Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

U can do it online, but you need to know your ntl username and
password...
--
Tony Sayer

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...

Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

U can do it online, but you need to know your ntl username and
password...
--
Tony Sayer


I upgraded mine online last night, mucho speed now!

http://www.ntlworld.com/data-feeds/e...tierMigration/

In article , Andy
writes

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...

Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

U can do it online, but you need to know your ntl username and
password...
--
Tony Sayer


I upgraded mine online last night, mucho speed now!

http://www.ntlworld.com/data-feeds/e...tierMigration/





Heres the direct link......;


https://autoreg.autoregister.net/cgi...d_tiermigratio
n
--
Tony Sayer

In message , tony sayer
writes

Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

Using an old stb here so can't get 2MB get - so they've upgraded me to
1MB and reduced the charge to GBP17.99 until they give me a new shiny
Samsung.

--
dave @ stejonda

UCE Spammer : : Bots please harvest

On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 22:17:41 +0000, tony sayer
wrote:

In article , Andy
writes

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...

Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

U can do it online, but you need to know your ntl username and
password...
--
Tony Sayer


I upgraded mine online last night, mucho speed now!

And mucho 'cap' (download limits) also?

Ok, not a problem if you just want yer emails pronto but a 1G bps you
would be surprised how quickly you can reach yer cap / day / month?

My daughter spends much of her evening / weekend on her webcam with
her mates / boyfriend, downloading music lyrics / music / tab for her
bass guitar and browsing eBay for things for me to buy her ;-(. I'm
often downloading drivers / patches / utils and a few hundred emails a
day (mostly spam tho) but some with large attachments (joke mpgs etc
from mates) and the missus get's emails with family photos etc.

So at 300K bps it *might* take 3 times longer (than 1G) .. that's
assuming we get the 1G over the entire Inet path though .. ?

No such thing as a free lunch etc?

All the best ..

T i m

Generally happy and long term NTL customer ..

In message , tony sayer
writes

Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

U can do it online, but you need to know your ntl username and
password...

"Online upgrade is not currently available for customers with a set-top
box."

Mind you, since it crashes on an almost daily basis, it might be worth
buying a bit of gear that actually works


--
geoff

In message , T i m
writes
I upgraded mine online last night, mucho speed now!

And mucho 'cap' (download limits) also?

Those caps have been in the T&Cs for a while - it's whether they enforce
them that matters. I s'pose with upgraded speed one is more likely to
come to their attention.

--
dave @ stejonda

UCE Spammer : : Bots please harvest

"T i m" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 22:17:41 +0000, tony sayer
wrote:

In article , Andy
writes

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...

Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

U can do it online, but you need to know your ntl username and
password...
--
Tony Sayer


I upgraded mine online last night, mucho speed now!

And mucho 'cap' (download limits) also?

Ok, not a problem if you just want yer emails pronto but a 1G bps you
would be surprised how quickly you can reach yer cap / day / month?

My daughter spends much of her evening / weekend on her webcam with
her mates / boyfriend, downloading music lyrics / music / tab for her
bass guitar and browsing eBay for things for me to buy her ;-(. I'm
often downloading drivers / patches / utils and a few hundred emails a
day (mostly spam tho) but some with large attachments (joke mpgs etc
from mates) and the missus get's emails with family photos etc.

So at 300K bps it *might* take 3 times longer (than 1G) .. that's
assuming we get the 1G over the entire Inet path though .. ?

No such thing as a free lunch etc?


1Gigabyte / day download "cap" on the 2Meg option. That's a lot of
capacity for the majority of internet users.

tony sayer wrote:
Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

U can do it online, but you need to know your ntl username and
password...

Beware the caps though!

People on their 300k service (which has a notional 1GB per day cap) will
have to phone up to upgrade (to 1Mbps) because they need to accept changes
to their T&C's as you will now have only 3GB a month (approx 100MB a day).
People on their other services will be upgraded automatically (including
replacing Pace STB's which cannot handle 1Mbps) - these people will also
have a 1GB per day cap which is what you've had for a while (although not
enforced). If you're in a hurry, you can phone to get it done sooner.

