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Optimum Online Throttling Downloads?
Users irritated at new Cablevision policy

There's some serious hostility brewing in our Optimum On-line forum among users who say their connections are being throttled. Users report their downloads start out in respectable territory, but roughly ten-minutes later are throttled back to a little more than a third of their available bandwidth.

User forum commentary indicates the company has implemented new timed traffic shaping techniques that alternate users between full and a third of their available bandwidth for the duration of heavy downloads.

Our users have been updating their reviews here in droves to voice their displeasure.

Many of the reviewers note they've called Optimum On-line for an explanation and have been given the runaround; some even having tech visits scheduled. These same reviewers note that some time ago, the company began capping and/or threatening account termination for users who utilized excessive upstream bandwidth.

Like with many ISP's, digging into Cablevision's Acceptable Use Policy, you find the following:

"Cablevision reserves the right to protect the integrity of its network and resources by any means it deems appropriate. This includes but is not limited to: port blocking, e-mail virus scanning, denying e-mail from certain domains, and putting limits on bandwidth and e-mail."
While it's certainly within the company's right to control bandwidth allocation as they see fit, it's also each user's right to migrate to ISPs that don't employ these policies (or are at least more forthcoming in their implementation).

Several years ago Optimum On-line was considered the very best (and fastest) American broadband option available. Increasingly restrictive policies seem to indicate company management may be more interested in mediocrity.

Repeated requests to both Cablevision and Optimum On-line for comment on the details of this new network policy have yet to be returned.
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KeepOnRockin
Music Lover Forever
Premium Member
join:2002-11-08
Beaverton, OR

KeepOnRockin

Premium Member

Typical...

quote:
"Cablevision reserves the right to protect the integrity of its network and resources by any means it deems appropriate. This includes but is not limited to: port blocking, e-mail virus scanning, denying e-mail from certain domains, and putting limits on bandwidth and e-mail."

Basicly, like a lot of cable ISP TOS's, they're telling the customer that it's their network and they can do anything they want at their sole discression.
KeepOnRockin

KeepOnRockin

Premium Member

Re: Typical...

I think the front page of BBR right now says it all, lol

technick
Premium Member
join:2000-12-16
Wheat Ridge, CO

technick

Premium Member

Re: Typical...

I agree that the front page says it all. They have definatly screwed the goat on this one, and their is only one way to redeem itself. Remove the caps, and beg for forgiveness. Otherwise, OOL will become old news, kinda like toilet paper flushed down the toilet.

I checked out most of the reviews, and they all look legit, people who have registered for over a year, etc.. well God Speed to those people who are forced to switch accounts. I hope someone has taken the time to call their corporate center to bitch at them. I know I would give them an ear full, heck, I don't even use them and im motivated to tell them where they can stick it.

Good Luck

Jeff
Connoisseur of leisurely things
Premium Member
join:2002-12-24
GMT -5

Jeff

Premium Member

Re: Typical...

You're 100% right technick. I've been an Optimum Online member since December of 1999, and have enjoyed amazing uptime, amazing speeds, and overall - minus a few annoyances which are in reality far fewer than other ISPs - great service since 1999. We're talking almost 5 years of solid service. I don't think those 5 years I've had downtime that equals 24hrs.

However, with horrible customer service regarding Usenet throttling, port blocking, capping, and now total bandwith throttling to 1/3 my max, that has sent me over the edge.

DNS problems of late have also plagued users on the system.

Fortunately, FIOS is being deployed and has been turned on in my town, so it's off to Verizon I go.

Honestly, Cablevision---thank you very much for 4.5 years of outstanding service at an affordable price. However, the time has come for us to part.
lawrence171
join:2001-12-24
Canada

lawrence171

Member

Re: Typical...

You honestly think that Verizon won't do the same?

Once enough ppl jumped ship, and start using so much bandwidth, they'd do the same thing.

Jeff
Connoisseur of leisurely things
Premium Member
join:2002-12-24
GMT -5

Jeff

Premium Member

Re: Typical...

No, anyone is capable of it.

