Thanks AT&T: A question about average SL bandwidth

[Kascha Matova]

 

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Dilbert Dilweg wrote:

 

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Kascha Matova wrote:

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Dilbert Dilweg wrote:

@

leliel

Lol I am only playin around.. Don't mind me lol;

Wasn't Comcast flirting with capped services a couple years ago? Not sure if they finalized it or went thru with it

Just glad I am not in that boat

Why not go with Cable Internet? I guess not available in your area?

 

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Cable is only worth it when nobody is home. Anywhere in the area. It's shared bandwidth, and since most people are home using the internet at the same time their neighbors are surfing and watching cable TV, the bandwidth rate plummets.

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Lol I have never once seen my bandwidth get weak on any cable system I used because people came home to use the service.. That is a silly myth

 

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Is it?

That's not the first choice of words I'd use to describe something that I'm currently experiencing in reality, and not for the first time, with this cable company, or cable in general. Nor has it been described that way by any of the other people who have accepted it as a fact of shared bandwidth distribution combined with over subscription that outpaces infrastructure and stated as much in print or to me in person countles times over the years I've been working in the computer industry.

You might want to revisit your concept of 'myth'. It's not that difficult to Google the subject and find articles from professionals in a position to not have to guess that explain the reality of the situation thoroughly.

[Dresden Ceriano]

 

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Dilbert Dilweg wrote:

Lol I have never once seen my bandwidth get weak on any cable system I used because people came home to use the service.. That is a silly myth

 

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While I haven't had any problems with it, it most certainly is not a myth. It's well documented that this is one of the advantages of DSL over Cable. I only have to assume most of my neighbors aren't using the internet very much. Goddess forbid they'd all be using it as much as I do, because I'm sure I would be having the same issues as Kascha. I consider myself very lucky.

...Dres

[Argus Collingwood]

 

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Keli Kyrie wrote:

I have not got a notice about this!!!! If I had I would be very upset too! Do you have a link to this information?

ETA: Found it. Now I am Mad!!!!!!!!

Broadband Usage FAQs

Are there any usage limits for my broadband service?

Yes.  As of May 2, 2011, AT&T's residential DSL High Speed Internet plans will have a usage allowance of 150 Gigabytes ("GB") per month, and its residential U-verse High Speed Internet plans will have a usage allowance of 250 Gigabytes ("GB") per month.  The usage allowance is the amount of data you can send and receive each month.

 

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Our household U-Verse account is tied to 3 SL users and at least 1 WoW player and we have NO IDEA how much bandwidth we are using without AT&T tools to tell us. Xfinity may get our biz;-)

 

[Kascha Matova]

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Dresden Ceriano wrote:

 

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Dilbert Dilweg wrote:

Lol I have never once seen my bandwidth get weak on any cable system I used because people came home to use the service.. That is a silly myth

 

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While I haven't had any problems with it, it most certainly is not a myth. It's well documented that this is one of the advantages of DSL over Cable. I only have to assume most of my neighbors aren't using the internet very much. Goddess forbid they'd all be using it as much as I do, because I'm sure I would be having the same issues as Kascha. I consider myself very lucky.

...Dres

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Ya. The issue is that Time Warner is not leading any packs when it comes to scruples really, as can be evidenced by simple Google searches regarding Time Warner Cable and RoadRunner Cable. There are tons of people complaining about this same thing with this same RR Turbo package I have. I was on a site earlier where there were over 300 complaints in my general area on the page referring to the same thing, and there was a huge outage with TWC in the city just a few short months ago. There is a definite problem with infrastructure going on and they are not delivering the speeds they advertise anything near consistently.

It doesn't help of course that Verizon is not in this area, and although AT&T is, they do not offer U-Verse here yet. Which means if you don't have DirecTV or Dish in my zip code, you are using TWC for TV, and most likely for internet as well making demands on the pipes here as high as they can possibly get. So every day, it's literally a night and day difference. 12-18Mbps with the sun up, 4-5Mbps at best from 6pm-midnight. Paying for 15Mbps. And that's rated on Speedtest.net going to the closest server they have available to my location.

[Kolby Nissondorf]

Stupid AT&T indeed -.-

Check out Comcast services if you are in the Midwest or Time Warner Roadrunner packages if your in New York!

Ive used both and they are great

Goodluck!

