Thread: Comcast throttling

  1. #1
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    Comcast throttling

    I believe Comcast is throttling my upload even though I do not do any bit torrent or significant uploads.

    3 times in the last week my upload speed has dropped in the range of 0.01 to 0.55 mbps. My download has stayed consistent at around 15 mbps. I have called them and all they can seem to do is blame my Cisco (LinkSys) router. It is highly unlikely that my router would only block uploads as I believe Cisco home routers do not allow you to do this. Cisco commerical routers do have this ability but it is pretty useless for a home router.

    Last time they said they were working on the lines and then we got an automated phone call saying it had been fixed. Speedtest.net verified this with a nice 8 mbps upload speed and nearly 18mbps down.

    Today I ran speedtest and I get 15 mbps down with 0.07 up. I believe, according to a friend in the biz, that throttling on cable networks will negatively affect all who are on the trunk being throttled. This means the service I'm paying for is not being provided to me.

    Is there anything I can do as a consumer to combat this practice? Even though their billing system is based on total available speed (note: not total guaranteed speed) it seems they can throttle this at will. So even a customer paying 250 bucks a month for a nice upload can get throttled down to a 30 dollar a month account.

    This seems unfair.
    Last edited by VirtualAce; 07-16-2009 at 06:09 PM.

  2. #2
    Guest Sebastiani's Avatar
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    Waterloo, Texas
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    Man no kidding. I would send a letter notifying them of my intention to do business elsewhere if the problem isn't resolved immediately, and that I'd be sending some letters to consumer agencies, as well. I'm guessing you've been a customer with them for quite a while - you might use that as a bit of leverage, too. Good luck.
    Code:
    #include <cmath>
    #include <complex>
    bool euler_flip(bool value)
    {
        return std::pow
        (
            std::complex<float>(std::exp(1.0)), 
            std::complex<float>(0, 1) 
            * std::complex<float>(std::atan(1.0)
            *(1 << (value + 2)))
        ).real() < 0;
    }

  3. #3
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    What you should really do is get online, find a bunch of other similar suspicious comcast victims, get together, verify to heart's content, and then put a little web site together with the information and show it to Comcast asking for an explanation before you spread the tish around including whatever explanation they provide.

    Since they already got slammed in a number of big class action lawsuits last year and have been investigated and fined by the FCC because of fraudulence in providing internet access including throttling, I imagine they cannot wait to hear about more such cases.
    Last edited by MK27; 07-16-2009 at 06:35 PM.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

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