Comcast (Xfinity) will activate 1 Terabyte data limit plan beginning November 1st

[Larebear]

Received an email from Xfinity about the new data limit plan. They will be charging an extra $10 per 50GB block above the 1TB limit per month up to a $200 monthly overage charge. They're offering unlimited data for an extra $50 a month.

In the email they claim the average monthly data usage at my Mom's house is close to 3TB's. This new plan is for Washington state. I don't know if this will affect other states or not. Not too happy about it but guess I'll have to sign my Mom up for the unlimited data plan. :sad2:

 

[Larebear]

I forgot to mention that I'm streaming video from 5 IP cameras at my Mom's house to BI at my place. Two of the cameras are older VGA cameras (640 x 480), one camera is an older Dericam (1280 x720) and the two inside cameras are Hik 2432's running at (1280 x 720). I monitor the cameras 24x7.

I also installed BI for my sister so that she can monitor our mom's two inside cameras 24x7. My mom's caretaker can also check up on her once in a while using the TinyCam app.

I guess that would be the reason that her average data usage is almost 3TB's a month. eaceful:

 

[nayr]

are those older ones doing MJPEG? If so upgrade em to a h264 and pull substream, you'll cut the bandwidth down dramatically and gain a bit of resolution.

I burn through a TB every few days, but I'm on a business plan thats unlimited.

 

[logbuilder]

Seems to me like your config needs to be tweaked. I've not thought this thru extensively but it seems like you might want to install a BI server in your mom's house. Proper setup of triggers and alerts should keep you informed of things you need to look at. If you want to view something in detail, you can remote console into her BI server and view like you were there. Your sister could use the same thing as could the caregiver, each with a little training on remote console. Net is that the traffic out of your mom's house is limited to what y'all want to see. She might be able to live within the new data cap.

A benefit to you is that your internet connection will receive much less traffic so should your provider impose data caps, you will be in a better position.

IMHO.

 

[Larebear]

are those older ones doing MJPEG? If so upgrade em to a h264 and pull substream, you'll cut the bandwidth down dramatically and gain a bit of resolution.

I burn through a TB every few days, but I'm on a business plan thats unlimited.

Yep, two of the cameras that I have mounted outside are old MJPEG Foscam 8910W's. It probably would be a good idea to upgrade them. Image quality is really crappy with those two cameras anyways. Might have to replace them with a couple of those cheap BeSafe cameras. I'd have to use power line adapters and a PoE injector with the non-WiFi cameras.

I have CenturyLink at my location since Comcast is not available here. A couple years ago they terminated my account because they said I was using too much data. I ended up having to go with their business account which costs more than double the normal monthly fee. At least now it's unlimited. Will probably also end up going unlimited at my Mom's house.

My Mom is 92 and we need to keep an eye on her 24x7. I have all of her cameras set up in BI for motion recordings. A few months ago, she rolled off her couch onto the floor and couldn't get back up. Luckily I noticed it right away while viewing her living room camera and drove over to her house to help her. She wasn't injured but she could have been crawling around on the floor for hours if it wasn't for the camera.

 

[Jack B Nimble]

Yep, two of the cameras that I have mounted outside are old MJPEG Foscam 8910's. It probably would be a good idea to upgrade them. Image quality is really crappy with those two cameras. Might have to replace them with a couple of those cheap BeSafe cameras.

I have CenturyLink at my location since Comcast is not available here. A couple years ago they terminated my account because they said I was using too much data. I ended up having to go with their business account which costs more than double the normal monthly fee. At least now it's unlimited. Will probably also end up going unlimited at my Mom's house.

My Mom is 92 and we need to keep an eye on her 24x7. I have all of her cameras set up in BI for motion recordings. A few months ago, she rolled off her couch onto the floor and couldn't get back up. Luckily I noticed it right away while viewing her living room camera and drove over to her house to help her. She wasn't injured but she could have been crawling around on the floor for hours if it wasn't for the camera.

Its a good man to look after their mom, my hat is off to you. My Dad 86 and he parties too much and is never home he's with his girl friend.lol

 

[Larebear]

Seems to me like your config needs to be tweaked. I've not thought this thru extensively but it seems like you might want to install a BI server in your mom's house.

