AT&T Bandwidth cap...(*rant*)

[darkswordsman17]

So, AT&T charged us $30 extra, which means they say we used 300GB (well I assume between 250-300GB) of bandwidth (150GB cap, $10/50GB over that). Plus they claim that you have to go over the cap 3 times before they'll charge you. They actually say they'll contact you about overuse before hand as well but we did not get anything about that until the extra $30 on the bill.

I have no idea how this was accomplished. There's 2 computers that stream Netflix some, occasionally Hulu and Youtube and other video streaming services, but none are done in HD (Netflix on both is at the lowest quality setting), and then just general internet usage. No torrenting, no hosting, nothing that should be causing such high bandwidth use. I've downloaded maybe 1 decent size game (12GB) during that time and I don't play any games online so that shouldn't be an issue.

After complaining they took the charge off but said they'll only do that once. We can't even access their bandwidth meter so no idea how to gauge this and if we somehow used twice their bandwidth cap its obviously going to be an issue as I don't know how we could cut that much usage out.

Plus this combined with their worthless support when we had issues with their DSL modem (went through 3-4 reps who couldn't help at all, then they allegedly tested the line multiple times at one point they thought the line was bad and wanted to charge us to send out a tech before we got a higher level of support that knew something; I got yelled at after asking if I needed to provide MAC address or anything when we bought a new modem).

We're checking into the only other option, the local cable provider, but I don't know how well that will work (we don't want cable, just internet), or how much more expensive they'll be, plus any costs (install, equipment, etc).

 

[jpiniero]

By "other video streaming services", do you mean those pirate TV streams? I think those are P2P, and pretty much anything P2P is going to be a serious bandwidth hog.

 

[child of wonder]

Your abuse of AT&T's internet connection that they so GRACIOUSLY provide you will soon bankrupt their entire business. REPENT!

 

[jpiniero]

The other thing I can think of is apps that stealth auto update. Steam updates can be pretty big.

 

[dmcowen674]

So, AT&T charged us $30 extra, which means they say we used 300GB

Awesome.

Americans deserve to be fucked without lube and they are. :thumbsup:

 

[uhohs]

switched to dslextreme last year when AT&T tried to hit me with like $170 in overusage. will probably be switching to sonic.net in the near future because of the need for better speeds.

 

[zanejohnson]

thank god my cableco doesn't have caps.. speeds could be better, but i foresee a big upgrade coming.. they just upgraded me to a cisco docsis 3 modem from an old surfboard 5100... i got rid of basic cable tv service and just kept the internet a couple months ago.. we've been averaging 300GB/month over the 10/2 connection (which is the best they offer @ 60/month)

 

[darkswordsman17]

By "other video streaming services", do you mean those pirate TV streams? I think those are P2P, and pretty much anything P2P is going to be a serious bandwidth hog.

Nope neither computer gets used for any of that. Stuff like Nova/PBS, South Park, AdultSwim, and Crackle. I have like all of them set to the lowest settings if they have any available too.

The other thing I can think of is apps that stealth auto update. Steam updates can be pretty big.

Yeah I thought about that too, but the only game on my list that I've noticed updating is Left 4 Dead 2. Most of the games on there are small indie games.

I downloaded SR2 in December and that's the only large game (its the 12GB I referenced) that I've done since whenever Diablo 3 came out. I played D3 for about a month and then stopped.

Both computers are up to date and have AV and don't get used on any sketchy sites so I don't think they've been zombified. I really have no idea how we supposedly used so much.

 

[techs]

You might either want to flash your router with something like DD-WRT or buy a router that keeps track of bandwith.

 

[Brovane]

That is missed up if a company has a bandwidth cap but doesn't provide access to a bandwidth meter to see how much date you are using. With Cox I can logon and see the data usage if I want. My Router will also show me how much I am using. It is a NetGear WNDR3800 and it works great for bandwidth monitoring.

I would recommend that you look at some tool to monitor your bandwidth.

 

[SheHateMe]

Then somebody is stealing your wiffy...

 

[swanysto]

Then somebody is stealing your wiffy...

That was my guess. Either someone in your family is doing something without you knowing, or your neighbor is getting in on the action.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I've started the router logging the bandwidth stuff so yeah I'm keeping an eye on it. I'll try to remember to update if I figure out what was going on.

Wifi is turned off so its not that.

 

[ussfletcher]

I've started the router logging the bandwidth stuff so yeah I'm keeping an eye on it. I'll try to remember to update if I figure out what was going on.

Wifi is turned off so its not that.

Have kids? Are you sure wifi is actually off? Some older wireless routers default to having unprotected wifi networks when reset.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Got dinged again so switched to the local cable. Faster speeds (10/2 from 6/768k) for about $5-10 more (before the added cost of the cap penalty so we'll save probably $20 or so). Oh and no cap let alone a monetary penalty.

Final bill for AT&T will be high though. Their cap penalty was a full month behind the billing cycle.

 

[darkewaffle]

Yea, use router to monitor.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Call them to see if they can give you a bigger internet tube. They'll have to dig up your whole yard though.

Look into a package that has no cap. Speed is not everything, it's better off to have a slower connection with no cap then a fast one with a cap. You can just let torrents download overnight anyway, who cares if it may take hours or even days to download. That's what I do, I always have it running. I'll think of something, add it to the list, and then go back to check it out later. It's a VM out of sight out of mind. I use traffic shaping in my firewall so it's not killing my connection all the time.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Call them to see if they can give you a bigger internet tube. They'll have to dig up your whole yard though.

Based on the other person bitching about AT&T destroying their yard, it would be comical. They'd end up ripping up like half the block and tearing the shit out of at least 3 people's yards.

 

[Golgatha]

You would have to fully saturate U-Verse's highest tier (24Mbit/s I believe) at 100% of its capacity for roughly 30 hours straight to even hit the cap of 300GB. I call shens on their end of the pipe.

 

[Red Storm]

As a Fios customer I LOL @ AT&T's caps.

 

[freegeeks]

I'm hitting 1 TB / month on my 50 / 6 Mbit connection. Luckily we have unlimited internet at cheap prices in Belgium

 

[vshah]

As a Fios customer I LOL @ AT&T's caps.

amen, i love fios.

 

[exdeath]

Happy with my 40 mbps VZW 4GLTE. I've hit 8-10 GB at times and no caps. $65 a month with my work discount.

 

[Anonemous]

switched to dslextreme last year when AT&T tried to hit me with like $170 in overusage. will probably be switching to sonic.net in the near future because of the need for better speeds.

Sonic.net any good? I saw that you have to be very close (<3000ft) to the CO in order to get the good speeds (20Mbps) for their fusion service. They basically use the dsl lines from AT&T and if you are too far away from the CO (6000+ ft) you get slower speeds 6-8Mbps.

 

[uhohs]

Sonic.net any good? I saw that you have to be very close (<3000ft) to the CO in order to get the good speeds (20Mbps) for their fusion service. They basically use the dsl lines from AT&T and if you are too far away from the CO (6000+ ft) you get slower speeds 6-8Mbps.

Just found out this week that DSL Extreme will be Sonic's partner/reseller here in the Los Angeles area, so it looks like I'll probalby still be with DSL Extreme, but with the rebranded Sonic "Fusion" service. Luckily I think I'm <2000ft from the CO so I should be set.