A few people have asked me my thoughts on the AUP; like most BPA customers my initial reaction was "Egads!". I consider myself to be not a heavy user of the service; I mostly use it for web stuff and gaming and the occaisional demo download. My family uses it as well for the same sort of stuff.

I checked how much I used last month, and was a little suprised - just under 5 gigabytes of incoming traffic. So, obviously, I'd be in trouble with a 3 gig limit.

My biggest gripe with the whole issue is that they quite clearly say that there's 5% of people that are causing the problem (these group is allegedly responsible for 35% of the traffic). They almost certainly know who these people are - why don't they come down hard on them, instead of making the other 95% of people suffer?

Anyway, before I lose any sleep over the whole thing, I'm going to wait for the dust to settle and see what happens. There's a lot of slaw that is being generated by this (Queensland people might want to look at page 5 of the Courier-Mail for an article about it), and it will be interesting to see how it all ends up.

*goes and gets a news paper*

5 pages hehehe

Morally Incorrect.

Telstra has still failed to adress some key issues,
1)why not kick off the 5 percent?
2) if 85% won't be affected by this limit, and 5% are abusing the system then what does the other 10% have to say in the matter?
3) Dos attacke hacking etc all contributes to the 3gig limits, what is telstra going to do to protect me from malicious EX-CUSTOMERS who want to ruin the 3 gig limit for anyone.
4) Is there any other accounts being offered, like an unlimited account (ahhah sif)?.

I've sent emails to lots of ppl about these issues and others and am yet to recieve any response.

The reason I have come up with why telstra don't get rid of the 5% incessive users is, they believe ther is a profit to be made on these people. This is why I think they have introduced the 3gb limit.

Is there anyway I can see how much I've used in the last few months?

not really
unless you have some sort of program
stat'n perf is pretty good
i will start running that again now cause telstra take donkey dick

if they decide not to modify this download quota i will be demanding an uncapping of my cable modem. to my understanding all internal telstra traffic is not counted. ie from here to cho'd cable modem or here to trog's cable modem.

this is what telstra like doing

(_o_) <======8

My Post Got Screwed

(_o_) <========8

CaPt0 raises a good point - Wireplay servers are going to get hammered and since Telstra owns it, they're not likely to be putting on dozens more "free" servers for all the disgrunted BPA customers. If you want to be playing on Wireplay post July 5 I'd recommend connecting now and spectating for a few weeks so you can guarantee yourself a slot ;)

Does this mean that it will be much more common for people to set up internal BPA servers for other BPA customers, until Telstra cracks down on those too, or worse, uses it as ammo to exclude internal networks from the limit?

What I'm having trouble understanding is how people are able to excessivly use the cable network in the first place, when they're speed-capped at around 64,000kbps

I would've thought a system like optus's netstat guage would serve well in this scenario, because it affects only the people doing the most data transfers.

Boxhead raises a good point - what if someone keeps flooding me for a few days until my 3gb is reached, that's just f***ed.

and so are you

that didn't come out right

i meant you're screwed if someone does that

Saint, to me (not being a legal guru) it is the only fault in Telstra's AUP armour...they give no guarantee on the security of their network and in turn offer no form of assistance in relation to this hacking type issue. As far as i am concearned every time i go over 3 gig it will be because someone has flooded me...I'll just send a few firewall logs to them at the end of each month and tell them that I won't be paying....

Of course Telstra cant copy Optus. Then they'd look weak...oh wait! They did and they are!

- sR

http://saint.qgl.org/images/ziggy7.jpg

ping -f saint

nah just use remote access and get a server to ping him

I think we need to broaden the number of people complaining. Right now nearly 5,000 people have signed the online petition.. Pretending for a moment that these are all legitimate people, and taking in to consideration that not everyone that is unhappy with the cap will know of the existance of the petition (it wasn't included by telstra in the email they sent out) then Telstra can continue to ignore your complaints.