Whilst previously the caps have been suggested - this time they're going to
enforce them (although only implemented later in the year). Apparently when
you exceed your cap you'll probably be dropped to around 56k or charged for
the extra usage. It also appears that they include uploads in your
allocation - not just downloads.

Once you've upgraded, you won't be able to downgrade to your previous speed
(although you can change your level to any product they currently sell as
per normaly - you'll just not be able to go to the speeds they used to do).
This affects the 300k people the most as you'll go from 1GB a day @ 300Kbps
to 100MB a day @ 1Mbps with no option to return to that old service/caps.
The only option, should you want to avoid the very low cap, is to upgrade to
their 2Mbps service which is £8 a month more with 1GB a day cap.

I'm using Netmeter to monitor my usage over a month to decide whether I
exceed, on average, 100MB a day/3GB a month. Whilst faster connections are
nice - it just means you hit the cap sooner, especially when they've reduced
the cap by a factor of 10. Speed increases 3x, cap reduces 10x.

David

In article , Andy
writes

"T i m" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 22:17:41 +0000, tony sayer
wrote:

In article , Andy
writes

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...

Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

U can do it online, but you need to know your ntl username and
password...
--
Tony Sayer


I upgraded mine online last night, mucho speed now!

And mucho 'cap' (download limits) also?

Ok, not a problem if you just want yer emails pronto but a 1G bps you
would be surprised how quickly you can reach yer cap / day / month?

My daughter spends much of her evening / weekend on her webcam with
her mates / boyfriend, downloading music lyrics / music / tab for her
bass guitar and browsing eBay for things for me to buy her ;-(. I'm
often downloading drivers / patches / utils and a few hundred emails a
day (mostly spam tho) but some with large attachments (joke mpgs etc
from mates) and the missus get's emails with family photos etc.

So at 300K bps it *might* take 3 times longer (than 1G) .. that's
assuming we get the 1G over the entire Inet path though .. ?

No such thing as a free lunch etc?


1Gigabyte / day download "cap" on the 2Meg option. That's a lot of
capacity for the majority of internet users.



Quite.. and really I reckon thats fine for me, I doubt most days I'd
even come near that and others perhaps, so all in all about right.
Not a bad deal otherwise and If that isn't good enough you can upgrade
but personally I'd prefer a fast link with a cap, and isn't 2 Meg fast
enough for anyone?, and the rest of the net?.

We'll have to wait and see how and what ntl are going to do about it if
peeps go overtime, but its getting a competitive market now and ntl only
have cable TV to offer and Sky generally give better deals and customer
service, and as to residential phones I think their days are numbered,
so BB is all they have left to offer....
--
Tony Sayer

tony sayer wrote:
[snip teenager-type] ntl username and password...

Question:- What do the letters "ntl" stand for?

In article , Chris Bacon
writes
tony sayer wrote:
[snip teenager-type] ntl username and password...

Question:- What do the letters "ntl" stand for?

They were taken from the original company which once was the Independent
Broadcasting Authority this was sold off for a song and turned into
National Transcommunications Ltd which though rather imposing was
abbreviated to ntl when the company was again bought out by the cabletel
company IIRC...

however since then its been known as,


not terribly loud

not tonight love

no technicians left

(and some comms managers have been heard to mutter when given quotes for
sharing their comms sites as),

national thieves ltd

and quite a few others which elude moi now.....

--
Tony Sayer

tony sayer wrote:
Chris Bacon writes
Question:- What do the letters "ntl" stand for?

They were taken from the original company which once was the Independent
Broadcasting Authority this was sold off for a song and turned into
National Transcommunications Ltd which though rather imposing was
abbreviated to ntl when the company was again bought out by the cabletel
company IIRC...

