Comcast Details Changes for Managing Web Traffic

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According to Reuters, Comcast has provided details to U.S. regulators of how it plans to change the way it manages web traffic without blocking content. Comcast expects to have the new traffic management system in place by the end of this year.

It said it will use software on its network to determine if particular subscribers have been the source of high volume of traffic and will temporarily give traffic from those subscribers a lower priority status. It said that when a subscriber's traffic is assigned a lower priority status its traffic could be delayed if the network is congested but would not be delayed if there is no congestion.
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On a somewhat separate note I got a notice of upcoming price increases on my services. Not sure how local these changes are but the letter was pretty funny with all of the reasons they included. One that caught my eye was the price of gas increased and therefore so must my basic cable :rolleyes:
 
well, they do have service fleets that use gas, many of thier facilities no doubt use heating oils and all use electricity that is probably made from the consumption of fossil fuels
 
For Comcast customers who have to put up with this service.

Do they offer you an easy to use web portal to monitor your daily,weekly and monthly traffic? I would hope you will be able to see what you have been using so you can stay within their limits. If not is this even legal if you don't know how much of the service you are using?
 
The article doesn't really give any detail for how they will be managing traffic. I read more detail a while back when they first announced their plans.
 
And this is one more reason why i will be getting rid of my Comcast service (been a customer for at least 3 years now) to another provider who doesn't pull this kind of crap.
 
cyclone3d said:
And this is one more reason why i will be getting rid of my Comcast service (been a customer for at least 3 years now) to another provider who doesn't pull this kind of crap.
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The only problem is is that they are all going to be doing this now. Time Warner is doing trials on bandwith caps and monitoring usage and all that stuff too. Unfortunately this is the way that it's going now. One of those cases where the small guy loses :(
 
I wonder if a friend can give you permanent high priority status on you account ;)
 
So color me this Batman... what exactly is "their network" seems to me that with cable internet you have your local neighborhood, and that goes to some switching station, and after that it's "the internet" which comcast does not own... I can totally see dolling out bandwidth as needed in THEIR network, but unless everyone there is using a ton of bandwidth this should really be a non-issue.
 
Ockie said:
I wonder if a friend can give you permanent high priority status on you account ;)
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You mean him?

The-Cable-Guy-Poster.jpg
 
Well, that would be nice and all, but 1) they haven't even stopped blocking Bit Torrent traffic yet, and 2) they have appealed the entire FCC ruling over blocking Bit Torrent traffic. So essentially Comcast is doing nothing more than playing nice-nice while they continue the same tactics they have employed for a year or so, and hope they never have to change a thing if they can line enough politicians pockets with enough money to get their appeal to go their way.

The only thing that will truly sink Comcast is FIOS. And when it is available in my area I will switch in a heartbeat.
 
Got Fios, Love Fios, Comcast = Crap, Mt friend works for Comcast and he is worried about his job. They are losing customers pretty rapidly to At&T U-Verse, even if Uverse is kinda lame right now on the Tv Service side of things people are still jumpin cuz its cheaper, Comcast i hope will keep shooting themselves in the foot then maybe just maybe they will start listening to thier customers.
 
even if FIOS was slower then comcast cable i would still choose it just for the simple fact that verizon actually likes its customers and takes care of them, not try to screw them....
 
WtBadAss said:
well, they do have service fleets that use gas, many of thier facilities no doubt use heating oils and all use electricity that is probably made from the consumption of fossil fuels
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i say bs to that, respectfully. comcast's rates are higher then any other company i know. when they say their operating costs are going up, they should be sending those letters to the fuckin corporations that advertise on their cable channels. advertisement pays for most of their costs anyway, your monthly bill does not need to be expensive by any means. $50 every 4 weeks for 60 crappy channels is damn near stealing from the public in my book.
 
krupted said:
even if FIOS was slower then comcast cable i would still choose it just for the simple fact that verizon actually likes its customers and takes care of them, not try to screw them....
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I'm sure it all depends on where you live. Verizon reps here suck. You call them and they'll respond with a "sorry it's not on our end, It's on your computer" and when you finally hammer it in their thick skull that you have 20 computers in the house being offline, they'll say that they'll schedule someone to come out and look at it within 2 weeks. They're fucking lazy.

