TheCreator
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2005
- Messages
- 3,173
It's impossible for me to track my internet bandwidth usage without something checking it at the modem. I have multiple machines which kills the ability for normal software tracking. Also, I do a lot of transfers across my network which has nothing to do with internet usage.
I don't really have much of an idea of how much bandwidth I use. Some days I will barely use the connection and other times I'll bang on it like it was a cheap whore. My usage is very erratic depending on what I feel like doing or not doing. I wouldn't be surprised if through the month I averaged around a gig a day but I can't say for sure. I also know that there are some times I have done 10-20 gig in day. I snagged a Linux distro one day last week and it was around 4 gig. I'll be doing that at least once if not twice more this month with other distros.
I'm by no means running my connection at the max all the time and yet I will probably be one of the people this would affect. You know damn good and well that the ISPs are going to try and say that anyone using more than an average grandma who only checks her email a couple times a week is a heavy user.
I just hope that these companies feel a nasty backlash from their customers after implementing these measures. Luckily, AT&T moved out of this area for cable years ago. When they introduced cable internet here, the speed was 10/1. About a year later they dropped most people down to 1.5/256k. I was lucky and managed to avoid that speed cut for another six months. That's what you call getting screwed. Sign up for the service and later they cut it to about 10% of what you signed up for. If I remember correctly, it wasn't long after that they left the area and another company took over which has slowly brought speeds back up. The basic plan is now 6/256k I believe while I have 8/512k and the next step up is 15/1 which I hope to afford before too long. It's only $15/month more but I don't have that at this time.
"Improving" service by degrading the service is a bad business decision in the long run. Some people will remember and when some real competition comes along, those people will likely jump ship if it looks like the competition is a better deal.
you can track it with many routers... look around on google...