# Internet Usage Monitor



## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

My brother is on Comcast & has just found out the hard way that they have a 250GB monthly limit. His son spends all day downloading stuff from torrent sites & they have used 1.3TB in 3 months. So Comcast has told my brother that one more month of excessive use & they will ban him for a year. His wife & daughter both take online classes & he has no idea how much bandwidth that takes. Is there some software for a router that would report statistics based in the IP address as it generates traffic?

_ I think the dd-wrt software might do this. I have a wrt54 router so will install it on that to see what it does _


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Sounds like it's time to prohibit torrents to the son.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

Comcast has a monitor... call customer service.


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

LarryFlowers said:


> Comcast has a monitor... call customer service.


This is a monitor that would run behind the router so it would know the usage of each item with an IP address? My brother has 5 PC's & 4 iPhones that connect.


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## Yoda-DBSguy (Nov 4, 2006)

HDJulie said:


> My brother is on Comcast & has just found out the hard way that they have a 250GB monthly limit. His son spends all day downloading stuff from torrent sites & they have used 1.3TB in 3 months. So Comcast has told my brother that one more month of excessive use & they will ban him for a year. His wife & daughter both take online classes & he has no idea how much bandwidth that takes. Is there some software for a router that would report statistics based in the IP address as it generates traffic?
> 
> _ I think the dd-wrt software might do this. I have a wrt54 router so will install it on that to see what it does _


As stated, comcast provides residential customers with their own internet usage meter. He can access it by going to comcast.com and loging into his account or by going dirrectly here:
https://customer.comcast.com/Secure/UsageMeterDetail.aspx


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

Yoda-DBSguy said:


> As stated, comcast provides residential customers with their own internet usage meter. He can access it by going to comcast.com and loging into his account or by going dirrectly here:
> https://customer.comcast.com/Secure/UsageMeterDetail.aspx


Yes, that would show his total usage which he will use. However, he wants to see how much each device is using as well. He'd like to be able to know that his son used 100MB today. He'd also like to restrict the usage for a specific IP (his son's) so that when it went over 100MB it would automatically cut off access for that IP for a specific amount of time. I doubt anything will allow for disconnects based on usage, but he would like to be able to see how much each PC is using. Barring any of that, he'll definitely use the usage page just to see how much he's using for all PC's.


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

There's stuff that will allow for that, it's just not consumer-grade. 

That's a lot of downloading. I certainly torrent at home and I haven't busted the 250GB cap yet. I'd be having a long, hard talk with my son about proper use of our home connection and most of all Not Drawing Attention to Ourselves, So We Don't Get Busted by the Clowns.


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

Yes, he's had the conversation but kids these days don't seem to believe that anything bad will happen to/because of them & so he might slack off for a while & then start again. If I were in Memphis, I would look at what he's downloading because I agree, that is a huge amount of stuff. But, I'm not there & my brother is not computer savvy so he would have no idea what to look for. My brother will just have to monitor the usage using Comcast's tool. I'm not a Comcast customer -- does anyone know if that tool will email you alerts?


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

It is so easy to restrict internet access based on IP address, you can throttle, etc....from just about any router that gets used in the home....


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

^^ Problem is, the kids will know more about the router and how to disable any restrictions.


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

I'm going to show my brother how to restrict the access based on the mac address but he doesn't want to do that unless his son goes over a certain usage each day & unfortunately, my brother does not have internet access at work so he can't remotely update the router. He can use his iphone for access & that's how he can monitor the usage but it would be difficult to use the iphone to manage the router. His son is not a rebellious person so if my brother calls him to say stop using the internet, he'll stop.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

SayWhat? said:


> ^^ Problem is, the kids will know more about the router and how to disable any restrictions.