However, many poeple - including myself - have a strong distaste for Cablevision that has gone back 10, 15 years. They're a rather incidious bunch of corporate people that really can't run a company well, as proven by recent events both related to their service, but more specifically, the general well-being of their company and its financial endeavors.

Not to mention the current power struggle between father and son.

The sooner I have a viable option/competition to their product is when I change. FIOS is here, and that time is now.

thender2
Glamour Profession
Premium Member
join:2004-05-16
Staten Island, NY

thender2 to lawrence171

Premium Member

to lawrence171
said by lawrence171:

You honestly think that Verizon won't do the same?

Once enough ppl jumped ship, and start using so much bandwidth, they'd do the same thing.
You don't get it.

That already happened. Read the Verizon forum for info on the January NYC slowdown after they released their 3000/768 package.

A month later, 99% of it was fixed.

No caps, no bullcrap. DSL > Cable

one_bored_si
join:2003-03-10
Montebello, CA

1 edit

one_bored_si

Member

Re: Typical...

Click for full size
Told ya so.

oliphant
I Have 8 Boobies
Premium Member
join:2004-11-26
Corona, CA

oliphant to KeepOnRockin

Premium Member

to KeepOnRockin
Noticed that too and figured it was only a matter of time before it was a news item on DSLR.

However the amount people are being throttled should eventually be seen in the archive which so far isn't showing a significant impact from throttling.

Jovi
Premium Member
join:2000-02-24
Mount Joy, PA

Jovi to KeepOnRockin

Premium Member

to KeepOnRockin
said by KeepOnRockin:

I think the front page of BBR right now says it all, lol
OUCH!

MTBikerChris
Premium Member
join:2001-08-28
Erie, CO

MTBikerChris to KeepOnRockin

Premium Member

to KeepOnRockin
I was just thinking this myself. What is goin on over theer.. they use to say that OLL was da bomb now what they are a bomb?

sirsloop
Premium Member
join:2004-02-18
New York, NY

sirsloop to KeepOnRockin

Premium Member

to KeepOnRockin
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM
REBOOT YOUR CABLE MODEM


Optimized
MVM,
join:2001-05-03
Ringwood, NJ

Optimized to KeepOnRockin

MVM,

to KeepOnRockin
While true, wouldn't it be nice if the ISP's made things clear to their subscribers before pushing new controls in place. I have always been a "raving fan" when it comes to OOL, I'm not too sure I still feel the same of late.

I will likely look at FiOS when it arrives in town.

Ark4
join:2002-06-08
Lansing, MI

Ark4

Member

Re: Typical...

You can see why they don't want to publish their caps, when you look at some who do, and realize that a 28.8K modem would give you more throughput in a month.

»www.cox.com/lasvegas/hig ··· cing.asp

(middle tier, $40/month + $10/month modem rental + $10/month non-TV subscriber or + $(tv price)/month)
»www.cox.com/lasvegas/hig ··· rred.asp

7.5 GB/month is less then 24 kbit/sec
»www.google.com/search?q= ··· n+kb%2Fs

Thats less then 5 hours of using your highspeed internet connection, and you're done for the month!

TekWiz
@optonline.net

TekWiz

Anon

Re: Typical...

Yeah, wow, I see Cox really Sox! What a joke!!! Maybe this is the norm in Las Vegas since everyone is such a gambler!

That's a real joke--what world are these dudes living in? 1.7 GB limit on a $30/mo connection, 7.5 GB for a $50 account? Who needs high-speed, like you say, just use a freaking dialup modem and run it 24/7 like the good ol' times.

I can only guess that people who live in Las Vegas don't really use the internet much--they are too busy losing their fortunes in the casinos!!!

Tek.

Ark4
join:2002-06-08
Lansing, MI

Ark4

Member

Re: Typical...

I've got some friends in Vegas. They don't gamble at all. Its more fun to go hiking in the moutains out there I think. I set them up with Sprint "FastConnect" which isn't really great compared to what SBC offers out here in Michigan. Its more expensive and much slower, and they only got a really crappy DSL modem that has a maximum of 1 DHCP address it can give out, forcing you to get something different if you have two computers.

