OT Internet wars

[Derek Broughton]

drew einhorn wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 9:05 AM, Derek Broughton <derek at pointerstop.ca>
> wrote:
>> Bart Silverstrim wrote:
>>
>>> What about DirecTV or some other satellite provider?
>>
>> Better than dial-up, no better than QWest DSL in terms of service (and a
>> much slower link).
> 
> Check the fine print on what happens if you actually use the satellite
> provider's bandwidth.
> My information is quite stale and may not be accurate.
> 
> Some have very low quotas on how much traffic you are allowed to generate?

All, afaik.

> What are those limits?

Depends on plan.

> What happens if you exceed the limit?

FAP!  A fine acronym that is supposed to mean "Fair Access Policy", but
really means "we're charging you an arm and a leg for Internet access and
we will take at least one more limb if you really want to do anything
useful".  Basically, you get throttled down to less-than-dialup speeds
(interestingly, FAP is purely one-way - I have pushed large files _out_ to
the Internet while FAPped that I'd never be able to download (although the
outbound speed is much slower than the maximum _possible_ download speed).

> If you exceed the limits and you are punished, how long does it take
> until the punishment is lifted?

You'll never work it out - they use a leaky bucket algorithm that means it's
entirely possible you'll _never_ get unFAPped.

> Can you tell how close to the limits you are, and cut back on your
> usage to avoid the penalties?

Not ime.
 
> For example, you need to know if you can download a Ubuntu
> installation .iso without being severely punished.

Not on any satellite provider I have checked.