[sllug-members]: Comcast has problems

[Corey Edwards]

Full disclosure, I work for an ISP so my opinions my be somewhat biased.

On Mon, 2007-01-22 at 09:11 -0700, U235Sentinel wrote:
> I've pulled from archive.org their advertisement when I signed up and
> I understand their TOS/AUP policies (printed out from work last
> Friday).  Still it's hard to make someone behave a ceratin way when
> it's not mentioned how they want you to behave.  It's like driving on
> the freeway without posting speed limit signs or advertising it in the
> DMV manuals.  If the Government told you simply "Don't drive fast"
> without telling you how fast is fast, doesn't make sense to me. 

Generally what you see is service providers will define "unlimited" as
"unlimited, but with limits if we feel like it". For example, unlimited
dial-up doesn't mean you can keep your modem dialed in 24/7. You can see
how that impacts how many other people would be able to get online since
an ISP can't afford a dedicated modem for everybody. Go buy a 64k
dedicated frame relay and you'll see the difference in cost. I take it
this is especially true because of how cable networks are built.
250GB/mo is about 100kbps sustained. That really is a lot more than your
typical user.

According to http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7940 Comcast has been
cracking down on "abusers" more so than most ISPs. The article is a few
years old so who knows if they're still up to it. The way they're going
about it seems somewhat heavy handed to me, but the TOS and AUP also
read heavily handed, so I'll be surprised if you have any remedy. I bet
this is the section they would cite:

        viii. restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or otherwise disrupt or
        cause a performance degradation, regardless of intent, purpose
        or knowledge, to the Service or any Comcast (or Comcast
        supplier) host, server, backbone network, node or service, or
        otherwise cause a performance degradation to any Comcast (or
        Comcast supplier) facilities used to deliver the Service;

It seems to me that what Mark Cuban has been saying about network
infrastructure being nowhere near capable of delivering hi-def TV is a
lot more accurate than we'd like to believe. I don't expect Comcast is
doing this just to be mean or because they can.

> BTW, last month when I brought this up (dec 12 and dec 13) someone
> mentioned they download 250 Gig a month.  That's what I was doing and
> it's too much.  I "think" I need to upgrade to their business account
> for the "unlimited use for a flat monthly fee" service again.  Still
> investigating.  

"The failure of Comcast or its suppliers to enforce this AUP, for
whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of any right to do
so at any time." Just because somebody else got away with it, doesn't
mean you will too.

Corey