UPC, 500gb limit. Does anybody ever exceed this?

outofmind6

Hi guys, I'm trying to decide which internet connection to establish in my new place. I think UPC is definitely the best on the market, but I've noticed there is a 500gb limit per month. Is that a lot? There will be 5 of us using it.
There is a squared thing already installed on the wall (sorry I'm a female), it should be called upc. Would I (maybe with some help) be able to install it on my own, avoiding the installation fee? I would just need a router I guess.. Thanks a lot!
Ioli

justme7136

500 gb is a fairly massive usage allowance, Unless your gonna be watching lots of lots of netflix or downloading hd movies, Normal peoples internet usage would never get near that amount, If i were you i would install the router yourself, its pretty easy and the password is preset and written on the back of the router or in the booklet, If you ran into problems you could ring them and thed talk you through it.

Sure somebody will be along here with more detailed instructions anyway

Hope that helps a little!!

outofmind6

Thanks for that! I'll try to get it sorted myself then.. You also know how long it takes for them to send me all the stuff?

aN.Droid

I have went over it once and came pretty near it most other months, It's a huge allowance though and you shouldn't go over it with normal use.

The month I was over I was seeding a (legal) torrent and got a nasty letter from upc about it :P

justme7136

outofmind6 wrote: »

Thanks for that! I'll try to get it sorted myself then.. You also know how long it takes for them to send me all the stuff?

Id expect them to send it by courier 1-2 days


You could try asking them, im sure thed have a better idea!!!!

rene13cross

I am a student and live in a house of 5. We also have the 100mbit UPC price plan and we actually exceeded it the second month we got it lol! Not sure exactly how it happened but it hasn't happened since anyway...

They sent us a letter too actually but we've had absolutely no problem with them since. Great provider, I have to say aswell. Never had down-time and always getting the full speeds that we're promised.

squonk

It depends on what you're going to be doing. If you like using Netflix and downloading torrents then you might burn through it fairly quickly. Where there's 5 of you in a house you have to really say it means only 100Gb/head. You mightn't feel going through that.

cramp

I have the 100mb since launch ,
They ate VERY strict on the 500gb
I monitor my traffick and I went over 500 one month and a cew days
Later I got a letter warning me I had gone over the 500gb by only 30gb!
I think u get 2 warnings then they drop ur speed to 30mb

And put u on the extreme package which has 1tb download limit but costs
20e more per month than the 100m !
Cramp

Yes they do charge you extra per month for going over the 500gb per month, but there is nothing nasty about the letters lol.

rene13cross

Eh, no they don't charge you extra, they send you a warning letter if it happens a second time they basically make your price plan more expensive. And if my memory serves me right, the letter is actually quite intimidating in its wording. Not a huge deal though if one simply keeps an eye on usage.

This was last November so it might have changed since then.

Quite intimidating how.:pac:
You are breaking the terms and conditions of the contract they are entitle to say "if you do it again you will be charged more and restricted in speed" they don't say do it again and we will come out and examine your pc or call the guards.

What a load of hyperbole.

jim.

I've been in touch with UPC's AUP division, exactly what happens is the following.

The first time you go over the 500GB limit, you'll receive a warning letter. If you do it again they'll put you on the "Extreme" package. This package is 30Mbit download speed, 1000GB/month traffic and costs €80/month. There's no other charges if this happens.

So if you were on the 100Mbit package your speed would be downgraded by 70Mbit, and you'll be paying €30/month more for an extra 500GB traffic.

They will return you to your previous package after a month has passed and you've stayed under the 500GB limit.

denballs

You,ll only exceed 500 a month if you like downloading blu ray movies and hav their 50mb-100mb speed...

aN.Droid

denballs wrote: »

You,ll only exceed 500 a month if you like downloading blu ray movies and hav their 50mb-100mb speed...

Not exactly, as I stated above I went over it by seeding legal torrents. it's very easy to go over it legally.

denballs

Limericks wrote: »

Not exactly, as I stated above I went over it by seeding legal torrents. it's very easy to go over it legally.

does uploading take more ?

leonil7

500 Gb is now few. UPC should upgrade this to unlimited (like what it was before).
Netflix, internet radio, download and uploads, even venturing to make your own home server , makes 500 Gb insufficient, esp kids growing up and each one doing their own thing online even with friends in the house.

time to switch to a new provider.

useless technology, improved high speed but limited.

leonil7

leonil7 wrote: »

500 Gb is now few. UPC should upgrade this to unlimited (like what it was before).

No, It was never truly unlimited, like every other service in Ireland.

Netflix, internet radio, download and uploads, even venturing to make your own home server , makes 500 Gb insufficient, esp kids growing up and each one doing their own thing online even with friends in the house.

AFAIK, a home server won't use your limits, if it just used in the intranet/lan.

time to switch to a new provider.

Every provider has limits. A lot of them state "unlimited" but a Fair Usage Policy always applies

leonil7 wrote: »

useless technology, improved high speed but limited.

Bandwidth costs money, they can't make it truly unlimited, because of the current infrastructure in Ireland.

Oh, and Gb is not the same as GB

aN.Droid

leonil7 wrote: »

500 Gb is now few. UPC should upgrade this to unlimited (like what it was before).
Netflix, internet radio, download and uploads, even venturing to make your own home server , makes 500 Gb insufficient, esp kids growing up and each one doing their own thing online even with friends in the house.

time to switch to a new provider.

useless technology, improved high speed but limited.