BANAA
@optonline.net

BANAA to KeepOnRockin

Anon

to KeepOnRockin
AFTER THREE YEAR FRIENDSHIP WITH OPTIMUM ONLINE FINALLY I HAVE TO GET RID OF IT.THE OPTIMUM TECHS THREAT IS SO MUCH WHATEVER THEY SAY FOLLOW IT IF NOT THEN SIT ASIDE WATCH THE DRAMA.THEY BLOCKED MY ALL PORTS. SHIT WITH THEM

OPTIMUMONLIE IS A BIG BULLSHIT NOW
FIND SOME GOOD COMPETETOR
BRING NEW COMPANY

sirsloop
Premium Member
join:2004-02-18
New York, NY

sirsloop

Premium Member

pisses me off

I love all of their ads on TV about how they are #1....

This sums it up.

»Review of Optimum Online by sirsloop

screw OOL

more like optimum a-holes.
sirsloop

sirsloop

Premium Member

Re: pisses me off

I'm switching to satelite TV and getting some other type of internet service. Maybe patriot cable if they are available...

Sebastian
Premium Member
join:2000-12-22
New Haven, CT

Sebastian to sirsloop

Premium Member

to sirsloop
woohoo to comcast.
»/speed ··· 10319202

its not 10/1 -- but i'd rather have 6/768 with no throttling.

i have yet to be capped or warned for "excessive" use and for $52 a month its not bad.. consider the switch if available.
wutang17
join:2005-02-27

wutang17 to sirsloop

Member

to sirsloop
I don't care if they throttle the download to 5mbps or even 2.5mpbs, just keep upload at 1mbps!

rogue_
I Have A Secret Window
Premium Member
join:2001-10-17
Lake Hiawatha, NJ

rogue_

Premium Member

Damn thiefs

Looks like it's back to VZ land again. I knew this would always be a game of the grass is greener on the other side. OOL had it for a while but now it's back in VZ's court. I'm sorry, but for the price and the now piss poor speed and service, VZ looks much better than OOL.

Oxygen
Times Square can't shine as bright
Premium Member
join:2001-12-04
Huntington Station, NY

Oxygen

Premium Member

Cablevision Is Stupid

They are idiots.

When people upload/download alot it has no effect on their network, they just have to pay their bandwidth providers more money. Once again, they are idiots.

When FIOS comes around, I will gladly set their cable modem on fire.

GO FIOS!

AbBaZaBbA
Premium Member
join:2002-07-10
Wildomar, CA

AbBaZaBbA

Premium Member

Re: Cablevision Is Stupid

actually uploading does affect the network. ever wonder why most cable isp's only give out 256 or 386 upload when dsl is up to 768 now? On a cable network only one modem can only upload at a time. Which means if you have lots of users uploading it slows the network considerably. This is not the case with download as they can just allocate more frequency for it.

odog
Minister of internet doohickies
Premium Member
join:2001-08-05
Atlanta, GA
Nokia BGW320-505

1 edit

odog

Premium Member

Re: Cablevision Is Stupid

said by AbBaZaBbA:

actually uploading does affect the network. ever wonder why most cable isp's only give out 256 or 386 upload when dsl is up to 768 now? On a cable network only one modem can only upload at a time. Which means if you have lots of users uploading it slows the network considerably. This is not the case with download as they can just allocate more frequency for it.
thats the nature of any TMDA network, people take a timeslot. bear in mind each second has thousand of timeslots, so as each modem finishes talking the next starts. you can most certainly have hundreds of modems uploading simultaneously. It starts to be a problem when the channels capacity starts to approach 75%+. each user never sees the TDMA nature of the network and the uploads never stop and wait, until critical saturation is hit. Ethernet works in a similar way using CSMA/CD each ethernet card cannot talk at the same time, but you would never tell as the mechanism works so quickly.

Most cable ISP still stick to a single downstream, but will reduce the amount of modems on the given downstreams.

StreetSpirit
This spot reserved for Xenu.
Premium Member
join:2002-08-13
Roslyn, NY

StreetSpirit to AbBaZaBbA

Premium Member

to AbBaZaBbA
Isn't that why we have a "secret" upload cap of 150kbps on OOL?

