I'm in an area that has had data caps for years, and it may not affect you as much as you'd think. The connection that my roommate and I share is 125GB cap per month. Neither of us skimp on streaming, Netflix, downloading, or gaming, and the most we've ever used (both upload and download combined) was 97GB, on a month that we both did a 16GB download of another game. It really depends on how many people are sharing the connection, and what their habits are. When we had a third gamer in the house for a while we were running up against the cap, but even then it wasn't too bad. A couple extra dollars a month when we were over, nothing crazy.
You can get programs that will allow you to monitor your usage. It might be a good idea to find one now, and monitor your usage before the cap goes into effect, so that you know if you need to cut back or not.
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150GB data cap is huge.|
Originally Posted by Darkfaith
I'm in an area that has had data caps for years, and it may not affect you as much as you'd think. The connection that my roommate and I share is 125GB cap per month. Neither of us skimp on streaming, Netflix, downloading, or gaming, and the most we've ever used (both upload and download combined) was 97GB, on a month that we both did a 16GB download of another game. It really depends on how many people are sharing the connection, and what their habits are. When we had a third gamer in the house for a while we were running up against the cap, but even then it wasn't too bad. A couple extra dollars a month when we were over, nothing crazy.
You can get programs that will allow you to monitor your usage. It might be a good idea to find one now, and monitor your usage before the cap goes into effect, so that you know if you need to cut back or not. |
I spent six months on satellite cable, and the monthly cap was 7GB, up and down. That - that's a cap where you have to watch your usage.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
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With a 250GB cap, you could watch 9 hours of High Definition Netflix streaming per day for the entire month, and then you would just hit the cap, maybe. 150GB would be about 5 1/2 hours per day or so.
The amount of data that gets sent between your PC and the CoX server is negligible. I'm not even sure if it would be possible to hit either cap with just CoX alone, even running the game 24/7.
So, unless you're a REAL fiend for downloading, you have nothing to worry about.
Living in Australia, we've had data caps from the beginning.
I'm currently on a new 200GB account, and you'll really push to get up towards your upper limit. Playing online is next to nothing; it's downloads of multiple movies or whatever that's going to even remotely challenge you. Heck, I had a 20GB limit before now and I had trouble pushing that.
S.
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THIS.|
Originally Posted by sleestack
With a 250GB cap, you could watch 9 hours of High Definition Netflix streaming per day for the entire month, and then you would just hit the cap, maybe. 150GB would be about 5 1/2 hours per day or so.
The amount of data that gets sent between your PC and the CoX server is negligible. I'm not even sure if it would be possible to hit either cap with just CoX alone, even running the game 24/7. So, unless you're a REAL fiend for downloading, you have nothing to worry about. |
It's not that bad unless you're a freaking torrent freak.
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Or you HDD crashes and you want to redownload over 150 games on Steam...
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Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
THIS.
It's not that bad unless you're a freaking torrent freak. |
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Unless you're going to play them all that month, you can stagger them a little.
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Originally Posted by The_Coming_Storm
Or you HDD crashes and you want to redownload over 150 games on Steam...
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Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.
-Don't just rebel, build a better world, comrade!
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Originally Posted by Durakken
as of may 2nd AT &T will be implementing data caps.... 150GB for DSL and 250GB for u-verse...
I don't know how this will effect me, but I watch a lot of streaming video... and that's sorta the main thing along with gaming that is going to be effected... Youtube, Netflix, microsoft, Sony, MMOs, and steam are all going to lose money because we as consumers will not be able to use those services as much due to these data caps...especially if they become wide spread... How do you all feel about this? |
Okay 150 Gigabytes a month is equivalent to half the total thruput of a T1.
150GB/month = 50GB/day = 2.08GB/hour = 605KB/sec
Also keep in mind we're talking about KiloBYTES here. Connection speeds are expressed in KiloBITS.
605KB/sec * 8 = 4840Kb/sec (In other words, just under 5 megabits/sec.)
