I just saw this this morning

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080829/wr_nm/comcast_internet_dc

Comcast is going to start limiting the use of internet to 250gig up/down per month. I know that is more than plenty for an average user who just looks at porn all day. But what about us who are playing MMO's, downloading patches while getting the latest illegal music and movie downloads....oh and also looking at porn?

Being serious though, how will that affect an average to hardcore MMO player?

Originally posted by EyeSpEye

I just saw this this morning

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080829/wr_nm/comcast_internet_dc

Comcast is going to start limiting the use of internet to 250gig up/down per month. I know that is more than plenty for an average user who just looks at porn all day. But what about us who are playing MMO's, downloading patches while getting the latest illegal music and movie downloads....oh and also looking at porn?

Being serious though, how will that affect an average to hardcore MMO player?

It wont.

250Gb is enough to download a full game by day, each day, during the all month.

Unless someone uses (abuses?) torrent/P2P transfer, no way one gets even close to that number.

I know i dont, and i do download alot of "illegal files" (2-5 full movies week). I keep my usage to around 20-30gb. Hell, 250Gb, i would need to be downloading at full speed, all day and night, everyday, the full month.

This really upsets me.  This will hurt services like Direct2Drive, Gametap, Playstation Network, etc.  I use all of those services.  Anyways, how much would two people simultaneously playing MMORPGs and Gametap/PSN use?

It is so simple:

I know many of you are very young, might not even have bank accounts or credit cards.

But if you are old enough, and a responsible person, stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW.  Call Comcast, cancel your service, and explain why.   If enough people do it, they will first change the policy a bit.  Then if people continue to cancel, they will remove it.

Capitalism works, but not when the "masses" are stupid and lazy.  When they are stupid and lazy, they will get taken advantage of in capitalism.  When they are educated and active, they run the ship, so to speak.

It's easy to cancel if you have other options available in your area.  I have 3 possible providers in the area.  Comcast and two others that offer 1/4 of the download speed for around the same price.

Originally posted by declaredemer

It is so simple:

 

 

I know many of you are very young, might not even have bank accounts or credit cards.

 

 

But if you are old enough, and a responsible person, stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW.  Call Comcast, cancel your service, and explain why.   If enough people do it, they will first change the policy a bit.  Then if people continue to cancel, they will remove it.

 

Capitalism works, but not when the "masses" are stupid and lazy.  When they are stupid and lazy, they will get taken advantage of in capitalism.  When they are educated and active, they run the ship, so to speak.

yeah i made a post about this already telling people to cancel there subs because even that u cant get 250gb up/down used thats not the point. The point is if they get away with 250 they will keep lowering it and if what they claim 99% of users dont use that much why put a cap on it anyways.

Its the MPAA and the RIAA trying to make a move to stop P2P/Torrent file sharing.

Comcast  tried before to control what people download, and the courts slammed their peens in the door for it.  They are just trying to avoid the legal hassle that the MPAA and RIAA can cause.

And yeah, unless you DL a ton of movies daily, there isn't an issue.  Thank God I got Charter.

Originally posted by Goldknyght

Its the MPAA and the RIAA trying to make a move to stop P2P/Torrent file sharing.

 

WOW!!

Where are you from?  You are much too intelligent to be a "gamer."

You are exactly, 100% right.  Right-on.  Keep it up!

EDIT:  OH, be alert:  The Federal government is starting to prosecute those who illegally upload music; the FBI just brought charges, I read in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, against some guy because he uploaded 11 Guns and Roses songs to his blog.

I would be remiss if I did not mention what is wrong with our youthful culture today:

• I have seen people forgo their First Amendment right to freedom of speech regarding nondisclosure agreements, though they are NOT legally enforceable; if they were legally enforceable, proving "injury" would be as close to impossible as you can get
• And regarding narcissism and privacy.  84% of people polled said they would not give-up private financial information online;  yet it was revealed that 89% actually did. 
• The worst is those illegally downloading copyrighted content and then self-censoring themselves regarding non-disclosure agreements.  The only way non disclosure agreements are legally enforceable are in terms of geography, duration, and other factors regarding TRADE SECRETS.  When I see teens, or immature/uneducated adults saying, "Nope cannot break the NDA," it makes me smile but also sad for their ignorance.