Wow! Result! Thanks, I had wondered about telephone, telecomms, etc. -
another useful piece of information to squirrel away!

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 08:58:55 -0000, "David Hearn"
wrote:

tony sayer wrote:
Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

U can do it online, but you need to know your ntl username and
password...

Beware the caps though!

People on their 300k service (which has a notional 1GB per day cap) will
have to phone up to upgrade (to 1Mbps) because they need to accept changes
to their T&C's as you will now have only 3GB a month (approx 100MB a day).
People on their other services will be upgraded automatically (including
replacing Pace STB's which cannot handle 1Mbps) - these people will also
have a 1GB per day cap which is what you've had for a while (although not
enforced). If you're in a hurry, you can phone to get it done sooner.

Whilst previously the caps have been suggested - this time they're going to
enforce them (although only implemented later in the year). Apparently when
you exceed your cap you'll probably be dropped to around 56k or charged for
the extra usage. It also appears that they include uploads in your
allocation - not just downloads.

Once you've upgraded, you won't be able to downgrade to your previous speed
(although you can change your level to any product they currently sell as
per normaly - you'll just not be able to go to the speeds they used to do).
This affects the 300k people the most as you'll go from 1GB a day @ 300Kbps
to 100MB a day @ 1Mbps with no option to return to that old service/caps.
The only option, should you want to avoid the very low cap, is to upgrade to
their 2Mbps service which is £8 a month more with 1GB a day cap.

I'm using Netmeter to monitor my usage over a month to decide whether I
exceed, on average, 100MB a day/3GB a month. Whilst faster connections are
nice - it just means you hit the cap sooner, especially when they've reduced
the cap by a factor of 10. Speed increases 3x, cap reduces 10x.

David

Nicely put David and why as a 300k customer may be more 'concerened'
re the caps than my richer 1M colleagues ;-)

So, I'm unlikely to 'need' any more that 1G / day but *could* exceed
(with 3 users) 3G/ month so I also will wait and see.

And as I mentioned before .. I have used my mates 1G (ntl) service and
seen downloads slower than my 300k .. not because anything is wrong,
just the net doing it's thing .. (suggesting even if at 1M I would
definatly get the cap but may not get the bandwidth ..?)

All the best ..

T i m

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 08:58:55 -0000, "David Hearn" wrote:

tony sayer wrote:
Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

U can do it online, but you need to know your ntl username and
password...

Beware the caps though!

People on their 300k service (which has a notional 1GB per day cap) will
have to phone up to upgrade (to 1Mbps) because they need to accept changes
to their T&C's as you will now have only 3GB a month (approx 100MB a day).
People on their other services will be upgraded automatically (including
replacing Pace STB's which cannot handle 1Mbps) - these people will also
have a 1GB per day cap which is what you've had for a while (although not
enforced). If you're in a hurry, you can phone to get it done sooner.

Whilst previously the caps have been suggested - this time they're going to
enforce them (although only implemented later in the year). Apparently when
you exceed your cap you'll probably be dropped to around 56k or charged for
the extra usage. It also appears that they include uploads in your
allocation - not just downloads.

What worries me is that they want you to agree to new T&Cs now, but are not yet saying what happens
if you hit the cap. I have no problem with reduced speed, but they _could_ impose surcharges as the
only option.

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:22:25 GMT, Mike Harrison
wrote:


What worries me is that they want you to agree to new T&Cs now, but are not yet saying what happens
if you hit the cap.

And indeed, another of my concerns Mike ..

I have no problem with reduced speed, but they _could_ impose
surcharges as the
only option.

True. However I don't think they would want customers voting with
their feet and they might just have to be a bit careful not to come
across heavy handed with this one.

I have no issues with the concept of the cap and whilst I enjoy the
product as advertised ("No restrictions surfing 24/7" sort of thing) I
am happy to continue to use them.