Now I likes me some internet, but nobody (and I mean NOBODY) is on 24x30 (24 hours a day, 30 days a month).
Even were you on 10-12 hours a day, a good chunk of that time is spent NOT using bandwidth. Unless you're torrenting, you have little to fear from this cap.
But make no mistake. This is, essentially, an end-run around the net neutrality issue and a large provider's attempt to squeeze more cash out of their network. They tried rattling the "we'll bill content providers for stuff we request" saber and not only got laughed at, they got humiliation conga'ed too. Now they're going after the other side, their own subscribers.
Notice how their own video on demand services don't count towards the quota. And, were Netflix, Hulu, etc paying them, likely they wouldn't either. Think "protection racket".
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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Uhm, what?
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Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
150GB/month = 50GB/day |
@Quasadu
"We must prepare for DOOM and hope for FREEM." - SirFrederick
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Shouldn't this be 150GB/month = 5GB/day (150/30 = 5), or am I missing something?|
Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
150GB/month = 50GB/day
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150GB/month = 5GB/day = 0.208GB/Hour = 208,000KB/Hour = 57.78 KB/Sec = 462.24 Kb/Sec, which is still a respectable speed.
I regularly hit the 250GB cap and I rarely torrent. HD videos + digital download games = hitting the DL cap fast. It's crap, but it's not as bad as some people have it.
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External backup hard drives are cheap. |
Originally Posted by The_Coming_Storm
Or you HDD crashes and you want to redownload over 150 games on Steam...
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Honestly if someone has that many digital-only games/videos/music/whatever and doesn't have an external backup system, well, I don't have much sympathy for them if they lose it all.
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Whoops. I fail at math forever.|
Originally Posted by sleestack
Shouldn't this be 150GB/month = 5GB/day (150/30 = 5), or am I missing something?
150GB/month = 5GB/day = 0.208GB/Hour = 208,000KB/Hour = 57.78 KB/Sec = 462.24 Kb/Sec, which is still a respectable speed. |
You're right.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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How do you figure that's half of a t1 line?|
Originally Posted by sleestack
Shouldn't this be 150GB/month = 5GB/day (150/30 = 5), or am I missing something?
150GB/month = 5GB/day = 0.208GB/Hour = 208,000KB/Hour = 57.78 KB/Sec = 462.24 Kb/Sec, which is still a respectable speed. |
12 Mbps is double 24 times the numbers you are talking about...
I run vent and a MMO several hours a day, Trillian, often netflix and skype. Not to mention 10-20 youtube vids.... And my PC runs 24/7... maybe not always playing games or looking at the net but i don't turn off my pc so my IMs and such are on 24/7
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You know, you could turn the computer off when you're sleeping. Not only would it help keep you under the cap if you're worried about it, but you would also save on the power bill.|
Originally Posted by Durakken
How do you figure that's half of a t1 line?
12 Mbps is double 24 times the numbers you are talking about... I run vent and a MMO several hours a day, Trillian, often netflix and skype. Not to mention 10-20 youtube vids.... And my PC runs 24/7... maybe not always playing games or looking at the net but i don't turn off my pc so my IMs and such are on 24/7 |
Just a thought.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.
-Don't just rebel, build a better world, comrade!
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I like polluting the earth ^.^
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Originally Posted by Smersh
You know, you could turn the computer off when you're sleeping. Not only would it help keep you under the cap if you're worried about it, but you would also save on the power bill.
Just a thought. |
Bah, this is a crock of ****, AT&T needs to be shot for even thinking this up.
How does this crap work exactly?
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MMOs don't pass that much data. |
Originally Posted by Durakken
How do you figure that's half of a t1 line?
12 Mbps is double 24 times the numbers you are talking about... I run vent and a MMO several hours a day, Trillian, often netflix and skype. Not to mention 10-20 youtube vids.... And my PC runs 24/7... maybe not always playing games or looking at the net but i don't turn off my pc so my IMs and such are on 24/7 |
Youtube videos are compressed pretty handily.
Texting/IMs/etc send miniscule amounts of data.
