January 31, 2007

So it's been nearly two weeks without internet. I've had family and friends calling my cell these last few days wanting to know if we were ok. Heck, my Mother called the other week all worried if we were still alive. These days people depend on their internet service. Watch TV and see how many commercials go by with a web site or something to learn more about their product. At least 65% is what I'm seeing so far.

After reassuring family/friends and explaining the situation I've had a few more people switch to DSL or UTOPIANET.ORG if it was available. Just last night I had a couple of neighbors come by with concerns that their emails to me were bouncing. They are concerned (as they should be) they are next. One uses over 200 Gigs every month and everybody wonders what happened to the "Unlimited Use for a flat monthly fee" we all signed up for. BTW, you can still see the advertisement at archive.org. It took me some work but I was able to find / print it for my records.

Oh, and what do I do to download so much data in a month? Here is a break down. Notice I don't mention running ANY servers (which is what they were accusing me of over and over again):

* Email
* Internet browsing
* Download DVD's from services such as MSDN (for example)
* Downloaded DVD images for Linux and other OSS applications
* Download movies from "The Fan Network" (www.theforce.net/fanfilms)
* Download DVD movies from bit-torrent services such as www.zudeo.com (I highly recommend reign of the fallen DVD but don't download it if you are a Comcast subscriber. It's about 4 Gigs!).
* Team Fortress/Counter Strike Source gamer (very heavy gamer)
* Youtube, spiked humor, internet radio...

and the list goes on. Needless to say I'm not a light internet user despite the fact Comcast reps say the above doesn't explain the heavy utilization. I guess they need to take a computer class and get a clue how the internet works.

So there you have it. I've tried to keep good notes and keep a timeline as things happen. No call back from Comcast yet. Personally I don't expect them to be professional. Oh they will speak patiently with you... at least most of them will. At this point I'm ready to write off Comcast and have become very politically involved in getting UTOPIANET.ORG in my city.

Funny how when this went to a vote, Comcast was there and said it wasn't necessary since they already provide broadband internet to us already. UTOPIANET.ORG was voted down as a result of their testimony and promise to support the residents.

Now I'm attending city council meetings (held 3 times a month), speaking with the City Council members to establish a relationship with them, I've visited UTOPIANET.ORG's new headquarters and spoke to their engineers for 1 1/2 hours (very impressive technology guys), and I understand after my wife called City Hall the other week they are receiving hundreds of calls from my fellow citizens for broadband diversity and choice.

I'm in it for the long haul now. I'll do everything I can to see Comcast's monopoly significantly diminished or eliminated. They know they can't compete against the UTOPIANET.ORG infrastructure. And now after all this, so do I.

More tomorrow. I'm hoping Comcast will call as promised and provide a positive resolution. I'm not holding my breath though...


Update - 2/11/2007

I've received several comments and emails about how bittorrent is a "server" and I was in violation of the TOS/AUP. Realize uploads were disabled and I wasn't accused by Comcast for running a server. They accused me of using too much bandwidth. It should also be noted that bittorrent is a common protocol used by companies such Blizzard (for example) to submit patches. WoW patches (for example) are pushed through bittorrent.