A while back I thought I might upgrade from 150 to 300 k .. when I
asked they said I'd have to go onto direct debit (we didn't want to)
so we didn't bother? A couple of months later I was automatically
upgraded to 300k and even got the upgrade 'free' for 3 months and no
talk of direct debit? (Bless them) ;-)

Maybe we need to run Netmeter (mentioned on this thread) on all 3 PC's
here (plus the Laptop now and again) and actually measure our typical
useage .. (if you can measure it you can fix it sort of thing ..) but
would have to configure it not to measure the local traffic (if that's
possible) or we'll have UT games appearing in the sums ;-(

All the best ..

T i m

In message , T i m
writes
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:22:25 GMT, Mike Harrison
wrote:


What worries me is that they want you to agree to new T&Cs now, but
are not yet saying what happens
if you hit the cap.

And indeed, another of my concerns Mike ..

I have no problem with reduced speed, but they _could_ impose
surcharges as the
only option.

snip

Maybe we need to run Netmeter (mentioned on this thread) on all 3 PC's
here (plus the Laptop now and again) and actually measure our typical
useage .. (if you can measure it you can fix it sort of thing ..) but
would have to configure it not to measure the local traffic (if that's
possible) or we'll have UT games appearing in the sums ;-(

Yes, I was wondering about that, as there is a fair bit of internal
traffic on our network I imagine.

anyway moot point for now, seeing as we move soon (hopefully in the next
4-6 weeks) and will have to get ADSL anyway.

Which ISP.....????
--
Chris French, Leeds

In message , chris French
writes
anyway moot point for now, seeing as we move soon (hopefully in the
next 4-6 weeks) and will have to get ADSL anyway.

Which ISP.....????

a friend, who is a customer of theirs, constantly recommends Andrews &
Arnold - http://www.aa.nu/

--
dave @ stejonda

UCE Spammer : : Bots please harvest

chris French wrote:

anyway moot point for now, seeing as we move soon (hopefully in the next
4-6 weeks) and will have to get ADSL anyway.

Which ISP.....????

I have been very happy with www.free-online.co.uk

You can compare ISPs at www.adslguide.org.uk

Thins are going to be changing in the next few months (at least with
Free Online, and possibly / probably with most /all other ISPs) in so
far as BT are changing the way they charge ISPs for their bandwidth. As
far as Free Online goes, this means a fixed price regardless of speed
(potentially up to 8 MB) with different monthly rates depenadnt upon useage.

HTH,

Chris.

--
Cut along the dotted line to reply

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 18:57:50 UTC, Chris
wrote:

Thins are going to be changing in the next few months (at least with
Free Online, and possibly / probably with most /all other ISPs) in so
far as BT are changing the way they charge ISPs for their bandwidth.

Yes, all bandwidths are charged at pretty well the same rate, so if you
can get 2MB/s you might as well have it....some ISPs will charge more
though.

They are also changing the costs for data volume (which may be what
Chris meant) so caps, limits and volume charging will become common
except among ISPs with a customer base such as AOL's, where the majority
of their customers are low data users and will effectively subsidise the
heavy users.

OTOH, who wants to use AOL! !
--
Bob Eager
begin a new life...dump Windows!

In article , chris French
writes
In message , T i m
writes
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:22:25 GMT, Mike Harrison
wrote:


What worries me is that they want you to agree to new T&Cs now, but
are not yet saying what happens
if you hit the cap.

And indeed, another of my concerns Mike ..

I have no problem with reduced speed, but they _could_ impose
surcharges as the
only option.

snip

Maybe we need to run Netmeter (mentioned on this thread) on all 3 PC's
here (plus the Laptop now and again) and actually measure our typical
useage .. (if you can measure it you can fix it sort of thing ..) but
would have to configure it not to measure the local traffic (if that's
possible) or we'll have UT games appearing in the sums ;-(

Yes, I was wondering about that, as there is a fair bit of internal
traffic on our network I imagine.

anyway moot point for now, seeing as we move soon (hopefully in the next
4-6 weeks) and will have to get ADSL anyway.

