Last Updated on August 3, 2017 by Dave Farquhar
If you haven’t read, Southwestern Bell AT&T is solving a bogeyman problem of network congestion by imposing usage caps of 150 GB per month for standard DSL, and 250 GB per month for U-Verse (fiber). Use of AT&T’s own IPTV, VOIP, etc. are exempted from the usage limits, of course.
They cite network congestion, but really, this is more about making certain that non-AT&T services like Netflix, Skype, Vonage, etc. have a competitive disadvantage over AT&T’s costlier services.
I wasn’t a problem child before. But suddenly, I feel an urge to ensure that I’m using as close to my 150 GB cap as possible. Last night I downloaded about a half gigabyte worth of device drivers. Hey, I might need those someday!
Actually, I do have a good use for those. And there’s another few hundred megs where that came from. Those are next. I’ll write about that after I finish that project, assuming it works as promised. And Windows 7 SP1 will chew up another gig. The question is, what can I go get after that? I’m still looking for ideas on that. Useful is good. Not harming innocent bystanders is also good.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Always nice to have a local copy of the entire Wikipedia archive…
I’m dealing with Comcast and haven’t hit a limit yet, but I have downloaded all of the USGS topos and ortho photos for Central California plus similar files, which are quite useful to me – while wife spends much time on chat rooms, etc. and has discovered TV shows online.
Operate your own personal search engine with crawlers.
That gave me the best laugh I’ve had all day. Thanks for that one.