I believe Telstra has around 75000 broadband customers, so these 5,000 signatures are roughly 5% of their customers. Guess what, it's 5% of their customers that have caused this to be imposed on everyone. Once there's 20,000 legitimate signatures on the petition then Telstra can't pretend that the average user doesn't mind.

As long as there is only 5,000 of us complaining nothing will happen. I've endevoured to broaden the number of people involved in this matter by contacting Australian based web advertisers informing them that because of this cap on downloads I am installing ad-blocking software on all the computers myself and my family access, and will never click on any adds that make it through this blocker. Why should my cable bill include paying to receive their advertising? You should do the same. Install an adblocker and tell advertisers you have done so because of Telstra's 3gig cap.

It's by dragging other entities in to this debate that real 'normal users' will get the cap resized to a reasonable amount.. as long as it can be portrayed that the only people that aren't happy with this is the 5% who telstra expected to piss off, we won't get anywhere. If these same 5,000 people install adblockers on all the computers that they use (whether on cable or not - like at work) and tell advertisers they have done so, then we will have more grunt in our voice.

I find this SO frustrating!

Ok let me tell you MY predicament:

This is what $400 setup fee (3 month contract) and $90/month gets you when you live in Richmond (VIC) and you're on BPA's ADSL:

1. I get 45ms ping in the mornings to all servers (pretty much)
2. At night time when I only ever really use the internet (because like most other people, I work) I get fluctuating 75ms - 350ms pings.
3. I get 55k/sec downloads in the morning
4. I get 25k/sec - 30k/sec download speeds at night
5. Constant email problems and "blackout's" (one every 2 weeks or so)
6. AND NOW A DAMN 3GB/month LIMIT!!!

So basically this service is pserfect for someone, you uses the internet from 3am to 12noon, who doesnt play games, and doesn't download anything other than mp3's.

And to cap all this off - I HAVE TELSTRA AND OPTUS CABLE RUNNING RIGHT OUTSIDE MY HOUSE (I CAN SEE IT AT THE MOMENT) BUT BECAUSE THEY HAVEN'T CONFIGURED IT FOR INTERNET USE (2-WAY DATA TRANSFER OR SOMETHING) IT ISNT AVAILABLE IN MY AREA!!!

IS THIS THE WORST SITUATION YOU'VE EVER HEARD? :(

(fell free to pity me)

(sorry trog et al, for the swearing in this post before I edited it - just so frustrated, needed to vent anger ;)

Boxhead could you tell me what you mean by flooding?Keep in mind I know jack s*** I'm just interested to hear about it thats all.

Anyone feel free to correct me

Ok tiapan, im assuming you are on some form of cable? if so I am given an ip address lets say 1.1.1.1.1. A hacker type person could send data to that address to see if a computer existed on it.

My computer has got zonealarm on it, its a firewall which makes it look as though my computer doesn't exist at that address by taking the packets of information a hacker or some other person sends and discards them but in doing this the program has to actually recieve the packet of information in order for it to discard it this then goes to your accumulated totals

SO if a person knew a computer existed at 1.1.1.1 (through whatever means) and continued to try to send my computer packets, Zonealarm would continue to recieve them and discard them (it may sound stupid but its better than someone screwing with my computer uploading viruses etc...)

www.austnn.com has all the petitions on it and a site there that has all the hate stuff you can think of.

TNN tried to get some some more people to sign it on their current show aswell.

I only just realised that it will effect TNN's listenership too!

thanks f*&ked.

A happy Telstra customer post July:

http://www.snaggs.com/happycustomer.jpg

It is unreasonable of them to think that we should all instantly comply to this small download limit (and, yes, it is small).

Especially for the service, and rates that we pay for it. $89/month for 512/128 ADSL and 3gb/month is now much too expensive, and its ludicrous to expect anyone to want to pay that much for it.

Telstra are pretty f***ed up if they believe they're going to get away with it.

