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How much Gigabyte usage does the average person need?
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I recently signed with an ISP which allowed 1GB per month and a speed of 'up to' 8mbps, for £9.99 - thinking that this would be enough for my use.
I was surprised to find out that after only four days, I recieved an email from my ISP telling me that I had exceeded my limit, and my broadband speed dropped to an absurdly low speed for the rest of the month (about 0.1Mbps)
While I do use the net quite a lot, it's mostly only browsing/surfing - I occasianly watch some videos and listen to radio stations. I don't download music at all.
Is this normal, or are my ISP ripping me off? Will I just have to upgrade to a more expensive package?
I'm a bit new to all this, so thanks for any advice.
I was surprised to find out that after only four days, I recieved an email from my ISP telling me that I had exceeded my limit, and my broadband speed dropped to an absurdly low speed for the rest of the month (about 0.1Mbps)
While I do use the net quite a lot, it's mostly only browsing/surfing - I occasianly watch some videos and listen to radio stations. I don't download music at all.
Is this normal, or are my ISP ripping me off? Will I just have to upgrade to a more expensive package?
I'm a bit new to all this, so thanks for any advice.
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When my computer is 'on' but I'm not using the internet, does it still count towards my broadband usage?
In other words, my PC is on and the modem/router is connected, but I haven't opened any browser - I'm just doing other stuff which doesn't involve using the internet.
Or is it better to turn my modem off once I've finished a surfing session?
Lets say you download 1 full length film. That's around 700MB. That means, for the rest of the month you'll only have 300MB allowance left (well, 312).
I'd assume someone could use 1GB just by surfing and watching videos on YouTube.
£9.99 for 1GB usage is pretty bad, too. There are far better deals out there. You could probably get something for a similar price with over 40GB usage. What ISP are you with?
There's very little data transferred when the PC is on but not in use, so this wouldn't affect your allowance... perhaps only by a few MBs per month, if that (some programs are constantly checking for updates, for example).
Even if there are people out there who don't use 1GB a month, it's still very poor value.
A couple of years ago, I was on 2GB a month for £18 with Wanadoo and I almost exceeded the allowance after only one week.
A couple of years ago, 2GB/month was quite reasonable but now we've got:
Xbox Live
HD video clips
YouYube music clips
Online TV
I'm on 20GB a month now and I even struggle to keep to that limit.
Didn't Tesco only recently offer 1GB/month?
I'm with plusnet. Their next option is £14.99 p/m for 8GB. Probably chose the wrong ISP:(
also, the up to 8mb speed was in reality averaging at about 4 to 5 Mbps
Every web page you open, every advert that's on there, all head straight for you temp files directory, I'm amazed at how much CCleaner gets rid of after a brief browse.
Get Sky, up to 16meg for £10 a month, unlimited usage (250+ gigs FUP)
And I have downloaded 10GB in the last 7 days.
CCleaner? Is that deleting your temp internet files?
Do you have to have Sky TV to sign up for their broadband?
EDIT: It seems you do. Can anyone recommend a good value ISP. I'm hoping not to spend more than £15/month if possible. (Except for Talktalk - I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole)
when you are listening to internet radio & watching youtube vids that increases your usage as well.
You should have gone with BE* £14 a month unlimited usage & upto 8meg speeds
My download sinc speed is typically 18kbps giving me around 1.8MB downloads (including overheads) where I can find a server quick enough to "max" my connection.
This link might help: http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/packages/?sort=monthly_cost
(I got that from a Google search).
Be isn't mentioned there, but I haven't heard many bad reviews about it on these forums.
Yeah, seems you need to have Sky TV as well.
thanks for that link.
contract with plusnet is for 1 month, but if I leave I'll have to pay for the router I got free when I joined - that's not the end of the world I suppose
What a shame. I'm on month 17 of my contract with TalkTalk and am on the TalkTalk International package which costs about £23 pcm. As it is LLU this includes the line rental and free calls to 01 and 02 numbers 24*7. I get about 5M download with a 40G monthly allowance. After my 18month period is over I'm getting rid of the International part of the package to save another £3.50 pcm. So, phone and internet for £20 pcm. A bargain I feel.
My router stays connected for months at a time (longest just under 4 months) so my IP address remains fairly static.
Not recommended for beginners though as their call centre is rubbish.
I will soon need to be downloading a 3GB file, im a bit concerned on how AOL will take it
Check the t&c's for BT, as well as the FUP... the "unlimited" has some restrictions on it.
Cheers
Alun
I have read the terms and conditions of the bt fair usage policy. It states the if you are downloading in the peak times, I'm guessing somewhere between 5pm and 10pm, your speed will slow down, and then probably after this, your speed will get faster. I'm not that bothered anyway, because I'm not exactly a very heavy user, unlike some other people have been in this thread. I will have downloaded about 65-70GB, I think, so this is good enough for me. Can't find anything in the terms and conditions that state that you don't have an unlimited usage. It's pretty stupid and false to claim that the service you are selling to customers isn't unlimited when you are claiming that it is.
250GB in 2 months? :eek:
What on earth have you been downloading?
I know. I don't understand how they have managed to download an absolutely phenominal 250GB assuming they are on an 8Mbit connection. I think I have downloaded a lot this month, and I have only downloaded about 65GB, about that. I don't download through the day though, because the speeds are probably not that good, although I might try tomorrow though. I think I WOULD expect a call from BT if I had downloaded that, they probably thought you were maybe running a server or something
i expect it would be more without everyone doing other things
or getting tunes phone themes etc 1 gig would do me a day on the xbox if i was lucky
my smallest amount has been 10 gig pm largest so far 60 gigs