Bait and switch if you ask me. Everything Cablevision touches turns to fertilizer....

A very unhappy camper
David

odog
Minister of internet doohickies
Premium Member
join:2001-08-05
Atlanta, GA
Nokia BGW320-505

1 recommendation

odog to Oxygen

Premium Member

to Oxygen
said by Oxygen:

When people upload/download alot it has no effect on their network, they just have to pay their bandwidth providers more money. Once again, they are idiots.
not exactly, the users share the upstream port. when a user uploads he takes a percentage of the upstream capacity. when they download they take a percentage of the downstream. this is all shared with hundreds of other users. 4 people downloading at 10Mbps kills the entire downstream.(QAM256 = ~40Mbps @~800-1200 users) unless OOL is using 16QAM on the upstream they share 5Mbps with 100-200 modems. If 5 people decide to upload bam the upstream is saturated.

I never understood how OOL even did 100% 10/1 cable modems. You have to throw a hell of a lot of metal at the network to make those numbers work. It seems they've gotten sick of burning metal on the network and decided to manage the users with policies. This was just a matter of time before they had to do it, i'm really surprised it took them this long.
odog

1 edit

odog to Oxygen

Premium Member

to Oxygen
dp

DaSneaky1D
what's up
MVM
join:2001-03-29
The Lou

1 recommendation

DaSneaky1D

MVM

Denial is what will hurt them

The fact that they are not owning up to what they are doing is the worse disservice they can do. Never put the blame on the person paying you.

Everytime someone calls and OOL says, "there is no problem", they are effectively saying, "The problem is YOU!" That is something that should never happen.

Fountainhead
Premium Member
join:2003-10-25
New York, NY

Fountainhead

Premium Member

Re: Denial is what will hurt them

I have a general loathing toward Cablevision...

It's time for cable choice in NJ.

Hall
MVM
join:2000-04-28
Germantown, OH

Hall to DaSneaky1D

MVM

to DaSneaky1D
said by DaSneaky1D:

The fact that they are not owning up to what they are doing is the worse disservice they can do. Never put the blame on the person paying you.
There'd be the same whining, errr outcry, if Cablevision had announced this... It was going to happen sooner or later and it in fact took a lot longer than I thought it would. Get used to it anyway 'cause Time Warner will buy Cablevision soon enough - and lower the speeds to a more reasonable 5M.

DaSneaky1D
what's up
MVM
join:2001-03-29
The Lou

DaSneaky1D

MVM

Re: Denial is what will hurt them

LOL, maybe Cablevision is just preparing the user base for the eventual buyout!

Chris 313
Because It's Geekier
Premium Member
join:2004-07-18
Houma, LA
·AT&T FTTP
·Comcast XFINITY

1 recommendation

Chris 313 to Hall

Premium Member

to Hall
said by Hall:

said by DaSneaky1D:

The fact that they are not owning up to what they are doing is the worse disservice they can do. Never put the blame on the person paying you.
There'd be the same whining, errr outcry, if Cablevision had announced this... It was going to happen sooner or later and it in fact took a lot longer than I thought it would. Get used to it anyway 'cause Time Warner will buy Cablevision soon enough - and lower the speeds to a more reasonable 5M.
If I were an OOL customer, I'd rather have 5M without all those ridiculous OOL restrictions then have 10/1 with all that crap and having to worry about every download/upload triggering that secred cap.
Chris 313

Chris 313 to DaSneaky1D

Premium Member

to DaSneaky1D
said by DaSneaky1D:

The fact that they are not owning up to what they are doing is the worse disservice they can do. Never put the blame on the person paying you.

Everytime someone calls and OOL says, "there is no problem", they are effectively saying, "The problem is YOU!" That is something that should never happen.
Denial WILL kill them.

I guess OOL's POV is "All your bandwith are belong to us, but we'll give you some for 50 bucks a month." Only to find out after using it for 2 seconds, they cut your connection down to a shadow of it's former self. Next, the security department is breathing down your neck if you use that connection for more than 2 seconds.
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT
·Frontier FiberOp..

tired_runner

Premium Member

Haven't had this happen to me yet

But I'm sure it will at some point. I'm no heavy downloader or gamer, but for the got damned $50 per month, I sure would expect full throughput through a 500MB file download. That's certainly some bullshit right there.