UPC was never unlimited, before the 100mb and 50mb packages came in the limit was 250GB. Also, why the thread Resurrection

clearz

My landlady got onto us just the other day. She was charged 30 bucks extra because the download was 1100GB for the month. We are on the 25 MB/s package and there is 4 or us sharing. I would consider myself a power user but that is just rediculus.

leonil7

times have changed. now we have backups to Cloud servers, Netflix, etc..
this 500 GB cap simply will not allow this kind of business to strive.

i mean how can you back up your tb of data files on this cloud servers without receiving this love letter from UPC ?

now im even streaming CNN news from the US at livestation.com

i've checked callcosts.ie , it seems only Magnet offers unlimited use bu sadly not in my area.

there must be a way UPC can offer a package with > 500 Gb limit at an extra price. the 'penalty' clause is simply embarrassing the user for things he does as a normal necessity today and possibly the next months or years to come.

Cloud backup is going to be a huge drain on caps. I'm on 10Mb DSL and have to work hard to stay below a 170GB cap and that's without any uploading at all. If I were streaming HD instead of SB on Netflix and the rest I'd be screwed.

leonil7

leonil7 wrote: »

times have changed. now we have backups to Cloud servers, Netflix, etc..
this 500 GB cap simply will not allow this kind of business to strive.

i mean how can you back up your tb of data files on this cloud servers without receiving this love letter from UPC ?

now im even streaming CNN news from the US at livestation.com

i've checked callcosts.ie , it seems only Magnet offers unlimited use bu sadly not in my area.

there must be a way UPC can offer a package with > 500 Gb limit at an extra price. the 'penalty' clause is simply embarrassing the user for things he does as a normal necessity today and possibly the next months or years to come.

If you can afford to have 1TB online cloud storage, you can certainly afford the package from UPC, which they say, is unlimited.

leonil7

huh? where is the 'unlimited' package in UPC. please show me. UPC is like a 100m sprint run. boasts of 'fiber' speed in ads. too flashy, but really limits you up to a certain distance. what we need is a marathon long distance runner of a broadband.

btw 1 tb online cloud storage is peanuts, just 25€ for 2 yrs unlimited cloud storage not just 1 tb - if you know where to look.

even then Netflix which offers 'unlimited' streaming at 7€ per month is only in theory. problem is the cap limits imposed by the providers here in ireland.

that is why im saying times have changed.

Deleted User wrote: »

If you can afford to have 1TB online cloud storage, you can certainly afford the package from UPC, which they say, is unlimited.

leonil7

leonil7 wrote: »

huh? where is the 'umlimited' package in UPC. please show me.

btw 1 tb online cloud storage is peanuts, just 25€ for 2 yrs unlimited cloud storage not just 1 tb - if you know where to look.

even then Netflix which offers 'unlimited' streaming at 7€ per month is only in theory. problem is the cap limits imposed by the providers here in ireland.

that is why im saying times have changed.

If you keep going over your limit, they can put you onto the "extreme" package. Not sure what the price is, or if it still exists though.

According to my router I downloaded 17GB and uploaded 3.5GB last month. I think most users won't go anywhere near 500GB.

JonB

My problem with UPC enforcing the usage limit is they don't provide good tools to check your usage limit. I have three computers, 2 xboxs and 2 mobile phones(granted these wouldn't eat much at all) connected to my network. This makes managing usage limit a pain in the arse. Unless someone knows of a solution which is web based and uses some kind of user account to aggregate all the usage on the single user accounts on the different platforms.

Infact if there isn't I would love to research this idea and try to implement it !!!!!

Doylers

JonB wrote: »

My problem with UPC enforcing the usage limit is they don't provide good tools to check your usage limit. I have three computers, 2 xboxs and 2 mobile phones(granted these wouldn't eat much at all) connected to my network. This makes managing usage limit a pain in the arse. Unless someone knows of a solution which is web based and uses some kind of user account to aggregate all the usage on the single user accounts on the different platforms.

Infact if there isn't I would love to research this idea and try to implement it !!!!!

Theres no software your can get for your pc or anything because it wouldn't monitor every other device. There is a solution, buy a router, flash it with dd-wrt, connect the new router to your upc modem and make sure every device connects online via your new router. The dd-wrt firmware can show your full bandwidth usage

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

Aquila

Aquila wrote: »

Have you the thompson router?

No, it's an AVM FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7390 router connected to a SA EPC2203.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

If you keep going over your limit, they can put you onto the "extreme" package. Not sure what the price is, or if it still exists though.

No such thing.
They reduce your 100mb to 30mb and extend your 500Gb limit to 1Tb.
Then charge you an extra €30 a month for this wonderfull, unique privilege.

Thor

UPC should not be allowed to enforce or penalize anyone on any cap until they provide a means to which we can monitor our usages. This doesn't include are on way. It should be either by firmware on the modem or by are account on upc.ie.

It still shocks me that they still haven't provided this ability and the fact is the obviously have an infrastructure in place to calculate the downloads, but have yet to provide us access. Also, the 500GB limit on the 100Mb line is no good in this day and age and anyone who thinks it is, count how many people have gotten letters. If it's decent cap then why are people so easily able to break it.