Kolby

[Ceka Cianci]

bleh..i just got U-verse Elite march the 3rd..which i don't know what the hell is so elite about a cap on my bandwith..

the stupid sales people didn't say crap about  bandwith limits..we set it up before  the 3rd ..but the 3rd was my day i activated..

i looked at all my paper work and all the tons of junk mail or anything i have from them and it doesn't mention it..

why hide something that is suposed to be what some would call a feature AT&T?

not even on my U-Verse bill does it say anything about usage..if they are gonna cap me then shouldn't i get somethign that shows my usage? how do i know if they are not ripping me off  if they say i went over?

figures i pick the one that sux...if i go over one time..you can bet i'll be going for less speed and no cap..

just one time AT&T and you can kiss  my cheeks..and not the ones on the sides by my nose..

[Keli Kyrie]

You can check your usage here; www.MyUsage.att.com . Turns out 150G for DSL, 250G for U-Verse is a lot, I wouldn't be too worried till you check yours.

[Rhys Goode]

I've been keeping track of how much data I use for SL.  It does depend on what I am doing - e.g. how many TP's to different regions, draw distance, streaming music or not - but over time, I find that it takes me about 150 MB/hour to play SL.  Sometimes, less than 100, rarely but occasionally over 200, but on average, right around 150 MB.  This is measured data, not a guess or opinion.

 

 

[Ceka Cianci]

here is what mine says i haz Elite powers again wee \o/ :smileyhappy:

Note: Your internet plan provides you with unlimited usage. There are no usage details to display.

 

no wonder i couldn't find anything  about it hehehehe

[Kascha Matova]

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Ceka Cianci wrote:

bleh..i just got U-verse Elite march the 3rd..which i don't know what the hell is so elite about a cap on my bandwith..

the stupid sales people didn't say crap about  bandwith limits..we set it up before  the 3rd ..but the 3rd was my day i activated..

i looked at all my paper work and all the tons of junk mail or anything i have from them and it doesn't mention it..

why hide something that is suposed to be what some would call a feature AT&T?

not even on my U-Verse bill does it say anything about usage..if they are gonna cap me then shouldn't i get somethign that shows my usage? how do i know if they are not ripping me off  if they say i went over?

figures i pick the one that sux...if i go over one time..you can bet i'll be going for less speed and no cap..

just one time AT&T and you can kiss  my cheeks..and not the ones on the sides by my nose..

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Hi Ceka,

I believe it goes into effect on May 11th or something like that. Internally, AT&T CSRs have just gotten the memos within the last couple of days, or so says the one I talked to the day before yesterday. I read an article about it on one of the tech sites the other day. It's possible that when you signed up they had no idea or had an idea but very little verifiable information about it - at least officially.

Again, you supposedly have two freebie overages you can be found guilty of before they institute the added bandwidth penalty, so you would actually have to go over three times before you get charged. The problem is that those three instances are over the life of the account, so it's three violations "period".

Even if I never sniff 150GB in actual practice, the existence of the cap still annoys me. But better that I guess than dropping down to Pony Express speed every evening on RoadRunner.

I wonder if "FIOS Availability" is ever going to escape Urban Legend/Oxymoron status?

[Void Singer]

couldn't pay me to use DSL in any of the market areas I've had experience with. the only places in the US likely to have decent DSL service compared to the local cable service are areas that are under 5 years old for development, because all the rest are either relying on ancient POTS lines, or a hectic mishmash of POTS and fiber....

the only areas likely to have problems with crowded nodes on cable are high density rural apartment complexes, and poorly managed large city services... and even then I've only seen that problem once.

unfortunately, I live in an area that will see the heat death of the universe before they get fiber, and there are still buildings here that use bare copper wire strung on ceramic spindles... yeah, that old... the phone service is only slightly more reliable than the weatherman and I hear a never ending stream of complaint from local that use DSL.

[Perrie Juran]

 

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Void Singer wrote:

and poorly managed large city services... and even then I've only seen that problem once.

 

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My son does tech support for one of the cellular providers.  They get a higher rate of support calls for some of the major metros, NYC being one of them, because there isn't enough infrastructure to actually support the number of cell phones in use there. 

 

[Void Singer]

it's the crux of city planning... most cities were poorly planned to begin with, and the few that weren't were planned for horse and buggy, and are now so old and cobbled together.... well you get the idea

[Kascha Matova]

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Void Singer wrote:

the only areas likely to have problems with crowded nodes on cable are high density rural apartment complexes, and poorly managed large city services... and even then I've only seen that problem once.

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Glad to hear you made it! What time do you want me to pick you up so I can take you to sample some Hollywood nightlife? You're going to love the Walk of Fame! :womanvery-happy:

[Kascha Matova]

How's this for a myth? After the obligatory No DNS to Any Browser Tab ordeal that I get every time I bring the computer up from sleep mode until I go to my router config page and click something, I decided to go over to pingtest.net and see what my line quality was after coming up with 10Mbps and 13Mbps speedtest results :

 

 

LOL! Does F mean "Fine" or what?  :smileyvery-happy:

[Jolene Benoir]

I have Comcast/Xfinity which has a cap of 250GB.  I tried Qwest DSL years ago, and it was very slow, and on a graduated pay scale.  I had issues with the phone lines as well.  I was told that it needed to be upgraded for x amt of dollars.