I did just discover that Verizon isn't trying their sleazy tactics of bundling with FIOS like they do with DSL, so it may be worth a shot once it hits my neck of the woods.

StreetSpirit
This spot reserved for Xenu.
Premium Member
join:2002-08-13
Roslyn, NY

StreetSpirit

Premium Member

Re: Haven't had this happen to me yet

Ditto. I don't download huge files, but I expect it to last through a freaking Knoppix ISO without loosing 2/3rds of the speed.

I remember when people were proud to have OOL. I was so happy when they came to Brooklyn as I was moving from CT years ago. The writing was on the wall as they had already started capping uploads.

This is a real bummer.

thender2
Glamour Profession
Premium Member
join:2004-05-16
Staten Island, NY

1 recommendation

thender2

Premium Member

And this is a surprise?

They were capping uploads, which means their nodes are overloaded because they offer service they can't provide.

Comcast does this too with overloaded nodes. So does Shaw cable now, which is in Canada.

It's cable. You don't get the same level of quality you do with other broadband. You may see higher speeds at lower prices, but in the end it winds up with transfer limits, throttling, abuse letters, and node overloads.

Hal Larson
@alestra.net.mx

Hal Larson

Anon

Ahold of you by the gonads!!!

I feel sorry for the people whos only option is Optimum- @holes. I wonder how large the DSL migration will be? Then again, people in this country like to bitch and do nothing about the problem.

chup
@optonline.net

chup

Anon

upload

my upload whent from 400 to a massie 70k. Called and im now waiting for a bandwidth specialist to call me back lol. I know that will never happen. I qoute for a full t1 in my house for $550 a month. I really think I'm going that way being I will never have to deal with anyone telling me how much of it I can use.

•••

mm
I Did It My Way
Premium Member
join:2001-04-07
Summerville, SC

mm

Premium Member

CableVision is a terrible company

The service gets worse every year. First the mail server that barley worked for me. It took a VP to admit they have a problem with a legacy mail store. 3 years later and it's still flaky.

Then the upload caps. Not only are we capped if we upload too much but they REFUSE to tell us what will get us capped. Too many family photo's being emailed can you get you in the dog house. But how many - who knows??

Port blocking came next. No more port 25 for running your own mail server. Any advanced warning it was coming?? Of course not they are CableVision.

Next the news server that is so slow dialup could beat it. They finally out sourced news but won't address the 'too many connections' issue. Still slow (better than dial up) but unacceptable for cable speeds.

Flaky DNS issues. This is not new. We had them before and it's back. Call customer service after seeing hundreds of complaints in the forums and they say all systems are green. CLUELESS customer service department. Any it takes them days to fix a DNS issue.

Finally this new download throttle. Best part is DU Meter proves it 100%. CableVision is mum on the issue. Too bad they won't keep their mouths shut on the West Side Stadium lies that they keep yapping about.

Bottom line CableVision is a terrible company. Good thing I have DirecTV as a choice for TV. If only Verizon would wake up and get FIOS going or have 3mb DSL service in my area.

Subaru
1-3-2-4
Premium Member
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT

Subaru

Premium Member

when speed gets cut..

When the DL speed is capped what is the speed then?

I'm getting ready to move and it's back to Dsl I guess.. maybe now with the better package that Sbc is giving I can stream music and be on the net at the same time.

LexXioN
@optonline.net

LexXioN

Anon

Re: when speed gets cut..

I didn't believe it BUT it happened...I don't download much at ALL...... But the thing they say about throttling download is CORRECT!!!!

I started downloading a linux distribution just to test the rumors (via FTP) ...after about 15 minutes the speed went down from 1MB/sec to about 350KB/sec .... Some of You can say that the server got slow...well, I went to my ftp space on my school's network (Full T3) where I always get more than 1MB/sec download, and even downloading a 5MB file it was still downloading at 350KB/sec!!!

