Broadband caps: How much data is enough?

[SlinkyMike]

Let's face it: there are literally thousands of people out there who make a hobby of downloading; storing and sorting every single megabit of illegal material available online.

IMHO those individuals are making broadband a misery for those of us who just want to have a stable, affordable and quick internet connection for moderate usage.
I'd like to be able to download a few movies a month or a couple of games and some series through a service like Hulu or Netflix and have all of the benefits of that but I don't need to keep torrents running 24/7, noting every single dip in throughput like I'm a freaking anesthetist monitoring the vital signs of a patient undergoing heart surgery FFS!

Those of you who do behave that way are making broadband expensive, confusing and unreliable (slow.) You are taking more than you need and that is screwing the rest of us.

I know I am going to get flamed silly for saying this but you illegal downloaders out there are the ones making the biggest noise however: you are a big part of the very problem you whine about!

Do you really think that ripping, sharing and stealing every damn thing out there is a sustainable model?

Internet should be uncapped 24/7.

Users who use massive amounts of data consistently every month should have to pay a small surcharge.

Define 'massive amounts'.

IOW: 'How much data is enough?'

You have simply rephrased the thread title...

 

[LazyLion]

Let's face it: there are literally thousands of people out there who make a hobby of downloading; storing and sorting every single megabit of illegal material available online.

<snip - Irrelevant boring pointless whining snipped - snip>

People like you make me want to go and download more. I think I will go and grab a couple of disc images that I will never use, just to tie up my line for a couple more hours.

I paid for it. It is mine. I will use it how I want. Take your whining and water some cactus plants. Boo Hoo.

 

[Nick333]

Let's face it: there are literally thousands of people out there who make a hobby of downloading; storing and sorting every single megabit of illegal material available online.

IMHO those individuals are making broadband a misery for those of us who just want to have a stable, affordable and quick internet connection for moderate usage.
I'd like to be able to download a few movies a month or a couple of games and some series through a service like Hulu or Netflix and have all of the benefits of that but I don't need to keep torrents running 24/7, noting every single dip in throughput like I'm a freaking anesthetist monitoring the vital signs of a patient undergoing heart surgery FFS!

Those of you who do behave that way are making broadband expensive, confusing and unreliable (slow.) You are taking more than you need and that is screwing the rest of us.

I know I am going to get flamed silly for saying this but you illegal downloaders out there are the ones making the biggest noise however: you are a big part of the very problem you whine about!

Do you really think that ripping, sharing and stealing every damn thing out there is a sustainable model?



Define 'massive amounts'.

IOW: 'How much data is enough?'

You have simply rephrased the thread title...

Really? Your internet connection is unstable, slow and expensive?

If your connection is unstable slow and expensive get a better ISP. - Can you prove that the internet is being slowed by high-end users?

 

[LazyLion]

When will people get it through their heads that users are not the problem?
Greedy companies who want to squeeze every last cent out of you are the problem.

Do you crap on people who drink ten cups of coffee a day for driving up the price of cheap, no name brand coffee while you drink premium brand?

 

[Fearl3$$]

The cap limits that is in place atm is getting way to small for just normal every day use, for things like windows updates,AV update's occasional PS3 and Xbox updates. and for those more advance ppl, that like the joy's of a Secure network at home with extra implemented equipment those things also needs to be updated.

Playing online Games that you bought also nowadays' can use as much as 200 - 400mb per hour... So
lets say you are 2 ppl in the household that play's games with large amounts of data transfers, then 5 - 10 gb is used up in less than a day. So cap's should be increaced to at least 200gb per month...
or start providing services that you do not have to use your "cap" for playing a game or 2.. Geez every game that you can network or play online uses a spesific range of UDP ports... cant the ISP's just greate a policy list, that if you uses these ports no bandwith gets deducted....Obviosly the ISP, will start charging for such a service...(we know of 1 company that already started doing it in SA but luckely they do not charge their customers a fee)

 

[RandomMaster]

YES! WE HAVE FILLED THE INTERNET PIPE WITH OUR 4mb/s download! NOW THE REST OF THE WORLD MUST SUFFER AS I EAT AWAY AT THEIR PIPE! Muhahahaha.

And actually no... no he can't

Really? Your internet connection is unstable, slow and expensive?

If your connection is unstable slow and expensive get a better ISP. - Can you prove that the internet is being slowed by high-end users?

 

[CeeBee]

Usage for everybody is bound to increase.
I used to have a 350Mb package, which was good enough... then 500megs still had leftovers... now, with wife & kids getting in on facebook, school projects etc... even 5gigs is a month is pushing it.
Currently averaging about 6-8gigs
I don't need uncapped, and don't want to pay for it.... with some gaming, if I get the time, a 10gig account should be quite sufficient for our usage.... for now....
I'm on G-Connect's prepaid account, which works well for me, since it covers the 3G/HSPA modem too, so easy to re-coin when needed.
But sheez... by all means, let uncapped be UNcapped, since the guys are paying for it. ... I might be there one day too

 

[Howardxxxx]

50Gbs amonth

I am on Mweb uncapped and using my PC to watch my SLINGBOX from the UK for BBCTV etc I use between 20 and 30 a month so for me 50 would the answer

 

[Fader4]

never enough

i joined with mweb about two weeks ago and my usage is at about 230gb as of this afternoon... should make it to 450-500 in a month ..... cant fathom how people live with these things called "caps" anymore.

 

[Knersus]

I just want to know from all these people who download hundreds of GB per month....
1) how much hard drive space do you have? I know some of it goes to streaming etc that is never saved to disk, but still.. where do you put all this crap?
2) when do you get time to watch all these movies and tv series and if you ever get through it? If I download 50Gb of content it takes me forever to go through it which means for the next few months I wont download that much again..

