1GB Cap Letter!!!!

[Starsurfer]

there should be an allowance. people dont realise that children play so much games, fomr 8am to 5am my computer is in constant use people playing cs and startcraft, i find that i cannot stay within my 1gb cap thats not excessive use.

[obvious]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherN00b

However between you saying that it's a blanket mail to those whose areas ntl can't be bothered to upgrade, and obvious saying that 9/10ths of the time the claim that there are poor speeds and pings is a lie and ntl apparently just want to make more profit I feel really sorry for those who are reading this thread for information and being fed supposition, paranoia and half or complete un-truths

A fair point. People should take my 'guesses' with a pinch of salt. My guess would still remain though that ntl are targetting people based on individual usage and not on localised congestion. Call it a hunch.

[obvious]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherN00b

Maybe, probably not, but with the sorts of figures that have been quoted, 260+GB/month downloads. 10GB/day downloads, 60GB/month uploads, is it that surprising?

Of course it's not surprising at all. My main point is that ntl should be (and could be for all I know) reacting to specific hotspots rather than just contacting the top 1% (or whatever) of bandwidth users.

Extreme example:- If a user were the only customer on a ubr, it wouldn't make sense for ntl to warn them about excessive usage.

[Sociable]

The implication originally was that monitoring would only apply when there was a problem and this makes perfect sense as to do otherwise would be a waste of resources.

The problem comes from thinking a blunt measurement of gigs per day provides the information to sort out who is actually impacting on other users.

A point I have made before is that a person always downloading just under a gig but doing it at peak times is actually more of a problem than someone else downloading 2 gig but doing so overnight.

The 1 gig a day rule therefore does not expose those that are actually the problem at all. In fact it may very well promote further abuse as people stick to 1 gig but do so when it is convenient for them not others simply to comply with the Cap.

The one exception to this is those rare cases where it can be seen that someone is canning the line 24/7 as they must by definition be doing so at peak times.

[rodd]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherN00b

I see nothing in the letter to say that.

And yes I know, I'm an ADSL user myself, that's why I didn't mention it. I would imagine though that those who are receiving letters for really high usage are going to be on 1Mbit services now so won't see an upload increase. With one exception seems those who've posted on here are using massive amounts of bandwidth. A user who complained in the chatroom is uploading 100% all the time and downloading a shedload as well, by his own admission.

Those who've complained here with one exception are using at least 10GB a day of throughput by their own admission, hardly indicates blanket mailing does it?

If you check on letters sent by US ISPs, which you can find in the forums of http://www.broadbandreports.com I think you'll find that they don't detail exact quantities of bandwidth used, etc, and also from Tiscali's forum at ADSLGuide, http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk that Tiscali when they cut people's 512k service down to 64k don't even tell them full stop. Please if you're going to say things like that base it on fact not supposition.

This doesn't seem so much like an enforcement of the AUP as finding users whose extreme usage affects service in their local area. However between you saying that it's a blanket mail to those whose areas ntl can't be bothered to upgrade, and obvious saying that 9/10ths of the time the claim that there are poor speeds and pings is a lie and ntl apparently just want to make more profit I feel really sorry for those who are reading this thread for information and being fed supposition, paranoia and half or complete un-truths

Originally Posted by Klaus

rodd, I don't see any evidence in the letter to make me think it may just be a circular. The fact that only a very few people have had the letter, makes me think it's more targetted than that.

Klaus

As I said.
If there really was a problem with your downloading, ntl will ring you and quote the days and excessive amounts that you have downloaded. They would also have detailed the days and amounts in the letter if it was more than, just a circular.

The evidence is that they haven't given any evidence at all of it being more than, just a circular. (The evidence is as the evidence in the letter)

NTL must learn to write a professional valid letter, or it will treated accordingly, as just another circular in this case.

In the event that there really is a problem, the customer will be contacted again, and perhaps, next time in a more profession manner. In the meantime, carry on.

As for singling out Tiscalli quote {that Tiscali when they cut people's 512k service down to 64k don't even tell them full stop} end-quote, I've seen similar comments about ntl on nthellworld forums. Tiscalli isn't the only ADSL service anyway, there are dozens of providers to choose from, once you get away from ntl with it's almost zero option of choices.

[Chrysalis]

before you impose traffic limits you need to provide a way to monitor the traffic you use as well as setting sensible limits for each tier, providing burst traffic speed costs the isp nothing its just the amount of traffic you use that cost's the isp money, someone on a 1mbit connection using 1 gig a day cost the isp the same money as someone on a 150kbit conenction using 1 gig a day, so in reality we been ripped off.

Also take note of the problems we having at the moment in the broadband section of this site, seems random points of the net are going offline for ntl user's at the moment

also take note of the ongoing problems with the mail servers (months for me) and the dns servers.