Glad I dropped Comcast when I did.  Dropped their Broadband service for DSL.  Slower download speed but much better upload.  (Almost 3x as much upload speed)  Dropped their Cable service for Direct TV, and couldn't be happier.  Going to be even better later on this year when Verizon FIOS service finally opens in my area.  Comcast needs to learn they can't mistreat their customers forever.  As more choices become available, more of them will just leave you for the better service.

if i only had the choice

i could go from about 8gb downloand  with comcast to about 1gb (if i'm lucky) with at&t

i hate comcast but they essentially have a monopoly in highspeed access in my area

This will hurt people who live in a house with 3+ room mates.

250 Gb per month isn't much when you start to split one internet connection among more people.

This will hurt College students mostly. And only those who are on VERY TIGHT budgets.

Originally posted by LiquidWolf

And only those who are VERY TIGHT budgets.

Most people on tight budgets do not vote or lack the education to be involved and active in their own society.

Hence, if I look at college students, not only do we nickle-and-dime them and sell them way, way overpriced textbooks and college course, we require them to get loans.

We want to suck more out of them, financially, than they have to give.  I love it!

250 GB download is an awful lot. I use Cox and I have never consumed this much bandwidth. I've never hit my 40 GB download / 10 GB upload cap either. They're going after the BitTorrent seeds and people who use their "personal and non-commercial use only" bandwidth for web hosting because upload is expensive for ISPs.

http://www.comcast.net/terms/network/amendment/
http://downloads.comcast.net/docs/Comcast_Acceptable_Use_Policy.pdf

Then again it's not clear to me if 250 GB means both download and upload combined or just download.

Originally posted by gatheris

if i only had the choice

i could go from about 8gb downloand  with comcast to about 1gb (if i'm lucky) with at&t

i hate comcast but they essentially have a monopoly in highspeed access in my area

 

Same here, Until we get fiberoptic I'm pretty much screwed.

Exactly, as soon as Verizon FIOS is finished in my neighborhood Comcast is gone forever!

I think you guys are wrong a little.  This is not about games or illegal downloading.  I honestly think Comcast could care less about that stuff.

This is about squashing steaming video services (especially HD).  There are alot more television networks streaming content on the internet than ever before and the trend will probably contiue.  With limiting the download amount it will help guarentee that they can sell you cable television as well as their internet service.

If people no longer had to have cable television their income as a company would go down more than 30%.

Did you guys actually read the whole article and the FAQ at Comcast? What a load of rediculous BS. The FCC should kick them in the internuts again...

wow that sucks whats comcast is up to now.. first they were using "hacker" tactics on torrents, messing up peoples connections/speeds so that u would get it.... eventually. now they are implementing limits? thats a shame. good thing i dont live in miami anymore, not only am i a huge fan off mmos but also of anime. i could easily download 100 gb of anime if its a huge series in a week. still thats in rare cases, 250gb isnt that much of a big deal if ur not a major seeder. just keep an eye on ur torrents and dont forget to turn off any p2p programs after ur done downloading. some people just minimize them not realize they are still running in the background hogging bandwidth.

A limit of 250 gigs?

The only broadband I can get where I live (which is 30 miles south of downtown St. Louis) is Verizon cellular broadband.  I have a cap of 5 gigs per month (and for that I pay $60 a month), if I go over I get speed capped for the next few months at about 4x dial-up speeds (which is slow enough I can't even use Youtube).

So excuse me if I don't feel sorry.

Lol some americans. Most ISP in Europe have had caps for years.

250 GB should be MORE than enough to do anything you want online unless you download illegal content.
 

The people in this thread who say it's unfair. Get a grip will you, not everyone should be paying because you can't control yourself and need to download illegal stuff 24/7.

You use 90% of the bandwith, YOU pay for it, not everyone else. If you use more than 250GB/month you are causing problems for other users.

