Bot Tweets At Comcast Whenever Internet Speed Is Too Slow

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This guy wins the internets today. If I was him, I would make this a free download for all Comcast customers. ;)

As he describes it, he’s got a Raspberry Pi — a small, cheap, customizable computer, basically — hooked up to his connection. Every hour, it runs a series of speed tests and stores that data. When the speed is below 50 Mbps, his setup activates a Twitter bot that tweets at Comcast: “Hey @Comcast, why is my internet speed [speed] when I pay for 150down/10up in Washington DC? @ComcastCares @Xfinity #comcast #speedtest”
 
That's my same speed package and I typically get 180/24. I don't think I've ever pulled less than 150MB on a SpeedTest either. If I was dipping below 50 I'd be pretty upset.
 
Meh. I don't doubt it's the carrier, but I wouldn't feel comfortable calling somebody out using an automated test unless I could back it up with a solid testing methodology. The pi he is using isn't fast enough to properly measure his internet speed and he admits it. It's probably fast enough to measure when it's slow, sure, but he's also not doing multiple runs (based on the source code he shared) in case the problem is the speedtest server and not his ISP.
 
i'd run this program in my background just to harass comcast. I'm so glad i convinced my roommates to get rid of comcast.
 
And what happens when he is downloading something when the Pi runs the test?

Or does he just have something set to cut his connection to all other devices at the same time the test is run?

the story doesn't say and although I don't really like Comcast, I can very easily see that this bot could be tweeting Comcast for no reason whatsoever.
 
Where is the balmer meme where he clinches his fist going

#WINNING
 
cyclone3d said:
And what happens when he is downloading something when the Pi runs the test?

Or does he just have something set to cut his connection to all other devices at the same time the test is run?

the story doesn't say and although I don't really like Comcast, I can very easily see that this bot could be tweeting Comcast for no reason whatsoever.
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Nobody understands that is how that works. So you are asking a question that most will ignore.

I agree, this is a somewhat faulty test.
 
Exavior said:
Nobody understands that is how that works. So you are asking a question that most will ignore.

I agree, this is a somewhat faulty test.
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You can easily check with current bandwidth usage. It's not that hard to be honest....
 
That'll teach Comcast. I'd like a bot that tweeted them every time they lied to a customer, provided poor service or raised their rates. Would probably take a super computer to tweet that much.
 
Seems like this is the beginning of some interesting life automation now that we have home automation sensors, third party APIs, IFTTT. Start a protest against slow Amazon delivery, slow steam downloads, anything you think of will just be a click away and we wont even remember setting these up. Autoprotest on change.org based on topical interest matches, autovote based on candidate issue databases. A Tesla that will take you shopping for things you didnt know you wanted and shops you never heard of before. Autopay, pays the bill, humble bundle automatically buys games for you. Amazon autodelivers your groceries via drones. The petbowl automatically feeds fluffy. You might die, and your life just lives on without you until the bank account runs out.
 
shansoft said:
You can easily check with current bandwidth usage. It's not that hard to be honest....
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Well... yes that would be possible although I wouldn't call it easy. You cell phone doesn't know by itself how much data is being used on the entire network. Nor would a raspberry pi device connected to a port. So you would need a netflow analyzer to monitor all traffic going out your connection and any moment in time. Which means that you need something that can report that data back and not a cheap router. So you would need to run your speed test and then get your current netflow results and add those together to see if the end result is less than 50 or greater. or I guess you could use the raspberry pi as your firewall so that it would know its usage and then compute all of that without netflow. Although the more that is doing outside of being a firewall the slower it will be.
 
Miikun said:
Seems like this is the beginning of some interesting life automation now that we have home automation sensors, third party APIs, IFTTT. Start a protest against slow Amazon delivery, slow steam downloads, anything you think of will just be a click away and we wont even remember setting these up. Autoprotest on change.org based on topical interest matches, autovote based on candidate issue databases. A Tesla that will take you shopping for things you didnt know you wanted and shops you never heard of before. Autopay, pays the bill, humble bundle automatically buys games for you. Amazon autodelivers your groceries via drones. The petbowl automatically feeds fluffy. You might die, and your life just lives on without you until the bank account runs out.
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That already happens. http://jezebel.com/no-one-knew-woman-was-dead-for-four-years-because-of-bi-1538935853

Woman had all bills set to auto pay, she passed away and her bills kept getting paid for 4 years before she ran out of money and her home went into foreclosure and they found her body.
 
isn't standard ethernet on the pi 100mbits?
 
FLECOM said:
isn't standard ethernet on the pi 100mbits?
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cyclone3d said:
And what happens when he is downloading something when the Pi runs the test?

Or does he just have something set to cut his connection to all other devices at the same time the test is run?

the story doesn't say and although I don't really like Comcast, I can very easily see that this bot could be tweeting Comcast for no reason whatsoever.
Click to expand...

Yes, AFAIK he has it set to only tweet at them when it's below 50 mbps. I think his threshold is pretty reasonable, getting under a third of your advertised speed is crap and the ISP should be called out. Multiple tests and an average might be a nice enhancement though.
 
Problem with this bot is what if the guy is downloading some large files and using up all 150mbps. Then a speed test will have to compete with the other downloads and show an artificially low result.
 
DocSavage said:
Problem with this bot is what if the guy is downloading some large files and using up all 150mbps. Then a speed test will have to compete with the other downloads and show an artificially low result.
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Other than torrents and paid file hosting, who is actually going to shoot 150Mb down a pipe to you?
 
alxlwson said:
Other than torrents and paid file hosting, who is actually going to shoot 150Mb down a pipe to you?
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Want to say I have heard of people getting about 200Mbps for Xbox One digital game downloads.

Steam and Origin as pointed out by others. So basically any digital game download service that people would normally use.

Ignoring that for a moment. You get a few people trying to download games or files, and watching a few Netflix shows and trying to surf the internet I could see a family using 50-100 without any trouble if they are heavy users. Mix that with the fact that cable is over subscribed so you might have your 150 drop down some anyway, so what if your service drops down to 100 and you are using 50. that gets you at 50 left.
 
Exavior said:
...
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Mix that with the fact that cable is over subscribed so you might have your 150 drop down some anyway, so what if your service drops down to 100 and you are using 50. that gets you at 50 left.
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That would be a legitimate complaint against Comcast then.
 
Brian_B said:
That would be a legitimate complaint against Comcast then.
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Yes and no. If you are getting 100Mbps that is still pretty good speeds. Remember you are getting up to 150, that might be a little slower during peak usage. And at other times you might burst over 150. If you are only maxing out 50 of that what matters really if you only are seeing 100 instead of 150 at peak? They obviously still are providing enough bandwidth for all customers actual usage. It is when at peak usage you are not able to get what you need and max out your connect that there is really a problem. Otherwise they truly are meeting the need at peak time as much as I hate to give them any credit for anything.
 
here I am in Australia... Paying $50 US per month for 7Mbps down... "Maybe"Ps Up.
 
Lol... I pay $105 CAD ($75 USD) for 55 down and 10 up and I couldn't be any happier.
 
I shoukd have been more specific! Aside from torrents and paid services....
 
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