Bandwidth theft

[cableguy69]

I love starting threads where I know there's a difference of opinions. But here (http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Site=TO&Date=20020627&Category=NEWS03&ArtNo=106270073&Ref=AR) is why you shouldn't bother trying to uncap your cable modem.

[Nick CPU]

- High Speed Internet Service $49.95

- High Speed Modem Rental $15.00

- the expression on one of those high school kids faces when the Police busted down their door. PRICELESS

[arkie]

A thief is a thief, if its bandwidth or anything. :mad:

[bushmaster]

What truly is considered uncapping your modem? from a legal fcc point of view. Do they mean by mechanically altering your modem or just changing settings in the registry? See when RR installed my modem all they did was plug it into my router, called the isp to give them the #'s off the modem and said "happy surfing".
They installed no software, and made no changes to my settings.
I then edited my registry settings and am getting speeds of 3846 kb/s and sometimes even 4200+ kb/s. As tested at several different sites.

[arkie]

I installed my (their) modem. (plugged in the power, cable and the cable to my ethernet card) Went online, give the cable company my credit card number and selected a user name / password. I get speeds at very near the advertise speed that I pay for... maximum of 512 kbps down, 256 kbps up.

To put it simple... I think stealing would be if I made changes to the modem, mechanical or to the software so I could obtain speeds greater than I pay for.
:t

[bushmaster]

Not trying to be a smartass. so please don't take me that way. But they never installed software. just hooked it to my router, said sign this, and fled. And nowhere on the contract does it specify speeds. Just price...$44.95 a month.

[arkie]

Mine was a little different. I received a brochure advertisement about cable service from my TV cable company. It stated they had two plans.. plan A for maximum of 1200 kbps, plan B for maximum of 512 kbps.
When I picked up the modem at their office I noticed on the contract that it just said Plan B... didn't state the maximum speed. I suppose they had installed the software in the modem although the box look like it had never been open. Of course that could have been done at the manufacture, Toshiba.
BTW I also pay $45, (includes modem, they have no option to purchase or use your own modem) it seems a little high compared to prices over the USA. But they are the only cable company in town and DSL is not t available in my area.:t

[cableguy69]

LMAO @ Nick

[cableguy69]

It's in there somewhere about the speed. Just have to look a bit harder.

[bushmaster]

No it just states that I will be in violation of my contract if I open and alter the equipment.

[Ammok]

How do I uncap my cable modem, I want some of that:D

[maximus02143]

ME TOO let us know

[cableguy69]

Umm, no.

[Ammok]

Yaa Boo Cableguy.:p

[mickey_hwoarang]

disclaimer: I am not responsible if the FBI bust yo *** down. Don't try this at home.

This is only my theory and I've never tryed it because i don't have the guts to. Well I'm not insulting you people's intelliegence, but obviously. They capped the modem that they gave you that is why it'll void the contract or whatever if you go buy a new uncapped cable modem from Best Buy. Simple as that. If you ask the ISP why you can't you use your own cable modem, they'll come up with dumb answers like it won't ensure you that you'll be getting the maximum compababilty. O'course i'm never dumb enough to steal bandwith. Cuss if you do, they'll know right away. And when you sign that contract, you let them have the priveledge to do what they want to you your comp, thus they have total control of your privacy rights.

[cableguy69]

This is only my theory and I've never tryed it because i don't have the guts to. Well I'm not insulting you people's intelliegence, but obviously. They capped the modem that they gave you that is why it'll void the contract or whatever if you go buy a new uncapped cable modem from Best Buy. Simple as that. If you ask the ISP why you can't you use your own cable modem, they'll come up with dumb answers like it won't ensure you that you'll be getting the maximum compababilty. O'course i'm never dumb enough to steal bandwith. Cuss if you do, they'll know right away. And when you sign that contract, you let them have the priveledge to do what they want to you your comp, thus they have total control of your privacy rights.

An incorrect theory at that. What voids the contract is when the greedy customers who uncap their modems go over their guaranteed speeds. Uncapping the modems is just the means by which they get there. Technically you're doing two things wrong when you uncap. At least if you rent the modem. One, you're messing with their equipment and two, you're going above your guaranteed speeds.

And the process doesn't exactly work as easy as purchasing a modem from the store and plugging it in and getting great speeds. That's wrong. Every modem is capped by the ISP, regardless of if it's rented or purchased. Every time the modem connects to the ISP's network, the network does a few things. For one, it sees if that modem is registered and has the right to use the network. It also sends instruction to the modem regarding speed limitations. This happens at the first time the modem is hooked up to the network and at different times while it's hooked up and being used. So to say all you have to do is to buy one and it'll work, that's incorrect. The ISP will cap even purchased modems. And if someone were to uncap a modem, it would just take a matter of time before the ISP would figure it out. Believe me, it's not hard to figure it out.

[bushmaster]

Ok! Just to clarify my situation. I spoke with the person that installed my service ( cable broadband ) and spoke to the office as well. Seems the modems are capped at 2 MB/s not Mb/s. Thats what I'm allowed as max bandwidth with the service I subscribe and pay for.
Since I'm just a mile and a half away from the main switch up here and am the only person connected off the line amp, seems my download speeds of 4200 kb/s are nowhere near my allowed amount. So I'm heading out for some cat6 cable and gonna experiment with some different settings till I get near those speeds.

[cableguy69]

Hmm.

Well, if you have cable, it doesn't really matter how close you are to the switch or if you're the only one connected to that LE. If you have DSL, than that's a different story. Cable HSD is broken down into nodes. Each node covering approx 1500-2000 homes, give or take. I somehow doubt you're the only sub on a given node, not impossible, just unlikely.

Seems the modems are capped at 2 MB/s not Mb/s.

2MB/s = 16Mb/s
16000 kbps

That's fractional T-3 line speeds. I guess it's possible that's what you're supposed to be getting. But I haven't seen anything that fast on cable.

I think the person you spoke to at the cable company is misunderstanding the whole bits/bytes thing. And you should be happy with the 4200 kb/s you're getting. I know I'd be happy with that.

[bushmaster]

Hey! When I spoke to the tech doing the installs he told me that each node will have upto only 250 homes. That is because the area I live in, Bethel ny is mostly agricultural / rural. Most of the roads in my area average about 20+ homes per mile. Total population of the entire county is only 60k. Luckily Time warner is the cable company up here so they put the $$$ into running the service up here in hopes that gambling will arrive. alot of people use a local dial-up service around here and local calling is un-timed. So a great deal of the locals cant see dishing out $45 a month when they are paying $19.95 and their dammend kids are on it all the time anyway. We shall see. Basically I was answering back to say I'm not stealing bandwidth and I'm allowed upto 2 MB/s or at least thats what I'm capped at. That info came from both the install tech and the office. Well anyway I'm gonna keep tweakin my way towards the 16,000kb/s goal ya set for me. And yes I backed up the reg 1st. Well at least to where it's getting me 4200 kb/s LOL

[bushmaster]

Well I got my connection hitting 7273 kb/s. Still nowhere near the 16,000 kb/s but i'm still trying. I'm getting that result downloading a 1000 KB block of text.

[jad1097]

Hey maybe someone should sue the cable companies for the lack of bandwidth! There are some real horror stories from people who have used cable modems. Some have gotten worse than dial up speeds using cable!!!


You do not need to open or modify the modem. The only thing I will say is that it involves a TFTP server and create/modify a DOCSIS config file. There is more to it but you have to find it yourself if you want it. It is explained in detail at http://online.securityfocus.com if you can find it.





Be happy with what you have because I am on 56k unless I want to go with a dish or pay the cable company to run a few hundred yards of cable.