Comcast screwing my speed on usenet

I'm also on Comcast and I get 20-30 Mbps on a regular basis. For me, the key is to open multiple concurrent connections.

Sounds like you have come close to the limit of 250 gig per month.

I don't follow. Slower speeds are not a symptom of approaching the 250 GB soft cap.

Per Comcast that is exactly what they will do, they will slow you down the closer you get to their cap and then at the cap stop you. This is to help people see that they are approaching the cap. I would call Comcast and ask what is going on, all they can do is refuse to tell you.

Somewhere along the line, I think you misread or misunderstood something, unless you can produce a link to an explanation? According to numerous articles on dslreports, extensive discussions in the Comcast forums, and other 3rd party analyses, Comcast will throttle traffic when a node is congested, and they will start with the modem that's causing the congestion. There are other, finer, points to it, but absolutely nothing to indicate that the 250 GB monthly soft cap has any bearing on it.

Works for me

comcast is throttling. their algorithm (as in DSL magazine) is they estimate if you are using 70% of your alloted bandwidth for 15 minutes. if u r, and they decide what your 'alloted bandwidth' is supposed to be, they cut the speed by 50 %. they will during their 'busy' times drop you to 0%. that is why as soon as FIOS hits and area, almost all of the comcast internet users switch.

Amazing. You STILL don't understand their current 'traffic management' plan. Oh well.

yes, unfortunately it is the one from the dsl reports and from a tech at comcast. but what the f*ck, you know more then they do, after all you don't work for them.

you bill, you really are an idiot:

New Comcast Throttling System 100% Online Comcast tells us new network management system live in all markets

12:27PM Monday Jan 05 2009 by Karl Bode tags: business · bandwidth · cable · networking · consumers · caps · Comcast Tipped by TK Junk Mail In line with their traffic management website Comcast has confirmed to us they've installed their new broadband throttling system across all markets. The system, which we first profiled back in September, throttles a user's connection if a particular CMTS port is congested, and if that user has been identified as a primary reason why. This two-condition throttling system replaces Comcast's old, FCC-criticized system of using forged TCP packets to throttle upstream P2P services for all users, regardless of consumption.

According to Comcast's filings (pdf) with the FCC, they've deployed new hardware and software close to the company's Regional Network Routers (RNRs). This hardware will flip a user from the standard "Priority Best-Effort" traffic (PBE) to lower quality of service (QoS) "Best-Effort" traffic (BE) for fifteen minutes if they're a major reason congestion exists.

While certainly a slightly more transparent system to those paying attention, the new system is probably going to confuse the American public, many of whom don't even know what a gigabyte is. Comcast used a bus metaphor to explain the difference between best effort and priority best effort traffic to the FCC: If there is no congestion, packets from a user in a BE state should have little trouble getting on the bus when they arrive at the bus stop. If, on the other hand, there is congestion in a particular instance, the bus may become filled by packets in a PBE state before any BE packets can get on. In that situation, the BE packets would have to wait for the next bus that is not filled by PBE packets. Comcast says that sustained use of 70% of your up or downstream throughput triggers the BE state, at which point you'll find your traffic priority lowered until your usage drops to 50% of your provisioned upstream or downstream bandwidth for "a period of approximately 15 minutes." A throttled Comcast user being placed in a BE state "may or may not result in the user's traffic being delayed or, in extreme cases, dropped before PBE traffic is dropped."

Note that upstream and downstream bandwidth are managed separately. Also note that the differentiation between PBE and BE traffic occurs in two millisecond increments. According to Comcast, even if the packets for a best effort throttled user missed 50 "busses," the delay would only be about one-tenth of a second.

In addition to the new throttling system, Comcast has also a 250GB monthly usage cap for all users. As we mentioned last Friday, Comcast has confirmed that a web portal-based bandwidth tracker is currently in beta among Comcast employees -- but has yet to give an official launch date. A Comcast insider had previously given us leaked screenshots of the monitor, and said it was originally scheduled to go live on January 5 (today).

Comcast has confirmed to us that they've completed the upgrade to the new system.

I'm not sure what you want me to do, point out every instance of where you're wrong? Since the whole thing is wrong, I thought it would be easier to just dismiss it that way. As for DSLReports, the actual press release posted there was right, but your analysis of it was completely wrong.