...... I switch in a heartbeat if FiOS hits my house or something!!! Competition where are You!!!!
wutang17
join:2005-02-27

wutang17 to Subaru

Member

to Subaru
wutang say's 3.0/512
no more
no less
standard 19.95 1.5/384
the above is 29.95
for new customer or current ones that needs to renew soon before contract runs out

Irun Man
Premium Member
join:2002-10-18
Millsboro, DE

Irun Man

Premium Member

Think about this

Maybe they're trying to save a few bucks on OOL to keep VOOM afloat a little longer. Let's call in Arnold Diaz of CBS2NY and do a "Shame on You!" spot on the Dolans!
bren9474
join:2004-09-28
Pearl River, NY

bren9474

Member

Re: Think about this

said by Irun Man:

Maybe they're trying to save a few bucks on OOL to keep VOOM afloat a little longer. Let's call in Arnold Diaz of CBS2NY and do a "Shame on You!" spot on the Dolans!
That would have to be about a 20 part series!

Chris 313
Because It's Geekier
Premium Member
join:2004-07-18
Houma, LA
·AT&T FTTP
·Comcast XFINITY

Chris 313 to Irun Man

Premium Member

to Irun Man
said by Irun Man:

Maybe they're trying to save a few bucks on OOL to keep VOOM afloat a little longer. Let's call in Arnold Diaz of CBS2NY and do a "Shame on You!" spot on the Dolans!
That's funny. I saw a Voom infomercial yesterday. CV's operation is crashing down. They can't support reliably what they already have and they're still trying to cram more into an already WAY overloaded system.
ElJay
join:2004-03-17
Portland, ME
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite
Ubiquiti Unifi UAP-AC-LITE

1 edit

ElJay

Member

I guess it's broadband with a huge asterisk

I can understand monthly caps of 100gb (that's a discussion for another thread, I know) but I can't agree with this throttling practice at all. If I'm doing something bandwidth-intensive, such as installing Linux over the internet, it's pretty obvious that I'm going to want the full speed of my line so that the process doesn't take three times longer than it should. I'd definitely avoid any ISP that had a such a stupid policy in place.

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx

Premium Member

The thing that gets me about this

Bandwidth wise, OOL has been the gold standard that the rest of the country wished we had in terms of generous speed caps. They've had the same 10,000/1,000 caps for years while Verizon was plodding along at a pathetic 640/90 (BEFORE overhead!)

Finally providers are catching up, offering fairly big caps at affordable prices. 6mbps DSL from Covad and others is reasonably affordable for those who qualify. Cable companies keep making the pipes bigger; surely the wholesale bandwidth costs have to be going down? With FIOS coming I would think it's more important than ever to remain consistent with your "old school" offering.

Maybe unlimited usenet servers are getting too prevalent?

Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
Premium Member
join:2004-01-06
NYC Metro

Tzale

Premium Member

Re: The thing that gets me about this

said by djrobx:

Bandwidth wise, OOL has been the gold standard that the rest of the country wished we had in terms of generous speed caps. They've had the same 10,000/1,000 caps for years while Verizon was plodding along at a pathetic 640/90 (BEFORE overhead!)

Finally providers are catching up, offering fairly big caps at affordable prices. 6mbps DSL from Covad and others is reasonably affordable for those who qualify. Cable companies keep making the pipes bigger; surely the wholesale bandwidth costs have to be going down? With FIOS coming I would think it's more important than ever to remain consistent with your "old school" offering.

Maybe unlimited usenet servers are getting too prevalent?

That was the past. I care about today. Optimum Online already has my money for the past services provided. The question is how much longer will they be receiving a check from me monthly for future services? If I had my way, the last check would be written this month.... I've had it with them. I can't wait for FIOS.
sh0ckie
join:2002-07-10
Bronx, NY

sh0ckie

Member

Jumped Ship

I'm tired of taking it up the @$$ with OOL's shady practices. I jumped ship and went with VZ. Sure it's a bit slower, but with OOL slowing downloads and the constant threat of getting the upstream capped, I'd rather have peace of mind. With Verizon DSL I know what to expect. I qualified for the 3mbps/768kbps plan and they even shipped the equipment and activated it before the estimated dates they gave me. On top of that it's $15 cheaper. If FIOS ever makes it to the ghetto, I'll sign up right away. In the meantime, good riddance OOL.