It's been several years since I had Verizon though. Comcast has been ok here in Chesterton, Indiana with one exception. Their assigned Netgear cablemodem/router kept quitting on me because it got so hot all the time. I bought my own cablemodem/router and asked Comcast to assign it's MAC ID to my account. Haven't had any problems since.

If Verizon brings FIOS into Chesterton, I might consider it. It depends on whether their got their act together or not.
 
krupted said:
even if FIOS was slower then comcast cable i would still choose it just for the simple fact that verizon actually likes its customers and takes care of them, not try to screw them....
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Amen. You know what my solution to comcasts recent network congestion issues were? Switching to DSL. After seeing my ping times spike to 350ms on average during peak hours, I tried and tried to convince their puny level 1 phone tech operators to pass my complaints along to more senior personnel to have the issue investigated, as it had to affected thousands if not millions of users. Then I saw some forum threads from dslreports.com indicating issues with the same fixed traffic routes comcast uses from over a year ago. Clearly comcast did nothing to solve their problems, or wasnt going to be solving mine, so I called up ATT the next day and switched. I have yet to even see my ping go over 17ms at any time of the day since I've had them.

Seriously if all it takes is a few bad apples to cripple your network you have no business being an internet provider in the first place.
 
WtBadAss said:
well, they do have service fleets that use gas, many of thier facilities no doubt use heating oils and all use electricity that is probably made from the consumption of fossil fuels
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Most Comcast trucks I see driving around here say something like "Independent Contractor for Comcast Cable" in small print on the back of the truck. I think Comcast subs out their field work, so unless the subs are upping their rates, it seems like Comcast is not absorbing a lot of fuel costs.
 
Comcast tech support is hostile and much more focused on getting me to hang up then provide answers or solutions.

I checked FOIS is not available in my area :( the plans look nice.

On the other hand comcast is giving me download speeds of 850+ k now.
 


Im happy with my comcast service so far......they havent pulled anything with me......I do miss my fios though........
 
Azhar said:
I'm sure it all depends on where you live. Verizon reps here suck. You call them and they'll respond with a "sorry it's not on our end, It's on your computer" and when you finally hammer it in their thick skull that you have 20 computers in the house being offline, they'll say that they'll schedule someone to come out and look at it within 2 weeks. They're fucking lazy.

It's been several years since I had Verizon though. Comcast has been ok here in Chesterton, Indiana with one exception. Their assigned Netgear cablemodem/router kept quitting on me because it got so hot all the time. I bought my own cablemodem/router and asked Comcast to assign it's MAC ID to my account. Haven't had any problems since.

If Verizon brings FIOS into Chesterton, I might consider it. It depends on whether their got their act together or not.
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FIOS here rocks.. I've had 2 routers crap out.. had 2 new ones next day'd to me. Other than that its' been swell. It's also nice to be able to hangup when you're put on hold and their system automatically calls you back (lol sad im saying that.. but woo on not burning cell minutes on hold)
 
All of them have issues. They just happen to be less when decent alternatives are available. Comcast took two weeks to come out and turn on my cable when the signal was already turned on. But since all their techs are private contractors and the phone support is not allowed to fix anything unless a tech has gone out to the site and gotten paid, it can be annoying. Most are clueless about network infrastructure and those who do are usually CS students doing a part time job, since if you have a clue you can get wan tech position which means they put a slam in your home, and you can support the local section from there. Also bandwidth has to do with the machines processing signals ie all the routers, bridges, slams and switching computers which do belong to companies like verizion and comcast, time warner and bright house, there are a couple more I can't think of off the top of my head but that internet people speak of is mostly cable and telco wan lines that everyone uses. Comcast charges too much but on the other hand they are supporting about two thirds of the infrastructure right now, which is the point to point servers that connect your neighborhood with bob's neighborhood. Also if you follow the money you will find that about four companies own all the networks even if they lease the lines to other isps and each other.
 
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