Which ISP.....????

I've heard a lot of good things said about Eclipse Internet.

Look up suppliers on www.adslguide.org



--
Tony Sayer

In message , Chris
writes
chris French wrote:
anyway moot point for now, seeing as we move soon (hopefully in the
next 4-6 weeks) and will have to get ADSL anyway.
Which ISP.....????

I have been very happy with www.free-online.co.uk

You can compare ISPs at www.adslguide.org.uk

I know, but I always seem to end up being more befuddled than before

A fixed IP address would be handy, to save messing with Dynamic DNS, and
I don't want to tie in to a 12 month contract.


--
Chris French, Leeds

In message , "dave @ stejonda"
writes
In message , tony sayer
writes

Well sort of D-I-Y.. if you phone 'em up you can have your speed
upgraded for the same money. I've just had mine done from 750 to 2 Meg
and it rocks)

Using an old stb here so can't get 2MB get - so they've upgraded me to
1MB and reduced the charge to GBP17.99 until they give me a new shiny
Samsung.

Phoned them up today (only took about half an hour to get through to the
right droid). He claimed that my ****e old Pace box would PROBABLY work
at 2Meg. I told him that since it didn't even work at 750k without being
reset every day (Don't you dare try and put me through to technical
....), I didn't really have much faith in it. They're coming to install
the additional modem next thursday FOC

--
geoff

On 10 Mar 2005, T i m wrote
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:22:25 GMT, Mike Harrison
wrote:

(I've snipped not because I disagree with what's being said, but
because I'd like to insert a real-life measuring thing.)

This has to do with the 750/now 2MB service. (The 3GB/month limit on
the 300/now 1MB service is clearly designed to encourage lower-speed-
but-higher-bandwidth users to pay more in line with what the amount of
data they're transferring.)

Context: I've been on ntl's "512/became 600/then 750/now 2MB" service
for over 4 years now, and have always been happy with it. The best bit
was the "always on", but one of the major attractions (having come from
dial-up) was not having to worry about what I downloaded
(size/time/cost).

Magic. So I was concerned when they first brought in the 1GB/day
"unenforced unless you hit it too often" cap. But I had *no idea* what
my usage was (that was the great thing about it), so about a year ago,
I started measuring my usage.

(It's pointless to try and talk about "average use": that's the whole
point of having broadband -- you do with it what suits you. But for
context, my usage is that I work from home and am in front of the
computer for between 4 and 10 hours a day; I do a lot of web-based
research (archival maps and stuff), and I maintain my own ocmputer. So
I download what I want, when I want; I listen to streaming radio
(between 1 and 5 hours a day); I update programs; I download software
to try it out and/or discard it; I upload files to the office a couple
of times a week (around 10-15 MB per file); and very occasionally --
every couple of months or so -- I might do a big download of something
like a Linux ISO image (a CD-worth of data). I don't do games, and I
don't do file-sharing.)

Measuring that sort of usage over the past year, I have used over 3 GB
-- *per month* -- just once (a Linux month). All the other months have
been between 1.8 and 2.3 GB. That's per *month*.

In my experience, it takes a hell of a lot of file transferring to hit
1 GB per day; if people are actually hitting that sort of figure on a
regular basis, they should be paying more for the amount of 1s and 0s
they're shifting through the cables.

--
Cheers,
Harvey

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 22:28:17 GMT, Harvey Van Sickle
wrote:


(It's pointless to try and talk about "average use": that's the whole
point of having broadband -- you do with it what suits you. But for
context, my usage is that I work from home and am in front of the
computer for between 4 and 10 hours a day; I do a lot of web-based
research (archival maps and stuff), and I maintain my own ocmputer. So
I download what I want, when I want; I listen to streaming radio
(between 1 and 5 hours a day); I update programs; I download software
to try it out and/or discard it; I upload files to the office a couple
of times a week (around 10-15 MB per file); and very occasionally --
every couple of months or so -- I might do a big download of something
like a Linux ISO image (a CD-worth of data). I don't do games, and I
don't do file-sharing.)