They need to either lower the cost of the service, or dramatically increase that download limit, before any of us are going to shutup

The way Telstra have chosen to deal with this problem shows just how f***ed up they truly are.
It's like in school when one person f***s up and the WHOLE class is made to stay back,a minority of BPgAy users have f***ed up causing EVERYONE to be punished.
Why the f*** didn't Telstra do something like warn these people (the 5%) that they would get disconnected,instead of screwing things up for everyone like they have done??
Some people have NFI really.

Hehe, just scroll down to the bottom of this page, and you too can join this group of happy customers!

you have to remember, the majority of these decisions are made by the executives at the top who know sweet f*** all about the internet.

remember, they think 56k is good.

Yeah can someone tell me how i can check how much i've downloaded with BPA?

i use this

This is the way I see it

Telstra has a Problem, their running out of bandwidth.
They have two solutions

A) increase their backbone
B) decrease the trafic

Being the tight asses they are, they oviously went for the cheaper option B.

http://www.snaggs.com/bumbase.jpg
http://members.iinet.net.au/~ghutchy/telstra/telstrabase.jpg

I was under the impression that telstra had oodles of bandwidth but choose not to use it currently like 10 percent of it use or somethin crazy like that , think i read it in one of those dodgey magazines last year, anyone else heard something like that or should i go load up another bong....

well guys i really feel for ya's

3gb sucks ass. Well sorta, i'm on modem 3 hrs north of bris with a 700mb limit so who is in the worse posistion? anyways broadband is there to be used and NOT CAPPED TO THA s*** HOUSE!! god telstra, i can c alot of account cancellations comin ur way

BAH! Stick with 56K and you'll never go over 3gigs!

this 3gb limit is a load of fukn bS

basically the point i think needs to be made and has by a couple of others generally is that this is a PREMIUM service paid for at a Premium price, i signed up for this deal when it was an UNLIMITED service, and basically except for time it is limited in every way, I plan on taking legal action (extreme yes) but ffs i didnt pay these prices to be limited, they have breached the contract to people who signed up for an unlimited sevice.
they are unable to change these specific limitations and so im gonna stick it to em all and make sure that this unlimited service is what it should be...


besides, it takes pretty much exactly 7 BPA users to equal the demands that ONE Optus user can make on the network, they dont have limited to 3gig a month or anything and if i pay for the ability to download 10 gig a month then why the hell shouldnt i be allowed to!!!???

true true

I noticed in their email notifying the users of this change is that they will only enforce it on the "Freedom Plan". What if, like me, you are on the delux plan..? Will I then be affected too?

P.S Please don't be a moron and tell me yes just to get me fired up. I'm already in a tiff with telstra over my phone bill.

Pbb.

if ur plan has the word freedom in it, ur f***ed :D

im on the "freedom deluxe" too

gah


gatekeeper, yes, breach of contract there in a way now that i think of it, maybe a class action? :P

Cassa you spamming wog, I know you caused at least 20% of the overall traffic you little bitch! hahahaha!

There's no point whinging to Telsra saying "wheres my unlimited service", because T never avertised it as "unlimited". It was always subject to the AUP...

You don't pay premium price for cable. Its dirt cheap compaired to premium.

got a good laugh out of your pics sneaker!

Im f***ing SOOOO pissed off now that ive learnt telstra's stupid limit applies to me...(delux user)
f*** f*** f***

Can there be anything which is done in the respect of breaking the contract?

Anyone have or know a GOOD lawyer... i wanna f*** telstra where it hurts...legally.

Pbb

Anybody with a "QC" after their name is a good barrister ;) But you probably need a solicitor first...

It's a very, very, very pricey exercise...

My gripe is that if we are being capped to 3 Gb, then why also knobble us on transmission rates. If we are only allowed to download (and upload?) 3 Gb/month then what does it matter whether we do in in 3 days or 30?

If they are going to cap our volume then it sucks to also cap our bandwidth, no?

Other points no doubt mentioned previously:

1. It would be good of telstra to provide us with some form of feedback of current usage, as I would not have a clue how much I suck down in a month

2. are Telstra going to provide us all with free firewall software to prevent floding attacks that we now will pay for?

3. Now that the Freedom plan is without question NOT unlimited, what's the difference between it and the uncapped plans where you also pay per Mb?

