CosRush

My ISP is saying im approaching my threshold for my months useage (5Gb).

Does useage only apply to when you upload or download things or does it apply all the time my computer is connected t the interenet i.e. opening webpages etc???

Ive just downloaded a Bandwidth monitor and from what i can make out it all the time...........

Is that right??/ Do I have to stop surfing the internet in order to avoid additional charges before the end of the month???

Jonzy

Yea, any sort of data transfer is included.... webpages, msn, downloads anything.

collierm

Up and down included. Use Netlimiter to monitor your bandwidth usage.

Cheers

Matt

CosRush

Oh crap.........

Thanks for the reply.

Graceland

Or stop being a tight arse and subscribe to an unlimited package

Tiscali are doing a good offer at the moment

Stu.H

What you could do is tools/internet options/advanced and turn off pictures.

You could probably view a hundred webpages to a couple of pictures.

Just a thought?

Dan B

There are very few decent ISPs out there that can actually continue to offer a true unlimited package, I think AOL are the only ISP that are offering a true unlimited package (not checked to see if there's a fair-usage policy attached with it). I know Tiscali fail on two counts, in my opinion, in that a) their unlimited package comes with a VERY savage fair-usage policy (maximum you can download during 6-11pm in a day), and b) they're bloody awful with outsourced non-UK tech-support.

With the introduction of MaxDSL/LLU, and the ability to provide ADSL faster than 2Mbps, companies have started to realise that letting people have an up-to-8Mbps connection (allowing downloads at speeds up to 1MB/sec), for a price in the region of £15-25 per month, and then saying people can download as much as they want, means they're not going to be in business for very long if even a small percentage of their customers take them up on their word and try to download the internet in one go.

Given the price for a 622Mbps BT central pipe, when CBC-pricing was introduced, was £137,730 (and I'm pretty sure it hasn't changed much since then), you're looking at a cost of roughly £220 per 1Mbps of bandwidth. So, if you assume that an 8Mbps user is downloading full-speed for the entire month, that's a potential cost to the ISP of roughly £1,760 for that month. Also, bear in mind that, for that pipe to not become congested, you could only fit 75 users (leaving a margin of bandwidth spare) onto it, meaning that each of those users would be costing the ISP £1,836 per month. Factor onto that price the cost for IP-transit connectivity, the price of the equipment used to create the customer-network, any support-contracts for this equipment (believe me, they're not cheap), the cost to supply the staff to design, build, and maintain that network, the support-staff to assist customers with issues, running costs for the buildings involved, utility bills, land-rent, and so on.

So, would you be willing to pay up to £2,500 per month for a truly unlimited DSL connection? If not, and you'd rather pay £15-25 per month but still download the internet every month, then you're going to be a serious loss-maker to your ISP......they'll either have to introduce download-limits, increase their prices drastically, or rely on having many low-usage customers to offset your download-habits.

Well, that post ended up being slightly longer than I planned......thanks for reading, if you made it this far!

Jonzy

.... or jump onto cable if available

CosRush

Im not a tight arse.....just dont have much money

you should know that most people (myself included) are tied into a contract for broadband with the ISP usually for 12 months. So it would not be as easy as to subscribe with somebody else..........

And as for Tiscali............they were the most useless bunch of ****'s ive ever had dealings with...........never did get back the money they owed me.........useless ******'s.

Thanks for the replies

collierm

Yep, I'm on 10MB with NTL, no fair usage policy with them. Not that I hammer the hell out of it anyway, but its nice to know I can if I want to.

Cheers

Matt

CossieRich

iTrader: (1)

Dan,

I an only ging to comment on your slight inaccuracy with TIscali. Its time of the day that the Fair User Policy comes in not how much you D/L throughout the day. 6-11pm is when you have to abide by the FUP rules.I am now on my 2nd warning during the FUP period. My next warning means Tiscali will control my bandwidth for me during the FUP period. So now i just leave bit torrent running from when i wake up till 6 pm when i shut it off You are right abut their tech-support though. fucking useless

Dan B

Ahh, wasn't aware of the time-of-day part of the FUP, thanks for the correction!

CosRush

Stu,

That was an excellent suggestion
You're so right, ive still be able to surf the net without pictures and its used hardly any bandwidth in comparison to having pictures on.........

Cheers