Measuring that sort of usage over the past year, I have used over 3 GB
-- *per month* -- just once (a Linux month). All the other months have
been between 1.8 and 2.3 GB. That's per *month*.

In my experience, it takes a hell of a lot of file transferring to hit
1 GB per day; if people are actually hitting that sort of figure on a
regular basis, they should be paying more for the amount of 1s and 0s
they're shifting through the cables.

I would suggest your useage isn't untypical for a PC interested
(rather than someone 'who just want's it for word and emails') person.

I installed Netmeter on 2 of the 3 PC's here last night but this
morning it thinks the total traffic to date is 9M? I downloaded 3 x
10M files last night?

Anyone know if NM is accurate or if there are conditions that can
confuse it?

All the best ..

T i m

On 11 Mar 2005, T i m wrote

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 22:28:17 GMT, Harvey Van Sickle
wrote:

-snip usage explanation-

Measuring that sort of usage over the past year, I have used over
3 GB -- *per month* -- just once (a Linux month). All the other
months have been between 1.8 and 2.3 GB. That's per *month*.

In my experience, it takes a hell of a lot of file transferring
to hit 1 GB per day; if people are actually hitting that sort of
figure on a regular basis, they should be paying more for the
amount of 1s and 0s they're shifting through the cables.

I would suggest your useage isn't untypical for a PC interested
(rather than someone 'who just want's it for word and emails')
person.

I installed Netmeter on 2 of the 3 PC's here last night but this
morning it thinks the total traffic to date is 9M? I downloaded 3
x 10M files last night?

Anyone know if NM is accurate or if there are conditions that can
confuse it?

I know it can be confused if you're downloading from more than one
computer -- it's computer-based rather than router-based, I think --
but apart from that, it's always looked accurate to me.

--
Cheers,
Harvey

T i m wrote:

I installed Netmeter on 2 of the 3 PC's here last night but this
morning it thinks the total traffic to date is 9M? I downloaded 3 x
10M files last night?

Is that the cumulative total on 2 PCs, ie can you just add up the
figures recorded on 2 PCs sharing a connection?

As an NTL 750K'er I'm affected by this speed/capping thing too, so I
think I need to install this Netmeter to evaluate my family's usage.
But can anyone tell me where to download a kosher version of the correct
software? I hate looking for 'named' software via search engines at the
best of times - you never know what nasties you might end up with - but
in particular, there is clearly more than one program out there named
'Netmeter'.

David

In article , Lobster davidlobster
writes
T i m wrote:

I installed Netmeter on 2 of the 3 PC's here last night but this
morning it thinks the total traffic to date is 9M? I downloaded 3 x
10M files last night?

Is that the cumulative total on 2 PCs, ie can you just add up the
figures recorded on 2 PCs sharing a connection?

As an NTL 750K'er I'm affected by this speed/capping thing too, so I
think I need to install this Netmeter to evaluate my family's usage.
But can anyone tell me where to download a kosher version of the correct
software? I hate looking for 'named' software via search engines at the
best of times - you never know what nasties you might end up with - but
in particular, there is clearly more than one program out there named
'Netmeter'.

David


One of their service people told me a while ago that they have "some"
uses who are running servers etc on a 24/7 basis and are taking up more
than what the great majority of their customers do, hence the capping.

However I think this is the way its going to go in the industry witness
the use as much as you can, and capped services at different prices now
appearing in the market.

For me 3 GB a month is probably more than what I actually use and as
that amounts to a 100 MB a day thats quite a bit, and I don't think most
users are going to clock up that amount every day. Still if they are ntl
cater for them too, as do others, it'll just cost them more.