PS: Too bad I can't point a dish towards the south or I'd get rid of the cable too. iO gets pixelated at times or the image freezes for a few seconds. And I'm still laughing about the time I passed by the iO update channel (in the 900s) while channelsurfing and it showed a DNS error page. So much for being more reliable than satellite
bren9474
join:2004-09-28
Pearl River, NY

bren9474

Member

Re: Jumped Ship

said by sh0ckie:

PS: Too bad I can't point a dish towards the south or I'd get rid of the cable too. iO gets pixelated at times or the image freezes for a few seconds. And I'm still laughing about the time I passed by the iO update channel (in the 900s) while channelsurfing and it showed a DNS error page. So much for being more reliable than satellite
It's a rare event when the higher channels (usually anything above 100, but most often Yes-MSG-FSNY-ESPN News/Classic)come in without the screen breaking up for me, if at all. Thought I was the only one there for a second...

Relieved
@optonline.net

Relieved

Anon

So angry

I don't consider that I pay OOL $45 a month. I consider that I pay them at least $60.

That's because about a year ago I started paying for a commercial Newsserver because OOL usenet became pretty much unusable.

But at least the speeds were OK. But now....

I despise them.

Praying for Verizon to hurry up to my neighborhood.
Zein
join:2003-06-14
Painesville, OH

Zein

Member

Re: So angry

I just hope for the peoples who only choice is OOL that they will be able to get another service soon.

Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
Premium Member
join:2004-01-06
NYC Metro

1 edit

Tzale

Premium Member

Bullshit......

OOL is advertising themselves as "3X Faster!" Well the truth is I have ALWAYS received the same speeds I am receiving now (8000-9000/900) but the price of the service has went up from $29.95/month to $45.95/month since December of 2001 when I signed up with them. When I first signed up with them the service was AMAZING. The BEST in the country. Over time my opinion of them has eroded to the point where I am ready to cut the last check the second another broadband option is available to me.
Let me run down my list of grievances real fast.....

1. One or two years ago upload capping started. Use to much upload bandwidth an you're capped from 1mbps to 150kbps. There is NO listed limits. You must call up their "Security Department" and deal with the clowns who threaten to terminate your account if you dare use the upload bandwidth again.

2. Last week download capping started. Maintain a download for approx. 10 minutes and you are capped to 3mbps down. This is not like the upload cap, after a few minutes it returns to normal speeds. A download will be 66% SLOWER then before the download capping started. My main problem with this? They refuse to tell us they are capping people and also they are ADVERTISING 3X FASTER even though they recently implemented a 66% speed decrease. Something tells me they did this on purpose (to secure everyone has 10mbps because they are advertising that now). The funny thing is almost everyone I know, including myself, always received the full bandwidth (8000-9000/1000) for A LOT less per month. Now the price has sky rocketed and the bandwidth has dropped to 3000/150 if you dare use it beyond sending / receiving mail and surfing the web (NO DOWNLOADS OR YOU'LL BE CAPPED)!

3. DNS issues..... This has been a long time problem, but it got worse in the last 2 weeks. It takes several clicks and minutes for a page to load, if it loads at all. I was forced to switch DNS servers because OOL, the ISP CAN'T PROVIDE DNS. Guess what happens when you call up and say their DNS isn't working! If you guessed they tell you it's YOUR computer and no one else is reporting problems then you hit the nail on the head!

4. Mail and News services suck on OOL. The mail server is almost always having problems. The news service is so bad. It used to be "OK." But then they capped the speed usage to 1/10th of available bandwidth and most of the time you're lucky if you can pull 300kbps. It has horrible completion and it isn't really worth looking at. IMHO, I don't really care. If I Need news services I'll buy my own. But this is an issue that they should either fix or drop completely.