There is no way you can mention that ntl are doing this to remian profitable so they can keep their network up to scratch because the fact is the network isnt up to scratch, and another fact is the bosses got a fat bonus.

[Stuartbe]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

before you impose traffic limits you need to provide a way to monitor the traffic you use as well as setting sensible limits for each tier, providing burst traffic speed costs the isp nothing its just the amount of traffic you use that cost's the isp money, someone on a 1mbit connection using 1 gig a day cost the isp the same money as someone on a 150kbit conenction using 1 gig a day, so in reality we been ripped off.

Also take note of the problems we having at the moment in the broadband section of this site, seems random points of the net are going offline for ntl user's at the moment

also take note of the ongoing problems with the mail servers (months for me) and the dns servers.

There is no way you can mention that ntl are doing this to remian profitable so they can keep their network up to scratch because the fact is the network isnt up to scratch, and another fact is the bosses got a fat bonus.

Dont forget the Poxy Proxy's - My connection would be fine if it was not for them

[dimr21]

Hi everyone,

I got that mail as well today, I download a lot but not at the extravagant levels mentioned here. One thing though, the mail emphasises that it was sent "for the sake of all our broadband customers" and to ensure the best service for each NTL customer. Ok no problem about that, sounds fair BUT it seems a joke when NTL has "allowed" (by means of not securing their modems configurations properly) people to steal bandwidth from others. So NTL wants to put a cap on me paying £30 a month and on the other hand guidelines are all over the net on how to steal bandwidth so numerous illegal users download heavily every day on the expense of legal users. Why don't you try to sort that out first if you want a proper service and then enforce regulations to legal users NTL???? Oh and if I say to NTL that because of their lack of security in their configurations someone may have cloned my mac address and is stealing bandwidth from me and that is the reason why I have so big traffic figures how would they be able to defend themselves??

Get your services right NTL, sort out illegal users first who get 1mb connections for free and produce traffic of thousands of GB and then look on how to enforce a cap on legal users.

[dimr21]

Don't bet on that JustAnotherN00b, unfortunately from what I've seen it's not at all "next to impossible to change a MAC address on a modem". I am totally against it and I don't want to go into details of how it could be done but I am sure others here can confirm that stealing bandwidth is possible and unfortunately it's not rocket science how to do it.
All the other comments look funny to me when at the same time I am reading about addresses trade. And as what it could be done to secure them or how to offer a very good service it's not really my problem is it? I am the customer not the service provider and I can see other companies having no traffic caps but providing a good service compared to the standards of NTL at least.So why would I choose NTL??

[Stuartbe]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherN00b

Your point is taken but please no more about it on here... there are ways to detect this though, believe me, though this isn't the place to be discussing this. Less said about this the better.

As far as why choose ntl, nearly 1 million households have, however I don't do sales

I agree - please dont give that kind of info out....

NTL security is something that needs improving IMO but its not going to help anyone by highlighting any weakneses is it ???

[dimr21]

I agree the less said the better, since there are ways to detect perhaps NTL should be looking on this issue first and then on the cap, just the phrase "Please, for the sake of all our broadband customers" on the mail looked very ironic to me, like I am the one who causes all the problems. end of discussion then

1 million that's good , let's see how this number is reduced after the actual enforcement of the cap

[Klaus]

The monitoring side of it is a very valid point. When PlusNET can give users access through their website to their exact personally usage, why can't NTL?

I tend to side with JustAnotherN00b on the modem thing. Hacking cable modems used to be a big thing, but this was mainly in The States and mainly in the early days of cable modems. Cable operators have become much more aware since then and it sounds like NTL are doing most of things they could be doing.

You are right about MAC addresses, to an extent. A lot of routers you buy in the shops these days will let you change/spoof your MAC address. This is partly to help some cable customers who may need to spoof the MAC address of the nic they registered with. However, it's not nearly as easy on the cable modem supplied by NTL.

dimr, would you mind disclosing roughly how much you download/upload? It seems the majority of people with the letters are downloading and uploading close to the theorectical maximums.

Klaus

[dimr21]

Just pointing out the irony stuartbe nothing else on that subject!

[dimr21]

Unfortunately I don't have actual figures Klaus, my downloads surely exceed the 1GB per day most of the times. Upload traffic should not be that high as I am hardly using any P2P and I don't have a ftp/web server. I am going to install DU Meter to monitor the traffic from now on.

[ntl customer]

Originally Posted by rodd

Tiscalli isn't the only ADSL service anyway, there are dozens of providers to choose from, once you get away from ntl with it's almost zero option of choices.

Really?

Take a look at FAQ #6 on the Gio Internet page

Are ntl opening up their network to the competition?