Not if a strong password is applied to the router. There are numerous application on the net that will generate strong passwords


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

The other option is that with DD-WRT you can block all Bittorrent, or even all P2P completely. Caveat being if the son can get into the router, he can turn it off, and it won't catch encrypted traffic.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

wingrider01 said:


> Not if a strong password is applied to the router. There are numerous application on the net that will generate strong passwords


Yeah, but most routers have that little button on the back that sets the user name and password back to admin.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

HDJulie said:


> My brother is on Comcast & has just found out the hard way that they have a 250GB monthly limit. His son spends all day downloading stuff from torrent sites & they have used 1.3TB in 3 months. So Comcast has told my brother that one more month of excessive use & they will ban him for a year. His wife & daughter both take online classes & he has no idea how much bandwidth that takes.  Is there some software for a router that would report statistics based in the IP address as it generates traffic?
> 
> _ I think the dd-wrt software might do this. I have a wrt54 router so will install it on that to see what it does _


I take many on line classes and they represent nothing in terms of bandwidth. My first question here would be what is he downloading that is using so much bandwidth? Remember, if he is downloading music & movies & such he is probably doing so illegally and his parents could be called to account for that. Could be very expensive.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Whatever the son is doing, it's probably illegal since he's downloading from torrent sites. That would be a good (and ethical) reason to cut his access OR, make him pay for his own access.

I had this issue with my son as well. He started downloading from torrent sites. As soon as I told him to stop or I would make him pay for his own line, it ended quickly.

I realize this does not answer your question, but as with anything, in order to solve a problem, you must get to the core of the problem and nip it in the bud. Band-aids never last long.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

SayWhat? said:


> Problem is, the kids will know more about the router and how to disable any restrictions.


Then it may be time to disable the children.

(Or at least their access. Hopefully parenting works.)


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Using 1.3 TB is not the same as DL'ing that amount. If his son is seeding all day that is helping as well. Chances are he's just going to have to tell his son to stop using torrents. Spending more money on technology to stop his son is not the answer. Computers themself have better security than a home router so just lock him out of all of the computers with accounts and passwords. If he's not rebelious then stopping the torrents should resolve the issue to begin with.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

And if nothing else, there's always a good old fashioned spanking.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

SayWhat? said:


> And if nothing else, there's always a good old fashioned spanking.


+1


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## kiknwing (Jun 24, 2009)

1.3 TB... I think its time to talk to the kid. If you just put a fence up, its just going to encourage him to find a way around it. Somebody just needs to be taught ethics and respect for others property.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

kiknwing said:


> Somebody just needs to be taught ethics and respect for others property.


If only the parent's property, which is the ISP service the parents are going to lose if the kid doesn't stop.

Trying to convince the kid all the stuff he's downloading/transferring is stealing may be a long conversation. Focusing on the loss of internet service for the family with a one year ban is tangible. The deeper ethical questions need to be dealt with as well ... but the potential loss of service is the first thread.

BTW: Would playing online role-playing games use a lot of bandwidth?


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

SayWhat? said:


> ^^ Problem is, the kids will know more about the router and how to disable any restrictions.


Really? When its password protected, the kids will have to do a bit of work to get around it. And if your kids can't be trusted to not mess with that stuff, then guess what, NO computer access at all until they learn some respect for your authority.


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## sideswipe (Dec 4, 2008)

James Long said:


> If only the parent's property, which is the ISP service the parents are going to lose if the kid doesn't stop.
> 
> Trying to convince the kid all the stuff he's downloading/transferring is stealing may be a long conversation. Focusing on the loss of internet service for the family with a one year ban is tangible. The deeper ethical questions need to be dealt with as well ... but the potential loss of service is the first thread.
> 
> BTW: Would playing online role-playing games use a lot of bandwidth?


no online gaming is minimal (even my full game download is less than 10gb) & that is if Im restoring my system back original so thats just a 1x deal also monthly patches are usually 2gb or under (2gb being a major patch or upgrade)


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

James Long said:


> If only the parent's property, which is the ISP service the parents are going to lose if the kid doesn't stop.
> 
> Trying to convince the kid all the stuff he's downloading/transferring is stealing may be a long conversation. Focusing on the loss of internet service for the family with a one year ban is tangible. The deeper ethical questions need to be dealt with as well ... but the potential loss of service is the first thread.
> 
> BTW: Would playing online role-playing games use a lot of bandwidth?


