I don't get it, if someone tried that download cap/traffic-shaping scheme over here they would basically loose all their customers in a single day. Why do you accept this completely ridiculous behavior from your ISPs?
I agree. I wonder how many people would sit down and take it if virgin were to introduce capping on their TV channels. Watch too much and we will reduce your service. Could just see that going down well with the soaps and chat show brigade. I see where they are coming from, and the need to cap at peak hours, but they should be investing in ways to eliminate the need for capping. It does rankle me that I pay for a 10mb service, but I am restricted in the hours I can utilise that service to the full extent.
I'm surprised so many people moan about the download limit. It's reset on a daily basis, so unless you're buying large games every single day (unlikely), I can't see it effecting people more than a couple of times a month. Even then the speed you drop down to is more than enough for most tasks (games, streaming, general browsing). If you're downloading so much that you're reaching the limit every night then chances are you're downloading stuff illegally or you're in very small minority and probably should seek a new ISP that caters to your great downloading need. If you are downloading stuff illegally then you can hardly moan that the speed drops for on a service that you're paying for making it slower to get stuff that you haven't paid for. Hitting 200Mb/s is can only be a good thing. Without advances and competition we'd still be paying stupid amounts for not very much. As it stands, other providers will either need to find a way to squeeze more out of what they have, or start to incentivive customers to their packages with other new things. Win-win for consumers.
Virgin are the only provider of cable and thus reliable broadband where i live (out of range of an exchange) so its put up or loose out, ain't monopolies great... Eek part of the problem is how they throttle, a number of times when i'm throttled i also get an unusable ping, i belive they throttle the traffic by flood the line or something.
Youtube (HD), iplayer etc would soon have them capping your account, why should I wait until the late evening to watch a few videos or catch up on some TV?
So because I download large files, and plenty of them I must be doing so illegally? Ok, thanks for that insight Great to see you get 5 from 2+2, way to go!!
I hope you are speaking for yourself there Seriously though, it's really not hard to go over the capping limit, especially when you use the net frequently.
Especially when say an episode of hell... Holby City or so (1hr long) is about 800mb.. if you get home from work before the capping is over watch an episode, download a couple of podcasts, maybe update software on your console. You're over your limit... hell it'd only take 4 hours to burst the 3GB limit on iplayer alone... then you're throttled for 5 hours. Cause that seems fair.
That used to be the case, but I get capped until the 24 hour day is over i.e. if I download 4gb at 3pm, I am capped until 9am the next morning. Happened last week. BTW at above comment via illegal downloading, if you haven't been asleep for the last 12 months, you should have realised HD content is now mainstream, I downloaded a small movie the other night, 20 minutes long (legal, small movie company), the file was massive, and that's one file, how about all the HD YouTube content, game demos, drivers, music, even game reviews at 300mb a pop (HD). If you did download 4gb previously, the chances of it being illegal content was high, but now, that's not the case.
Actually I said that some people may download so much that that get capped more than a couple of times are month, but that they are in the minority and are probably better off with another ISP. Holby HD = 800MB Podcasts = 200MB Software update = 500MB Total = 1.5GB Sure I made those figures up, but not only are the numbers I used very high but as the cap is daily it means that these things would need to happen frquently and all on the same day to be more than a minor annoyance. Software updates certainly aren't that frequent, and 200MB of podcasts is loads, I'm doubtful there is anywhere near that much material on a frequent basis... Even if you do happen to do all of the above every night, you are still only 1/2 way into the limit. Seriously, 4 hours of HD stuff on iPlayer... - Last I checked (albeit not very well) there was not much HD stuff on there, especially 4 hours worth a day that was worth watching - With v+/sky+/pvrs most people simply record what they want to watch rather than stream it - iPlayer is available on virgin on demand so watch it on there and it won't count towards your limit Additionally, by the time most people get hom from work, lets say at 6 (not that I know anyone that gets home that early), you only have 3 hours of peak time left so there isn't time to watch 4 hours of HD material. Oh, and if you do, the 5Mb/s you get dropped down to is more than enough to stream HD material so you can continue to watch iPlayer anyway. Again, I'm not saying it's not possible to dl 3GB in a night. My point was simply that it is not as easy to do on such a frequent basis that it's going to be that much of an issue for most people. Anyone that is able to download this much in the small timeframe is in a minority. How often do you download drivers? Certainly no more than once a month, and they are generally quite small. Game demos? This one could be higher if you're downloading every game, by every indie developer, but this is unlikely as you don't have the time to play games. You're too busy on iPlayer/youTube watching your 4 hours of HD material in the 5 hour peak window. Chances are it's no more than once a week. Music? Let's assume the average track length is 5MB. You need to download a hefty amount if you're hitting the limit so let's call it a relatively conservative 500MB. Are there really 50 decent tracks being released every day? Assuming it's streamed and you're listening live, it's unlikely to be streamed at the same bitrate as MP3s, but assuming it is, then 500MB is still more hours worth of music than you can listen to in 5 hours. And so on... Now to reach the limit you need to be doing all these things, on the same day, in the same 5 hour window. This simply isn't going to be an issue for most people. They won't fit this usage pattern. Given that only a minority are affected I was mearly surprised that everyone in this thread seems so affected by the cap. I'm guessing it's the case that the 95% of people are happy and keep quiet, while the 5% it actually affects (on a frequent basis so that is becomes noticeable and annoying) are the only ones bothering to voice their opinions... Either that or you are getting throttled a couple of times a month in the middle of downloading your porn and just as you're about to reach for the kleenex your connection is throttled and you missed the money shot...
Mostly video podcasts for the sake of the pedant. Either way there is still the issue that even unthrottled I'm only getting ~7Mb.. then when I hit the cap, they still flood the line with what would be the 75% loss in bandwidth, so I'm pretty much boned either way.
Okay.... We're on 20 meg. I live in a student house with 5 students. We have virgin broadband but not virgin TV. There's only one TV in our house.... Thus, people use Iplayer all the time. There is loads of HD content on there. On top of that there is 4OD too, as well as youtube etc. Say 3 people watch 2 "HD" shows on some provider after getting back from uni, that's 1.6 gigs roughly for each person...nearly 5 gigs already, not including normal internet browsing or any updates or whatever. 20 meg ain't cheap, especially for students. It's crap, but the only way that all of us simultaneous get reasonable speeds - in OFF PEAK HOURS. Just so you know, we get capped 5 out of 7 days I would say - the others are when people aren't home. As soon as it hits 8pm...everything grinds to a halt. We get victimised for using a service normally for it's intended purpose, i've even seen it advertised as good for multiple internet users. ******** it is.
