ISP Download/Upload Limits?

[ZeratulsAvenger]

Well my family just got DSL and I didn't think to look at the limit for my dl's and uploads until a friend of a friend got slammed with a $60 extra charge for GB's over his limit. This was mostly because he was sharing all of his files in one of those file sharing programs and left it on 24/7 :rolleyes:. Now I was wondering how far my 10 GB limit will get me. Should I be worried about going over if I do some gaming every once in a while(every weekend mostly) and surf 1-3 hours a day maybe(at most ;) ) and dl game demo's and stuff like that. I really don't know how far 10 GB will get me so I am just wondering because it would be a pain to get screwed on our first month of service because we went over our limit.

Thanx for any help :)

EDIT:

I was also wondering if there would be any setting in my router config pages that would allow me to keep track of download and upload MB's and GB's and limit it to 10 GB of transfers in a month. It is a NetGear RP614(Version 1). There is a section in it that talks about MTU(Maximum Transmit Unit) size and was wondering if this would be what I wanted.

Shoot... just wondered if this is supposed to be in the Network section... :confused: Well if it is... sorry :rolleyes:

[glc]

MTU refers to individual packet sizes, that won't help you with this at all. I highly doubt that a consumer grade router would have anything to keep track of traffic.

[james8547]

wow 10GB. How much are they charging you regularly?

My bro and I can fill that limit in 24hrs. I do website work and I back up entire websites. It's not unusual for me to have two 5mb d/l going at the same time. My bro on the other hand, d/l unlicesned animes. I think it's freeware fan-made animes. I really don't know since I don't watch animes regularly.

[Statica]

10GB? Though its rather low, there are a number of broadband ISPs that will include something like that in their ToS. I know out here in Canada, Bell "we claim to be better than everything else" Sympatico had something similar to that before people wisened up and starting switching away; before they dropped that limit.
Try using something small like netstat live : http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/nsl.htm to keep track of your totals for the month; meanwhile would suggest that you look for another broadband ISP and if you do cancel the service, let them know why you are cancelling.

[ZeratulsAvenger]

10 GB is really that low? :( Well I am gonna hold off for now and just see if I go over for this month.... Oh and we are gettin charged $50/month for the 512 DSL(don't know on uploads) with the 10 GB transfer limit and the usual e-mails and all that stuff. And since I am in a somewhat remote place, and am unsure of how many other providers there would be up my way. And it's MTA who is my ISP... Alaska company I am pretty sure. Well thanx for the help so far.

[glc]

10gb/month is just over 300mb a day, which on a 512 connection will take you less than 2 hours a day of steady downloading to bust.

[ZeratulsAvenger]

Hmm... well your right then... I am on a fast track to paying way over :) Well off I go to search for other ISP's.

Oh and does anyone have any idea on why people in the Lower 48 seem to be paying less for more speed then us up here in Alaksa. Like BellSouth says that you can get downloads up to 1.5Mbps/upload up to 256Kbps for $49.95 a month.. but all of the ISP's that I have seen up here seem to be having 512/256 for that same price...

[james8547]

Originally posted by ZeratulsAvenger
Oh and does anyone have any idea on why people in the Lower 48 seem to be paying less for more speed then us up here in Alaksa.
Just out of curiousity, where in Alaska are you (general place)? My guess is the same reason why shipping there is more expensive -- geographical distance.

[ZeratulsAvenger]

Well I am just outside of Eagle River which is about 10 miles away from Anchroage.

Now I found an ISP which has unlimited transfers and 640Kbps/320Kbps for $64 with long distance and 74 without... can anyone reason that for me :) Here (http://www.acsalaska.com/internet/services/residential/pipe/area1/service.stm) is the site. So no 512 and no $50 plan :(

EDIT: Ok well I got on the website of my ISP and saw a place to see your current amoutn of transfers. Seems as though I have 8.18 GB of transfers. Guess it's good that I didn't get DSL before school started or else I would be way over. :D