It seems at last that ntl are waking up to the fact that the market is
becoming more competitive and that a lot more people have access to the
BT line to carry ADSL than what have access to cable networks!....
--
Tony Sayer

Harvey Van Sickle wrote:
On 10 Mar 2005, T i m wrote

snip

So I was concerned when they first brought in the 1GB/day
"unenforced unless you hit it too often" cap. But I had *no idea*
what my usage was (that was the great thing about it), so about a
year ago, I started measuring my usage.

(It's pointless to try and talk about "average use": that's the whole
point of having broadband -- you do with it what suits you. But for
context, my usage is that I work from home and am in front of the
computer for between 4 and 10 hours a day; I do a lot of web-based
research (archival maps and stuff), and I maintain my own ocmputer.
So I download what I want, when I want; I listen to streaming radio
(between 1 and 5 hours a day); I update programs; I download
software to try it out and/or discard it; I upload files to the
office a couple of times a week (around 10-15 MB per file); and very
occasionally -- every couple of months or so -- I might do a big
download of something like a Linux ISO image (a CD-worth of data). I
don't do games, and I don't do file-sharing.)

Measuring that sort of usage over the past year, I have used over 3 GB
-- *per month* -- just once (a Linux month). All the other months
have been between 1.8 and 2.3 GB. That's per *month*.

In my experience, it takes a hell of a lot of file transferring to hit
1 GB per day; if people are actually hitting that sort of figure on a
regular basis, they should be paying more for the amount of 1s and 0s
they're shifting through the cables.

That's good to know.

I probably do most my downloading at work during the day. During the
evenings I use my PC lesss - but if I did use it, it would be for things
like emailing/newsgroups/sending photos to family, used to spend lots of
time doing CounterStrike - which I may do sometimes. Steam updates
automatically, so I get the Half Life 2 updates often (which can be
sizeable). As I have a work laptop, I often take that home (work from home
once a week) and this also has Steam on it, so potentially, double the
updates - although I can get them done at work. So far I think that 100M a
day average (actually 3GB a month, rather than a daily limit) is probably
okay - but its just knowing whether my usage will change in the future.

I'll give it a month or so and see what my usage is over that - and then if
its like 1.5GB or less, I'll upgrade. If I'm over 2GB I'll probably check
for another month. If I'm over 3GB, I'll stick with it for now.

David

On 11 Mar 2005, Lobster wrote

-snip-

As an NTL 750K'er I'm affected by this speed/capping thing too, so
I think I need to install this Netmeter to evaluate my family's
usage. But can anyone tell me where to download a kosher version
of the correct software?

This is the one you want: http://readerror.gmxhome.de/

--
Cheers,
Harvey

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 07:54:03 GMT, Harvey Van Sickle
wrote:


I installed Netmeter on 2 of the 3 PC's here last night but this
morning it thinks the total traffic to date is 9M? I downloaded 3
x 10M files last night?

Anyone know if NM is accurate or if there are conditions that can
confuse it?

I know it can be confused if you're downloading from more than one
computer -- it's computer-based rather than router-based, I think --
but apart from that, it's always looked accurate to me.

Yep, this was just on the one PC ... it seems to be working a bit
more realistically today .. I just need to keep an eye on it ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:04:02 GMT, Lobster
wrote:

T i m wrote:

I installed Netmeter on 2 of the 3 PC's here last night but this
morning it thinks the total traffic to date is 9M? I downloaded 3 x
10M files last night?

Is that the cumulative total on 2 PCs, ie can you just add up the
figures recorded on 2 PCs sharing a connection?

You should be able to just add them all together at the end of the
month. And if it has to include the LAN traffic then at least you will
be underestimating the figures.

If you were able to fit a second network card to all the PC and create
two 'networks' (one LAN and the other connected to the WAN) and have
Netmeter monitor the WAN port? I suppose router with decent stats
would be cheaper (any suggestions anyone?)


All the best ..

T i m