Some games have been measured at up to around 90 meg an hour, and that's pretty high. Others are 50 or less.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

sideswipe said:


> no online gaming is minimal (even my full game download is less than 10gb) & that is if Im restoring my system back original so thats just a 1x deal also monthly patches are usually 2gb or under (2gb being a major patch or upgrade)


Just curious ... I am running at about 9 GB per week on my laptop wi-fi which includes in house data transfer to another machine. I have not put stats on the external link. I don't do any role-playing games. I was just looking to see if there was any "legit" P2P use that might be packing on the bandwidth for this user.

Seeing what else is done in the house (Netflix? Internet VOD on satellite receivers?) would be interesting.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

I'm sitting here wondering where that 1.3TB is being stored? At that rate it is 5Tb a year. How many here have 6Tb of storage in a computer?

One solution nobody mentioned is get him a laptop with a small drive and remove any external drives from the room.

Or Comcast could be wrong about the usage, not unlikely with them either.

Or large possibility the wireless router is unsecured and a freeloader is downloading like crazy off of their internet. An example of that would be someone who had their internet cut off by Comcast.

I'm on the highest tier on my provider and I'd be torqued off if I got a letter like that from them. Unlikely as I understand they do not cap like Comcast does. 

My usage is Netflix, HD DVR downloads and Internet. Not to mention other user in the house. I pay for high speed so that I can get what I want during the few hours I can use the computer and I don't have delays.

One other option, not the best way is have your internet speed reduced so you can't go over that limit if you are grabbing files 24 hours a day.


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## trdrjeff (Dec 3, 2007)

My brother had a similar problem with his kids, not that much BW, but the torrents would start up and seed on their laptop as soon as it powered up unbeknown to them. Some of that spyware is real bad for getting on their and running without your knowledge.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

TBoneit said:


> I'm sitting here wondering where that 1.3TB is being stored? At that rate it is 5Tb a year.....


He could be watching BR rips then dumping them. Most 720p/1080p Blu Ray ripped torrents are about 4GB and more...That could add up.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

TBoneit said:


> I'm sitting here wondering where that 1.3TB is being stored? At that rate it is 5Tb a year. How many here have 6Tb of storage in a computer?
> 
> One solution nobody mentioned is get him a laptop with a small drive and remove any external drives from the room.
> 
> ...


Again this is data sent and received not stored. If you download a 1GB torrent and seed it 24 hours a day you're sending out that information at whatever rate you have setup for your upload speed up to the max. If he's on a 15/5 line that's a lot of data being sent out.

Now I don't think that he's uploading it all but just saying that downloading doesn't take all of that space. Plus chances are they're movies and get deleted/burned after downloading. Chances are it's probably 90/10 Download/Upload

The first step though is to talk to his son and get the situation resolved.

For others:
I would however recommend people stay away from the ethics part because it doesn't help resolve the issue and it will just turn into finger pointing.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

sigma1914 said:


> He could be watching BR rips then dumping them. Most 720p/1080p Blu Ray ripped torrents are about 4GB and more...That could add up.


A lot of it would be upload. Generally by default when you download a torrent, others then download it from you. The 1.3TB is both ways. Normally, upload is a lot less than download, but it can be significant with torrents.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

> I running at about 9 MB per week on my laptop


I average about 40 or 50 Mb per day just browsing boards like this. And that's with most images and graphics turned off or blocked.

I'm not sure why yesterday was so high and I don't know why they have the graph twisted at an angle.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Shades228 said:


> For others:
> I would however recommend people stay away from the ethics part because it doesn't help resolve the issue and it will just turn into finger pointing.