I called Time Warner (at the time).  They were out and set up completely within the day, at much faster speed.  Comcast has since taken over Time Warner in my area.

The only thing that bugs me about the cap that Comcast has, is that should you go over repeatedly, you won't be charged extra.  They will just cut you off completely, which effectively leaves only a choice of DSL.

The second thing is that they are strongly pushing their Xfinity Online viewing of any cable channels in which you subscribe.  Much of it in HD.  That could eat up alot, right there.

I consistently test very well on speed with Comcast, both up and down.

[Void Singer]

the "no dns" after wake up is seen most often on cable system that gateway to older DSL equipment that is set to disconnect idle connections.... and I'm betting you have to refresh your dhcp every time it happens, because the cable modem doesn't properly drop it?

and packet loss shouldn't go up like on a busy node either, just throughput. That looks more like someone has equipment on the node that is spewing feedback down the line.... especially with a jitter value that's half your ping time.

yeah I'd be torqued off about that.... they need a tech to examine the neighborhood and see why the hell there aren't some noise filters in place.

[Jolene Benoir]

The only complaint I have with Comcast is that it all adds up to so much.

I love the internet portion of it.  But my monthly bill is $215, and that is just cable (with HBO and Showtime) and internet, not phone too.  The internet portion of that is $45.

This is because I was not lucky enough to fall into their new user bundles.  I've had them for 15+ yrs.  Therefore, I am not allowed to partake in those advertised bundle plans, which with all 3 (phone, cable, internet) are around $129?

I'm told that because I am an existing customer, I do not qualify.

Well, wtf?  Um.. Comcast. I've been paying you monthly for 15+ yrs..yet you want to reward new users (who may or may not pay) over existing, known-to-pay customers?

So, I am considering going to Dish for the tv portion, while retaining internet with Comcast, even though they charge extra if you do not subscribe to cable. It will be worth it.

I HATE when companies treat long-time customers in such a fashion, and it makes me wish to leave.

It's much like cell phone companies used to do, in attempting to get new customers in the face of insulting existing customers.

So, for those of you thinking of switching, if you can get the bundle deals, or even solo internet,  go for it. because Comcast is very fast, .but read the fine writing on just how and when it will jump up.

 

 

[Perrie Juran]

 

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Void Singer wrote:

it's the crux of city planning... most cities were poorly planned to begin with, and the few that weren't were planned for horse and buggy, and are now so old and cobbled together.... well you get the idea

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It's so sad to know that places like The Brooklyn Bridge are falling down (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/brooklyn-bridge-is-one-of-3-with-poor-rating/),  How will I ever find that tree?

 

[Void Singer]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

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Void Singer wrote:

it's the crux of city planning... most cities were poorly planned to begin with, and the few that weren't were planned for horse and buggy, and are now so old and cobbled together.... well you get the idea

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It's so sad to know that places like The Brooklyn Bridge are falling down (

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/brooklyn-bridge-is-one-of-3-with-poor-rating/

,)  How will I ever find that tree?

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that's kinda old news.... like 4 years ago, and reconstruction was supposed to start last year.

[Kascha Matova]

 

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Jolene Benoir wrote:

I have Comcast/Xfinity which has a cap of 250GB.  I tried Qwest DSL years ago, and it was very slow, and on a graduated pay scale.  I had issues with the phone lines as well.  I was told that it needed to be upgraded for x amt of dollars.

I called Time Warner (at the time).  They were out and set up completely within the day, at much faster speed.  Comcast has since taken over Time Warner in my area.

The only thing that bugs me about the cap that Comcast has, is that should you go over repeatedly, you won't be charged extra.  They will just cut you off completely, which effectively leaves only a choice of DSL.

The second thing is that they are strongly pushing their Xfinity Online viewing of any cable channels in which you subscribe.  Much of it in HD.  That could eat up alot, right there.

I consistently test very well on speed with Comcast, both up and down.

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I had Comcast several years ago too but they screwed me over royally one time and I'll never use them again. I actually handed my credit card to a tech who called in my payment to Comcast on my own house phone and had them later cut me off 5 or 6 times in the next two weeks claiming I hadn't paid. They disbelieved a bank statement faxed to them that clearly showed the payment had been made and the money received, refused to reimburse me for the outage period and then when I cancelled the account and refused to pay them the money a second time, they put it on my credit report.