 

[LazyLion]

I just want to know from all these people who download hundreds of GB per month....
1) how much hard drive space do you have? I know some of it goes to streaming etc that is never saved to disk, but still.. where do you put all this crap?

Plenty, in the order of tens of Terabytes, both on my own removable drives, network, and on a network of friends. Don't worry. We have enough space!

2) when do you get time to watch all these movies and tv series and if you ever get through it? If I download 50Gb of content it takes me forever to go through it which means for the next few months I wont download that much again..

Why do you assume that this is all for one person? Maybe we are downloading for our entire family and a network of friends? Not everybody has DSTV, and there is so much old crap on the free to air channels. For many people one person with an uncapped account is their sole source of entertainment.

Why do you also assume that it is all movies and TV series. I fix computers from home and although I try to keep an offline store of Windows updates and program updates, there is always several hundred megabytes that has to be updated straight from the internet for each system that I re-install.

 

[SlinkyMike]

People like you make me want to go and download more. I think I will go and grab a couple of disc images that I will never use, just to tie up my line for a couple more hours.

I paid for it. It is mine. I will use it how I want. Take your whining and water some cactus plants. Boo Hoo.

You paid toward it. it is ours.

Pathetic attitude.

Really? Your internet connection is unstable, slow and expensive?

Yes. Yes it is. Having experienced broadband overseas I believe this is and has always been the case in SA... am I mistaken somehow?

 

[LazyLion]

You paid toward it. it is ours.

Pathetic attitude.

Oh Boo Hoo... my heart pumps custard for you. Seriously... I paid for it... it is mine. I'll do with it what I want... and there's nothing you can do about it except cry like a baby.

Talk to me when you have paid as much I have over the last year.

Or go whine at the providers... they are the ones you should really be focusing on. They are sitting on oodles and oodles of capacity... but they want to sell it to you as if it is as scarce as gold.

 

[Nick333]

You paid toward it. it is ours.

Yes. Yes it is. Having experienced broadband overseas I believe this is and has always been the case in SA... am I mistaken somehow?

Well, I guess we'll just have to accept your opinion then.

My experience of a 4mbps adsl line is pretty much just that depending on your ISP. Are you complaining about line speed or what? Do you see some connection between high-end users and Telkoms roll out of faster adsl connections?

I really don't understand your issue.

Let's, for arguments sake, assume that the internet in SA is slow, unreliable and expensive.

If it's slow that would be because Telkom hasn't given us faster lines. That would mean that Telkom 1.) Shouldn't be the sole provider of ADSL lines in SA and 2.) should do a better job if they are. It could also be because contention ratios are ridiculously high. Thats not any consumers fault.

If it's unreliable thats Telkom and the ISP's fault. They need to build better networks. (Frankly I don't believe our networks are any worse than anywhere else nowadays and I just don't buy your argument that it is.)

I don't believe it's ridiculously expensive anymore. A lot of people now have uncapped for less than what they were paying for over 5 gigs a month only a couple of months ago.

You're buying into the internet as a scarce resource BS Telkom and to a lesser degree the ISP has been selling us for years. It's not true anymore. Local networks have been up to the task for years and international bandwidth is now plentiful. If it was ever true that was their fault not ours.

Frankly, I find it hard to believe that given how far we've come there are still internet users that are willing to jump on the "let's all share the internet fairly like good boys and girls" bandwagon.

 

[LazyLion]

Frankly, I find it hard to believe that given how far we've come there are still internet users that are willing to jump on the "let's all share the internet fairly like good boys and girls" bandwagon.

Dang Communists!

 

[SlinkyMike]

Oh Boo Hoo... my heart pumps custard for you. Seriously... I paid for it... it is mine. I'll do with it what I want... and there's nothing you can do about it except cry like a baby.

Talk to me when you have paid as much I have over the last year.

Or go whine at the providers... they are the ones you should really be focusing on. They are sitting on oodles and oodles of capacity... but they want to sell it to you as if it is as scarce as gold.

WOW! totally blown away with your mature, well reasoned stance on this topic... complete with conspiracy theory, infantile sense of entitlement and refusal to consider all sides of the argument.

I really don't understand your issue.

Well... contention ratio for one... 4mbps is awesome... if you can actually get it...

 

[Kosmik]

You paid toward it. it is ours.

Pathetic attitude.

? Ah no, I pay for a service, that service is mine, not yours , "ours" , fairyland. Mine, Mine Mine.

Is my tax money also yours?

 

[LazyLion]

WOW! totally blown away with your mature, well reasoned stance on this topic... complete with conspiracy theory, infantile sense of entitlement and refusal to consider all sides of the argument.

Bwhahaha, what planet are you living on? Seriously. Take the blinkers off... look around you. Stop living in a box. Get a clue.

You sound like a bleating care bear... "it will all just be better... if we can learn to share"

Post your Account details here... Username and Password... then we can start sharing.

 

[Datura]

I used to use an average of 7GB a day.

 

[Nick333]

Well... contention ratio for one... 4mbps is awesome... if you can actually get it...

So, what I'm hearing is that because Telkom or whoever have you sharing a line or DSLAM or whatever at an exceptionally high contention ratio you choose to blame someone who is using their adsl as much as possible for your slow speeds?

Point proven then. Cheap ass telco provides creates a "scarcity" and you get upset with other users for using a service that they're paying for. This is not energy or water we're talking about here. Any scarcity is a result of lack of delivery.