Well yeah but we also don't want to help someone steal either.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Chris Blount said:


> Well yeah but we also don't want to help someone steal either.


I'm not implying anyone would, or that it would be tollerated here, but I do find it entertaining that those who are willing to deceive, or cajoule if it makes some feel better, to get something from certain companies bring up ethical implications of others that they have no knowledge of.

Chances are that yes there is something illegal going on, especially since even under the fair use clause you are not allowed to distribute which is impossible on p2p, but as Tboneit presented there could be a security breach as well with someone free loading off of their network.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

SayWhat? said:


> James Long said:
> 
> 
> > I am running at about 9 MB per week on my laptop
> ...


Make that 9 GB per week. :sure:



Chris Blount said:


> Well yeah but we also don't want to help someone steal either.


Agreed. It is a tough discussion, which is why I suggested focusing on the loss of service first, but at some point teaching ethics needs to be done.

"Abuse this and we won't have it any more" is probably an easier concept for a child to grasp than copyright/royalty infringement. There are older than children people that don't seem to be able to grasp the copyright issues ... but they understand that if the Internet connection is cut off they get nothing (legal or not).


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

Thanks everyone for the comments, suggestions, & other ideas. Since this is my brother & nephew, I'm going to opt out of the ethical & parental discussions in this particular thread but I have enjoyed all of the dialog & agree with most of the sentiment expressed here. I'll post an update if anything of note happens with Comcast.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Interesting case study and discussion, and the cap issue is very relevant to my new Roku/Netflix/other streaming situation. My intent is to replace four premium HD movie packages with NF steaming to save $$. But I sure don't want to bump my head on Comcast's 250GB ceiling, especially after I've just canceled the premiums.

What to do, what to do? 

:sure:


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Nick said:


> Interesting case study and discussion, and the cap issue is very relevant to my new Roku/Netflix/other streaming situation. My intent is to replace four premium HD movie packages with NF steaming to save $$. But I sure don't want to bump my head on Comcast's 250GB ceiling, especially after I've just canceled the premiums.
> 
> What to do, what to do?
> 
> :sure:


With a monitor you could see how much instant you are watching as well as your DVD turn around time. The 3 at a time can basically give you a new DVD every 2 days. If you can mix in a show dvd and then 2 movie dvd's you can keep up to date with shows as well as movies.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Nick said:


> Interesting case study and discussion, and the cap issue is very relevant to my new Roku/Netflix/other streaming situation. My intent is to replace four premium HD movie packages with NF steaming to save $$. But I sure don't want to bump my head on Comcast's 250GB ceiling, especially after I've just canceled the premiums.
> 
> What to do, what to do?
> 
> :sure:


I think at its best quality, Netflix is around 1.7GB an hour.


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

Can the bit-torrents . . .


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

I've used the VOD downloads on my sat receiver and have also viewed content via the website - not to an extreme. I noticed my Internet connection was sluggish last month and checked SpeedTest ... I found out that there was a speed cap in place. Watching the meter go from zero very fast to 1 Mbps then stop there when my semi-rural DSL is usually around 2.86 Mbps. Checking today (a different month) my speed is back - with the SpeedTest needle not stopping so abruptly. I pay for "up to" 3 Mbps - in my location that is pretty much the max speed anyways (distance to concentrator).

My download usage was pretty heavy at the beginning of January with the VOD and website viewing, plus a couple of large programs purchased online. I may have crossed the 100GB line. I'm glad that the retaliation was only a speed reduction and not a fine, threat of disconnection or a cold cut off.

(I had Verizon DSL but my area was purchased by Frontier - and they like usage caps.)

Usage caps MUST be factored in when "converting" from OTA/satellite/DVD delivery to other methods. Especially if your ISP charges a fine or cuts service for breaking the cap.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

That's what happens with StarBand. You're allowed 1 Gb per rolling 7 day period. If you go over, they throttle your speeds until you fall below a 750Mb threshold.

