Measuring Usage

[MWRed]

I found a nice little gadget, that measures usage.
Per Patonb, above.

Yeah, I got it now too, at least on my laptop, which is what gets used the most. The desktop, my kid's Vista pc, only gets used a few days a month, and an occasional netbook if my mom stops in. At least this will give a rough idea, and I know I won't nearly hit the cap (mines 250GB atm).

 

[Joan Archer]

I'm on Unlimited with my ISP but apparently I only use about 9 GB a month, it was when my broadband was up for renewal and I was told I could have the 10 GB a month package, which was cheaper, but I preferred to stay with unlimited so they worked out a deal for me that I was happy with and still have my anytime unlimited phone calls and unlimited broadband at a price cheaper than before, I'm happy.

 

[MWRed]

I'm on Unlimited with my ISP but apparently I only use about 9 GB a month, it was when my broadband was up for renewal and I was told I could have the 10 GB a month package, which was cheaper, but I preferred to stay with unlimited so they worked out a deal for me that I was happy with and still have my anytime unlimited phone calls and unlimited broadband at a price cheaper than before, I'm happy.

Good deal.

I used to have my internet/TV/Phone all through one company, but their Phone service was unreliable, and their Cable TV was horrible....I still have them for the internet(only because it's the ONLY option where I live, besides dial up), which is pretty good, but went to satellite for tv, and have had less signal problems with the satellite than with the cable tv I used to have.
It really should be the other way around.

I still don't like the idea of the caps, especially when there's no "failsafe" way to monitor it. Through my ISP ,there's an always on connection, and activity constantly, even with nothing on. Even they admit that there is still bandwidth use when this is happeneing, and they estimate roughly 2GB per month of "background activity" yet there's no way to track that either.

 

[MilesAhead]

In the last couple of years the downloads have gotten exponentially bigger while the cap has remained the same. All the stuff about "limited bandwidth" for the entire community etc. goes out the window if you fork over for the real unlimited service. So it's just $$$ talking as usual. If you give them $100/month just for internet then they laugh and say "to hell with the community, this is bottom line!"

 

[MWRed]

In the last couple of years the downloads have gotten exponentially bigger while the cap has remained the same. All the stuff about "limited bandwidth" for the entire community etc. goes out the window if you fork over for the real unlimited service. So it's just $$$ talking as usual. If you give them $100/month just for internet then they laugh and say "to hell with the community, this is bottom line!"

Exactly. It's all about the money.
Doens't make sense anyway, since 10000 users in a community can use the internet all between 7-10pm and make it "congested" ,which is their reasoning for having caps(and supposedly to stop file sharers), but if everyone does that anyway, and no one goes over their cap, theoretically, there is still the same problem with their so called "congestion". Eventually all these companies will realize, once the caps start going lower and lower, and people start to drop service, that caps weren't such a good idea.


All just more BS excuses to make more money.

 

[MilesAhead]

I think a company has a right to make a profit(wish mine was making money) but it seems like since the 80s the consumer movement is totally dead. Instead of expanding stuff like "plain language" insurance coverage documentation to stuff like licensing agreements, now it's whatever the companies want to do. It got to the absurdity of markings on shrink wrapped software that "by opening this package I agree to the licensing agreement" that you cannot read because it's inside the box. IOW I give carte blanche to whatever they printed on the licensing agreement by taking it out to read it.

Like Robert Ringer noted in Winning Through Intimidation his mentor crafted legal agreements so that the clients violated them by signing them. I thought it was hyperbole, but maybe not!

 

[MWRed]

And it's like that now with everyone, not just ISP's and technology.

 

[MilesAhead]

And it's like that now with everyone, not just ISP's and technology.

It's the age of W.C. Fields. They never give us suckers an even break.

 

[MWRed]

Well, after roughly 2 weeks of normal use, I have used 17GB of my supposed 250GB cap.
Keep in mind, none of this includes my boys pc, which only gets used on weekends, and also DirecTV,my Android phone,and my boys iPod touch. I don't imagine any of these use enough to make an impact, so i'd estimate it at about 20GB every 2 weeks.

Not bad, but if this was 5 or 6 years ago, it would definitely be a LOT higher.

 

[Patonb]

Better watchout.... that phone could be eating 80Gigs

But yha, I doubt you'll hit your limit.

 

[MWRed]

Better watchout.... that phone could be eating 80Gigs

But yha, I doubt you'll hit your limit.

I rarely ever turn on wifi on my phone really anyways, maybe twice a week.

I think it would be really hard to get even close to the cap, considering I don't do anything bandwith heavy besides youtube. I'm actually quite surprised it's not at least twice as much as it really is.