Newsgroup limits with Comcast
As I am a new customer with Comcast high speed, I am still learning the ins and outs of the service. In San Diego, I used Time Warner cable and I was very happy with them. They did not filter ports, they did not limit bandwidth, they did not back you into a corner to become a "home networking" customer, nor did they limit access to any of their services.
With Comcast there is a 2 gig limit/month on newsgroup access, which on a (as they describe it) 6M pipe one could expire on the first day of the month in a matter of minutes.
Turns out, they outsource to giganews, and this level of access is called the "bronze level". For a fee, one can upgrade to better services and more bandwidth. I am really not to suprised or upset by this actually. In fact I think its reasonable.
Usenet is not something everyone needs or uses. In fact I rarely run across a student that is active with it. This is a shame because usenet is an excellent resource, once you learn to work the culture and its quirks. It is however, very bandwidth intense and therefore expensive for an ISP to offer. By its uncensored and unbriddled nature, a provider is not supposed to make decisions about the content on usenet when it mirrors the groups.
So the question is this; If an ISP wanted to offer unlimited usenet for free yet reduce its cost, they would have to filter certain group hierarchies, or offer limited use that is good enough for most customers and charge a little for people who exceed typical access. From the business side, I have no issue with what Comcast has chosen to do by outsourcing and giving me the choice to upgrade.
.....but wait......what if this starts to creep into general internet use and not just services like usenet? I download huge amounts of Linux ISOs each month because I have never seen a live Linux distro I didn't want to try out. Limiting access to this kind of download defeats the purpose of one important facet of Open Source technology: Access to all, regardless of economic class or means. Which is as it should be in spite of M$ stand that such a thing is "Un-American". An ISP charging extra fo people to download "free" (is in speech) material is a dangerous idea.
This is one of those scarry times when the word "reasonable" plays an important role. In the meanwhile, we hope market forces keep everything in balance.
Below is a link to Giganews, and to an alternative that looks really cool too. If I try either, I will keep you posted on my experience.
Giganews Signup and Pricing
With Comcast there is a 2 gig limit/month on newsgroup access, which on a (as they describe it) 6M pipe one could expire on the first day of the month in a matter of minutes.
Turns out, they outsource to giganews, and this level of access is called the "bronze level". For a fee, one can upgrade to better services and more bandwidth. I am really not to suprised or upset by this actually. In fact I think its reasonable.
Usenet is not something everyone needs or uses. In fact I rarely run across a student that is active with it. This is a shame because usenet is an excellent resource, once you learn to work the culture and its quirks. It is however, very bandwidth intense and therefore expensive for an ISP to offer. By its uncensored and unbriddled nature, a provider is not supposed to make decisions about the content on usenet when it mirrors the groups.
So the question is this; If an ISP wanted to offer unlimited usenet for free yet reduce its cost, they would have to filter certain group hierarchies, or offer limited use that is good enough for most customers and charge a little for people who exceed typical access. From the business side, I have no issue with what Comcast has chosen to do by outsourcing and giving me the choice to upgrade.
.....but wait......what if this starts to creep into general internet use and not just services like usenet? I download huge amounts of Linux ISOs each month because I have never seen a live Linux distro I didn't want to try out. Limiting access to this kind of download defeats the purpose of one important facet of Open Source technology: Access to all, regardless of economic class or means. Which is as it should be in spite of M$ stand that such a thing is "Un-American". An ISP charging extra fo people to download "free" (is in speech) material is a dangerous idea.
This is one of those scarry times when the word "reasonable" plays an important role. In the meanwhile, we hope market forces keep everything in balance.
Below is a link to Giganews, and to an alternative that looks really cool too. If I try either, I will keep you posted on my experience.
Giganews Signup and Pricing