My theory is that they are letting the network run into the ground because they are preparing to sell to Time Warner. They figure why pump more cash into a business which will be sold soon? When Verizon FIOS arrives here (expected either 2005 or 2006) I'll be dropping OOL like a hot potato for a NO CAPPING service at 15 / 2 for the same price $44.95/month plus EXCELLENT mail and news services. MSN if you want it (I don't) and 10 MB of web space. If OOL doesn't allow you to run servers, they should provide some sort of web space. But I don't know if I'd want to use it after seeing how they manage to run a server.

I could only wish I had another broadband option. Unfortunately, I don't... I'm stuck in this hell hole.
-Tzale

••••
ricep5
Premium Member
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL

ricep5

Premium Member

Use a commercial service

If residential broadband speed management is giving you the blues at the price you are paying, try getting a commercial account. You pay more, but no one messes with your speed, ports or attempts caps. (you get exactly what you pay for) You can serve all the data you want and they don't give a rip.

(Being a devil's advocate here) Why is everyone stunned when a residential provider attempts to manage their network? How do you think they maintain their pricing? It seems people want commercial type of services but only want to pay residential pricing.

When these providers brag about raising their download speeds to 4Mbps and beyond, do you think they have done anything on the back end to support that? Yeah, they put on bandwidth shapers. It makes them look competitive to DSL, it increases the perceived value to the casual user, but to the upper 5% its an outrage.

The residential service was never designed (or priced) to provide all users 100% of the advertised speed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That is a what a commercial service provides.

Commercial service provides SLA's, residential service does not.

While I am no fan of the unpublished caps etc., I also think there is an expectation mismatch at work here.
bhorow
join:2004-05-17
Forest Hills, NY

bhorow

Member

Re: Use a commercial service

Usually throttling is happening because of an overload in the system or they are correcting a problem. I question the long term viability of CABLEVISION in general with FIOS available..Honestly. verizon really is the only company that has continuely lowered prices from a competition point of view. Cablevision has a crumbling situtation in my opinion.
programming that cost too much. Intense competition for customers.
Problems with MSG. The loss of revenue for the hockey season.
Doom and Gloom is the outlook for cablevision.

managingthenetwork
@optonline.net

managingthenetwork to ricep5

Anon

to ricep5
Using the TOS to justify not upgrading to docsis 2.0 is a very flimsy excuse for trying to make a profit on the cheap.
The pure fact is the bandwidth costs (backbone) has gone down for cablemodems as well as dsl providers...its a pity that they can't make a profit selling cable tv service. Its been a long time coming for verizon to get into catv service. I can only speculate that they'll be any more successful at delivering catv, but they have the potential to make FIOS the signature service for the next 15 years provided that it can convince people that it is not a cable industry schmuck. UNBUNDLE the service plans and allow exactly what channels/interactive content peple want to come into their homes without 'must carry/buy' packages that literally are horse maneure. For people's catv bills to go up $10-15 a month for a hand full of channels (cough, ESPN, cough) that force rate increases upon the masses is insanity. These people will rue the day that they ever tried this crap. Broadband will do a 9/11 on these guys with content delivered via the web.

BTW, if you really want to give cablevision a kick in the a$$ leave them in the month of July- (around 7/4/2005)
For every 1,000 customers they lose i give a web hug to you all!

Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
Premium Member
join:2004-01-06
NYC Metro

Tzale

Premium Member

The CAPS ARE GONE!

It appears the caps are gone! Atleast for now. There are 10+ people reporting this in the OOL forum! I have tested it and confirmed it myself!

-Tzale

Dr Demento
I Vant Blud
join:2002-01-02
Denville, NJ

Dr Demento

Member

Re: The CAPS ARE GONE!

I know this might sound cynical but the probably the reason for OOL caps for being gone is because throttling is now in.
lukeydukes
join:2004-04-02
Piscataway, NJ

1 edit

lukeydukes

Member

caps gone? yeah right

ehh i wouldn't get all excited just yet.. my speeds are still about 4000 and even 3000 kbits .. just crap.
it's been spiking from barely hitting 6000 to dropping to 3000 even if im idle.. kinda pathetic

GeekNJ
Premium Member
join:2000-09-23
Waldwick, NJ

GeekNJ

Premium Member

Re: caps gone? yeah right

Doesn't sound like you're capped. Start your own thread and see if there's anything we can find wrong with your setup or your area.
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