4. This has been repeatedly stated, but Telstra DO know who the offenders are of the AUP, so it doesn't make sense to cap everyone. What they are admitting to is that the previous AUP obviously didn't work or those 5% would have been warned and kicked off. What gives?

An amusing antedote most of you would probably have heard by now:

Someone apparently has decided to cancel his BPA contract. He now plans to call Telstra to come and pick up the cable modem.

His next available time will be in 4-6 weeks time. Telstra have a choice of morning or afternoon to pick up the modem. If they decide the morning, he will make himself available *some time* between 9am and 12pm. At which time he will come home for 5 minutes and leave. If the Telstra guys isn't there waiting, he will need to call back and arrange another time for collection.

I think you know the drill...

:))

dammit..that is gold...keep my telstra docis modem and acess the optus network with it at a reduced price...FARK...

>remember, they think 56k is good.

and

>BAH! Stick with 56K and you'll never go over 3gigs!


Well, on 56k it's quite possible to leech 11gb/month (average 4.5k/s), so err.. /me sits back and slurps it up!
This shows how pathetically retarded Telstra is, capping it at a rate approximately 1/4 of what 56k can do.

Broadband my ass. (no, my ass isn't broadband)

yeah those pix rawk. i didnt do them, I found them and whacked em up here, I figured we needed a laugh :)

I've been informed by some law type friends that what telstra has done is illegal (changing a contract without providing a reasonible alternative ect)

i just hope someone reams them in court :P

now that they've capped it, no one has the money to goto court. Their paying for their excess

Smurf, since that your "law type friend" has confirmed what those bastards are doing is illegal, I propose us gamers set up a fund where at LAN's we ask for donations which go straight to a lawsuite against Telstra.

this book explains everyhting

What they are doing is "kind of" legal.

Yes they are breaking the contract - that is why they are letting people out if they choose in the next few weeks or so.

They've said "we're changing this contract outside the boundaries that you signed for. If you agree that we're breaking the contract then goodbye, thanks for all your money. - we won't charge you any more from now on and we won't give you a service.

If you don't tell us you want us to break the contact with you, we assume you don't mind transferring over a new contract automatically."

I don't know whether they can do that without a new signature... but it's probably written in there somewhere.

If a small business did this, they would go under very quickly. They're abusing their power as a monopoly and a corporate giant.

Oh and fruity bob - I would put you in the "5%" category!!

No they are not breaking the contract. Because the contract actualy stats that they can change the contract at any time.


They have changed the contract, and dramaticly enough that they should allow people out of the contract if they are not happy with it. Because that is what the ACCC will try and make them do.

typodemon:

if this went to court, that would be one of our(everyone except telstra) main points of argument...

that caluse is absolutly nonbinding...
"if you sign this contract, you agree to let us change it whenever we want"

haha... I guess telstra think(have :P) they can get away with anything

you only signed one contract, the orignal one, if they change it, its a new contract, which you hav'nt agree'd to. They are bullying everyone into signing the new one by providing no reasonable alternative.

which I/everyone hope is illegal, and therefore they won't be able to go through with it.

the ACCC/TIO are the only people who would be able to take it to telstra in the courtroom, that's why everyone needs to have a good ol' bitch to em.

lol@fork...that is sooooo good!!

The main argument of the australian gaming community in court would be "Telstra are gay". And we would lose so fast.

Why not say "screw Telstra then". Now would it be correct to say that when you all signed up for BPA a contract was raised and signed by yourself with terms & conditions? So now that the terms & conditions have changed wouldn't you be well within your legal right to get the service disconnected at no cost?

Yeah then get OPTUS installed, sweet 500kbps downloads :-)

Woops I should'a read all the above posts...

so am I to understand that I have till the 18th of june to cancell without any fees? or am I just totally stupid and know nothing of the legal process? I believe I *CAN* get optus here, but I don't wanna cancell and have to pay the fee, coz that would be giving Tel$tra money for nothing, and I'd rather not do that.