Rumor has it that DSL might possibly be available to me now and I may have a wireless option (ISP would have to do a site test). If I can go with one of those, I'll have to check and see if they have a cap/restrict policy.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

SayWhat? said:


> That's what happens with StarBand. You're allowed 1 Gb per rolling 7 day period. If you go over, they throttle your speeds until you fall below a 750Mb threshold.
> 
> Rumor has it that DSL might possibly be available to me now and I may have a wireless option (ISP would have to do a site test). If I can go with one of those, I'll have to check and see if they have a cap/restrict policy.


Caps aren't as common on DSL, but Frontier was playing with a cellular style restriction. Their Acceptable Use Policy defined acceptable as 5GB a month. I think at this point they backed off, but they were considering penalties for going over. Interesting thing was, Netflix streaming and Carbonite cloud backup didn't count, as they were partners. But going with a competitor did count.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

dpeters11 said:


> Interesting thing was, Netflix streaming and Carbonite cloud backup didn't count, as they were partners. But going with a competitor did count.


And that is EXACTLY what the FCC seeks to prevent with Net Neutrality.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

One other solution is to switch the DNS servers to OpenDNS. They have a filtering service that you can turn on and off certain categories, preventing access to certain sites. That way, when the son goes to the Gaming or P2P/FIle Sharing sites.... DENIED!


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Many torrent downloads are actually theft of copyrighted content. I'd suggest your brother teach your son about following the law.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

matt said:


> Yeah, but most routers have that little button on the back that sets the user name and password back to admin.


If the kid does that, then he or she should be grounded from the internet for about 6 months. Have 0 problem removing the childern's computers for that period of time.


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> Many torrent downloads are actually theft of copyrighted content. I'd suggest your brother teach your son about following the law.


I would say many, too; torrents are the only way to get up to date ISOs, updates and even Blizzard uses BT for World of Warcraft updates now.

It's really surprising how much stuff's using BT nowadays.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

There is a possibility I missed beyond someone hacking into and using the wireless. Being that the son is on the torrents, a large source of infected malware files BTW, The computer could be part of a botnet and is being used to send tons of spam. 

Thanks for the information on Torrents as I have steered clear of them. Even ASUS provides links to torrents for drivers, however I've never used them and consider that a cheap way for them to avoid upgrading their servers.

Their are legitimate uses for torrents on the other hand 1.3Tb in 3 months? Wow

If I were the OP I'd make sure that router is secured, I turned off my wireless BTW, I even run a wire to the laptop the twice a month I pull it out for online banking and bill paying. No Browsing or email on it.

To many scary stories about what can happen to you with your unsecured router. Anything sent from it will trace back to you. There was a news article where a person hacked into his neighbors wireless He was feuding with his neighbor (or crazy?) and used it to send threatening letters to the Vice president and post sex videos & pix of kids. Fortunately they traced it back to him. and it backfired.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

How many people have 6TB in their machines? I do. One machine has a pair of new 3TB USB 3.0 external drives. My server has 4 2TB drives internal and a pair external when I get the thing rebuilt. I deal with a lot of recorded TV backed up to the server. I'm a bit of a data hoarder. I also have 2 laptops and 3 PCs doing their backups to the server. Just for good measure, I have a networked laser printer, an Xbox 360 (used to be a pair) and a Vonage box, 2 Dishnetwork DVRs and my Blu-Ray player on the network. The topology alone has the router, 3 hubs (2 8-port, 1 5-port), a powerline hub and 2 powerline adapters.

This makes the Comcast salesman cry. When I tell him that 250GB is about 5-10 blu-ray movies in high-def from a streaming site (like Netflix or any other legal service), they start to stammer and stutter. At which point I say "then don't say your service is unlimited".


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