I am very sorry that the internet in your countries sucks so very badly. I really am...

It's not just about MMOGs or downloading illegal stuff. In fact a limit like this wouldn't even effect the most avid downloaders of illicit material. I am more worried about hamstringing the technological advancement and development of internet based applications. I am also worried about this becoming a trend that keeps getting more and more strict. In a region like mine, I have exactly one broadband provider, so I don't have any choices. Personally I would like to see much more competition in the marketplace. Hell even larger cities don't have really that much of a choice between ISPs, especially ones that do packages that include internet, TV and VoiP.

Originally posted by Darkholme

I am very sorry that the internet in your countries sucks so very badly. I really am...

It's not just about MMOGs or downloading illegal stuff. In fact a limit like this wouldn't even effect the most avid downloaders of illicit material. I am more worried about hamstringing the technological advancement and development of internet based applications. I am also worried about this becoming a trend that keeps getting more and more strict. In a region like mine, I have exactly one broadband provider, so I don't have any choices. Persinally I would like to see much more competition in the marketplace. Hell even larger cities don't have really that much of a choice between ISPs, especially ones that do packages that include internet, TV and VoiP.

Ok, I understand you there, we have too little competition here, and it's thanks to competition that anything happens because the regulators don't do anything unless the European commission fines them.

Cause we have had a 10GB limit, now it's 20GB / month. I can only dream of 250GB / month atm.

Originally posted by InTheSea 

Ok, I understand you there, we have too little competition here, and it's thanks to competition that anything happens because the regulators don't do anything unless the European commission fines them.

Cause we have had a 10GB limit, now it's 20GB / month. I can only dream of 250GB / month atm.

Well that's what I'm afraid of happening over here. The lack of competition and the lack of any real regulation and ineffectual slaps on the wrist and stern talking to's do nothing. I'm worried that if the FCC let's ISPs get away with limiting and don't set specific guidelines/regulations to what they can and can't do, then we'll really get screwed like it sounds like you guys are. So that's why we're getting all up in arms about these things now, and b##ching to the FCC.

As an aside, I started monitoring my uploading recently. I do a lot of webmastering duties, content updating and such, so I wanted to see how much I actually do on average. 10-20GB per month would really screw me over it looks like.

I knew this questioin was going to be coming up, keep in mind that WOW is designed to play on dial-up connections.  Not well if you ask me but it can be done.

Think about it, you're talking about transferring more data than many people have in the capacity of their entire hard drives.

If you downloaded 2 games a day, you'd have a hard time hitting that cap.  I cannot for the life of me see how anyone who considers themselves a HOME user can justify more bandwidth than that.  Before I hear about people complaining they need it for work.. *COUGH*  you are talking about a COMMERCIAL use so damn well pay for a commercial account.

The people using that kind of bandwidth know they aren't normal users so frankly if they have any complaints they can either switch services or pay for a better account and stop blowing this thing way out of proportion.

Originally posted by Darkholme

Originally posted by InTheSea 

Ok, I understand you there, we have too little competition here, and it's thanks to competition that anything happens because the regulators don't do anything unless the European commission fines them.

Cause we have had a 10GB limit, now it's 20GB / month. I can only dream of 250GB / month atm.

Well that's what I'm afraid of happening over here. The lack of competition and the lack of any real regulation and ineffectual slaps on the wrist and stern talking to's do nothing. I'm worried that if the FCC let's ISPs get away with limiting and don't set specific guidelines/regulations to what they can and can't do, then we'll really get screwed like it sounds like you guys are. So that's why we're getting all up in arms about these things now, and b##ching to the FCC.

As an aside, I started monitoring my uploading recently. I do a lot of webmastering duties, content updating and such, so I wanted to see how much I actually do on average. 10-20GB per month would really screw me over it looks like.

See my previous post, you are doing commercial work, not home use.  hell you can write off your internet account on taxes as an expense so you really don't have any ground to stand on IF you are affected.

Further the government is regulating more than enough in our lives and you want them to regulate more of them?  Are you insane?  Just let the market work itself out and you'll end up with a solution that works for you.