Warning from Clearwire

doctor_gonzo

Heya! Quick question (apologies that I'm not very knowledgable about these things!). My mate downloaded Bitcomet on my computer about a week ago and since then I've downloaded about seven albums. I got a warning from Clearwire by text this morning saying that 'excessive usage' was detected on my account. Am I likely to get in trouble over this? Should I just uninstall the bitcomet? Do you know why I got this, given that I was told I have a 10gb limit a month, and I can't see how I've reached that. Thanks a million!

L31mr0d

well apart from the fact that you'll be going to hell for stealing (although you do now get to say "Arrrrr me maties, avast!") I'd say you'll be alright.

Does clearwire supply you with a means of monitoring your usage? The issue here is not WHAT you are downloading but HOW MUCH you've been downloading. There is probably a 10GB cap on your connection. I'd contact Clearwire asap to find out how they deal with this (i.e. they'll either a) disconnect you, b) throttle your speed or c) charge you)

watty

Your limit is upload and download with most ISPs. If you install such leachware (tm) without changing any settings you can expect it to upload easily x100 what you personally might listen to. It will upload multiple streams anytime your PC is running.

jor el

Clearwire forbid the use of all P2P on their network too, so it's safe to assume they've noticed you. I'd take this warning as a friendly "we know what you're up to, now stop" and dump Bitcomet before you get a warning along the lines of "We're terminating your service and forwarding your details to IRMA so they can prosecute you".

doctor_gonzo

Ahh..duly noted. I knew there was a reason why I hadn't attempted this downloading malarky before. Thanks for the advice.

Nehaxak

Apart from the whole piracy thing (get peerguardian installed anyway to protect your privacy) - like others have already said here, the problem is not really what you're downloading but the fact that usually most users won't even be aware of what they are uploading in return.
The whole point of p2p like torrents (bitcomet) is that you share (upload) what you have downloaded to others. Therein lies the problem because the cap imposed on you (if I'm correct) takes into account not only what you download, but what you upload also. So you might have downloaded only 2GB but left Bitcomet on in the background, which probably uploaded another 10 or 20 gb without you knowing

Get a US based VPN service and download music legally from lower priced services in USA compared to the extorionate prices payed for music in Europe.
Actually, I'm not sure if VPN would work ok on Clearwire though

lmimmfn

Torrents are fine, i download demos and patches via torrents so they've no reason to single you out as it does have legit uses also( whether you download movies/music or legit stuff shouldnt matter in that respect ). Change global upload limit to 10k and for each torrent set the max to around 5k
Also enable protocol encryption( in the options ) and they shouldnt be able to monitor what youre downloading

Nehaxak

lmimmfn wrote: »

Also enable protocol encryption( in the options ) and they shouldnt be able to monitor what youre downloading

They can regardless of protocol encryption, at least throttle you anyway even if you also change to port 80 or 443. Easiest way around it is to use a VPN.

ongarite

Nehaxak wrote: »

Apart from the whole piracy thing (get peerguardian installed anyway to protect your privacy) - like others have already said here, the problem is not really what you're downloading but the fact that usually most users won't even be aware of what they are uploading in return.

Peerguardian don't do jack sh1t for protecting you from caught downloading illegal stuff from torrent sites.
Anybody can pull all the IPs of users connected to the tracker and go after you that way.
Peerguardian is like trying to hold back a flood with piece of tissue paper.

FruitLover

Nehaxak wrote: »

Get a US based VPN service and download music legally from lower priced services in USA compared to the extorionate prices payed for music in Europe.

This won't get around the download cap.

azzeretti

Nehaxak wrote: »

Get a US based VPN service and download music legally from lower priced services in USA compared to the extorionate prices payed for music in Europe.

Any recommendations for US VPN services?

Nehaxak

StrongVPN.com for US VPN service.
No it won't get around the download cap, I never said it would, but what it will do is let you get around any throttling by your ISP.
PeerGuardian does do jack sh1t but I ain't going to explain the pros of it here anyway, if you use P2p without peerguardian installed then tbh you deserve to be caught at whatever it is illegal you're downloading.

Anyway, dump P2P as it's a piece of crap and use the newgroups instead via SSL or preferably over VPN for improved security/privacy.