They tried to pawn the whole thing off on a separate division of the company, claiming that I must have paid the TV division but I owed money to the internet division. Ya right whatever have a nice day. I wouldn't even visit their homepage now if they posted the winning Powerball numbers the day before each drawing.

I'm glad they're working for you however :womanhappy:

[Kascha Matova]

 

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Void Singer wrote:

the "no dns" after wake up is seen most often on cable system that gateway to older DSL equipment that is set to disconnect idle connections.... and I'm betting you have to refresh your dhcp every time it happens, because the cable modem doesn't properly drop it?

and packet loss shouldn't go up like on a busy node either, just throughput. That looks more like someone has equipment on the node that is spewing feedback down the line.... especially with a jitter value that's half your ping time.

yeah I'd be torqued off about that.... they need a tech to examine the neighborhood and see why the hell there aren't some noise filters in place.

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Ya that's pretty much it. If I do a /release and /renew every time I wake the thing up, it will start working. Either that or I have to log into the router and start doing stuff - it doesn't matter what, which confuses me. I don't actually have to change anything, but once I bring up the router config page the connection starts working. Pretty stupid stuff here.

Lots of messages on every startup in Event Manager about stuff it couldn't resolve, and the router logs complain of handshake problems involving the main circuit - as if it's cut off. I wish I could be more specific but I had quite a night last night and I might have left my thinking cap in the bathroom at the club, lol :smileyvery-happy:

[Dagmar Heideman]

 

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Kascha Matova wrote:

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Dilbert Dilweg wrote:

Why not go with Cable Internet? I guess not available in your area?

 

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The only ones who aren't capped is Time Warner Cable with their RoadRunner service. RoadRunner is garbage. I have it now, after having just left AT&T less than a month ago because I moved and they were going to take 3 weeks to activate my DSL when they didn't even have to come to my house.

I'm paying $46/mo to TWC for supposedly up to 15Mbps bandwidth. To date, I have never Speedtested over 10, and I average around 4.5-5. Downloading Singularity viewer the other night, I was getting 43Kbps. Dialup speed.

Cable is only worth it when nobody is home. Anywhere in the area. It's shared bandwidth, and since most people are home using the internet at the same time their neighbors are surfing and watching cable TV, the bandwidth rate plummets.

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The quality of cable depends on the quality of the infrastructure.  Time Warner is notorious for oversaturating nodes in a lot of locations, but it does eventually improve its infrastructure for a location with more nodes.

For about 3 months I had a serious drop in speed and called to complain about it several times.  I told them it seemed like they were oversaturating nodes and that I would most likely switch to a competitor that was planning to expand into my area if they didn't remedy the problem.  I imagine they got similar complaints from others and eventually must have added more nodes to my area because the speed shot back up.  I live in one of the largest cities in the US and currently get anywhere from 16 to 21Mbps with TWC.

[Dagmar Heideman]

 

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Kascha Matova wrote:

How's this for a myth? After the obligatory No DNS to Any Browser Tab ordeal that I get every time I bring the computer up from sleep mode until I go to my router config page and click something, I decided to go over to pingtest.net and see what my line quality was after coming up with 10Mbps and 13Mbps speedtest results :

 

 

LOL! Does F mean "Fine" or what?  :smileyvery-happy:

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I get 0% packet loss, 12 ms for ping and 0ms for jitter.  It sounds like TWC infrastructure for your location is poor.  Move to the northeast coast?  Just kidding.  :smileytongue:

 

[Kascha Matova]

 

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Dagmar Heideman wrote:

 

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Kascha Matova wrote:

How's this for a myth? After the obligatory No DNS to Any Browser Tab ordeal that I get every time I bring the computer up from sleep mode until I go to my router config page and click something, I decided to go over to pingtest.net and see what my line quality was after coming up with 10Mbps and 13Mbps speedtest results :

 

 

LOL! Does F mean "Fine" or what?  :smileyvery-happy:

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I get 0% packet loss, 12 ms for ping and 0ms for jitter.  It sounds like TWC infrastructure for your location is poor.  Move to the northeast coast?  Just kidding.  :smileytongue:

 

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Oh believe me dear if I could right now I would in a heartbeat! I'm from Copiague originally and I'd love nothing better than to move back home to NY, but after my brothers went into the military my parents moved out here so my sister and I could be closer to them when we went to college. Now to move back would be the opposite and they'd never forgive me if I moved their granddaughter that far from them. And they're old now too, so...

But yes. This is horrible performance. And I'm not even showing you the test I did after this one to another server in Nevada. 83% packet loss on that one about a half hour after this one. :smileysad: