data each month on 400 GB plans without having to pay a single cent extra.

 

I have Comcast(internet only), and I exceed the monthly cap... almost MONTHLY. Have not received any calls yet. I am exceeding the cap by streaming from j tv and hockey streams. Maybe context matters.

Sucks they're giving you a hard time. Just how much are you exceeding it by. In July I was over 400... which is rare for me, I'm usually closer to the cap... no emails/phone calls, yet