Leaving your PC on, short of having a 'bot infected system or leaving a good number of large torrents seeding continually, does nothing for how much data you use.
Essentially, you're standing on the pacific shore with a coffee cup worried about draining the whole ocean. Your use looks a fair bit like mine. I rarely hit 100 Gb/mo. and certainly never hit Comcast's cap - their *having* one was news to me. (This includes steam downloads, btw.) In the last several months, I've only had one over 100 Gb. (111 Gb, to be precise.)
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I managed to hit 103GB last month. I did a lot of Netflix streaming (SD mostly, but quite a bit of it), I reinstalled the OS on my computer (new hard drive) and redownloaded all my Steam games, CoH (plus test and beta), WoW, DCUO, plus my normal gaming, vent, etc. That didn't even get me to half of Comcast's 250GB cap.
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Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
MMOs don't pass that much data.
Youtube videos are compressed pretty handily. Texting/IMs/etc send miniscule amounts of data. Leaving your PC on, short of having a 'bot infected system or leaving a good number of large torrents seeding continually, does nothing for how much data you use. Essentially, you're standing on the pacific shore with a coffee cup worried about draining the whole ocean. Your use looks a fair bit like mine. I rarely hit 100 Gb/mo. and certainly never hit Comcast's cap - their *having* one was news to me. (This includes steam downloads, btw.) In the last several months, I've only had one over 100 Gb. (111 Gb, to be precise.) |
@Quasadu
"We must prepare for DOOM and hope for FREEM." - SirFrederick
This is still better than what we here in Canada have had to deal with. Data caps have steadily been dropping to a point where Bell Canada is pushing 25 GB as the standard bandwidth cap. Rogers varies, but I found I was blowing the 90 GB cap I had easily, going up to 150 GB of usage without using Netflix or torrenting--it's all in how they account for the data used, which is far from accurate.
Lately, there was a huge backlash due to the successful lobbying of our government-appointed communications "watchdog" by the big two companies, which, thankfully, Canadian residents have slowed, forcing them to rethink their position. The CRTC had decided to allow the big companies the ability to force small ISPs who lease their lines to force match the bigger company's prices even though those ISPs already pay to lease those lines.
So while 250 GB won't affect most people now, you folk down in the US better not hope that they follow Canada's lead here.
Besides, technologically speaking, when have data quotas ever made sense? Throttling actually makes more sense. But limiting how much people can download a month is non-sense and an easy way to slowly start squeezing subscribers out of money.
The one fear I have with this is what's to stop AT&T from lowering the cap. The name of the game is to make money, and charges for data overages sounds like a sweet pot of gold to AT&T. 150 GB sounds fair, but who's to say that 6 months down the road it's lowered to 65 GB, what then?
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I'm lucky i'm on comcast between downtime and slow download speed I won't have to worry about it.
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No sympathy for someone that uses bandwidth that much. You SHOULD be paying more than someone who doesn't use it near as much.|
Originally Posted by Durakken
How do you figure that's half of a t1 line?
12 Mbps is double 24 times the numbers you are talking about... I run vent and a MMO several hours a day, Trillian, often netflix and skype. Not to mention 10-20 youtube vids.... And my PC runs 24/7... maybe not always playing games or looking at the net but i don't turn off my pc so my IMs and such are on 24/7 |
If it makes people slow their use down even a little, that makes it a little better for everyone else.
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Heh....no doubt.|
Originally Posted by Kawkazn
I'm lucky i'm on comcast between downtime and slow download speed I won't have to worry about it.
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It's Comcastic!
Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.
as of may 2nd AT &T will be implementing data caps.... 150GB for DSL and 250GB for u-verse...
I don't know how this will effect me, but I watch a lot of streaming video... and that's sorta the main thing along with gaming that is going to be effected...
Youtube, Netflix, microsoft, Sony, MMOs, and steam are all going to lose money because we as consumers will not be able to use those services as much due to these data caps...especially if they become wide spread...
How do you all feel about this?