I would have to replace her PC with one that would be able to handle BI. It's an older PC and I only have it there so that I can remote into it using TeamViewer to reboot the Comcast modem when there's a WiFi problem, which is rare. I also use her PC to do remote printing from my place.

Four of the cameras, a wireless printer and a digital picture frame are on WiFi. One camera is on a PLA and PoE injector and her security system is monitored using a PLA. I'll probably just sign her up for the unlimited data.

 

[logbuilder]

I would have to replace her PC with one that would be able to handle BI. It's an older PC and I only have it there so that I can remote into it using TeamViewer to reboot the Comcast modem when there's a WiFi problem, which is rare. Four of the cameras, a wireless printer and a digital picture frame are on WiFi. One camera is on a PLA and PoE injector and her security system is monitored using a PLA. I'll probably just sign her up for the unlimited data.

Your call of course. I just wanted to throw out another way of thinking about the problem. At $50 per month to go to unlimited, you could pay for a BI capable server pretty quick.

 

[PSPCommOp]

3 TB? Wow, that's crazy.

I saw the same thing after reading an article so I checked mine, I'm around 460GB a month and that's with 3 girls streaming non stop and myself gaming from time to time.

Any chance you could just install an NVR at her house and use two BI names for yourself and your sister to sign in and monitor?

i5 processor, 6TB WD Purple drive and a new BI license might be cheaper then the data plan in less then a year I'd imagine? If you already have it streaming to your BI at your place you could prob set everything up at yours and then just take it to hers and it should set up there with minimal effort.

 

[fenderman]

The best solution is to install a BI server at the house as other have mentioned. Then you can set 3 different quality streams for the webserver and stream at low quality 24/7 and select the higher res when/if needed.

 

[bp2008]

3TB a month is only about 9 Mbps continuous streaming. This is why I am always warning people they may piss off their ISP if they try this Of course, it isn't any one person causing them to push out this kind of policy change. Mostly I imagine it is people torrenting and having their computers become infected and part of a botnet or something.

Online games using a lot of data is and has always been a myth. It simply is not true.

 

[nayr]

the game updates use alot of data heh, wife bought Elder Scrolls Online and just the download was like 60GB or some shit heh.. but yeah the game play is minimal, its video that kills it.. voice dont even take much.

 

[bp2008]

Yes, game updates are significant only if you aren't streaming video 24 hours a day

 

[logbuilder]

the game updates use alot of data heh, wife bought Elder Scrolls Online and just the download was like 60GB or some shit heh.. but yeah the game play is minimal, its video that kills it.. voice dont even take much.

Goodness that is a lot. It is six months of data allowance on my satellite connection.

 

[gmaster1]

I hit 21.9TB last month. I'll probably have to do the $50/mo unlimited plan until the fiber arrives. Already had to sign up one of my other places earlier in the year. bleh

 

[Larebear]

Yeah, probably the BI server at my Mom's house would be the best way to go, at least the least expensive way.

I have BI running on my main PC at my place which I use for everything including email, Skype, DropBox, TeamViewer, FarCry 4, BI and much more. Besides monitoring the 5 cameras at my Mom's house I also monitor my 20+ local & other remote cameras in BI. I prefer using BI instead of a browser to monitor the cameras. I have BI running on my PC 24x7. CPU usage isn't too bad with BI even with many other programs running at the same time. With BI reduced to the taskbar, the average usage is around 30%. Increases to about 65% when open on the desktop.

@gmaster1 Wow and I thought I was using more data than most. 21.9TB in a month is huge!

 

[bp2008]

Wow and I thought I was using more data than most. 21.9TB in a month is huge!

My biggest months approach 600 GB. Typical is around 300 GB.

21.9 TB is about 67.5 Mbps continuous for 30 days.

 

[ElBerryKM13]

I hit 21.9TB last month. I'll probably have to do the $50/mo unlimited plan until the fiber arrives. Already had to sign up one of my other places earlier in the year. bleh

And I though my 6TB average in the last 3 months was a lot. Can't wait to get fiber so I could backup all my cameras video files to the cloud in realtime.

 

[bp2008]

I'm sure data caps won't go away just because the last mile of internet gets delivered by fiber optics.

 

[Larebear]

Twelve years ago, I had Satellite Internet which had a 350MB data cap. If I went over that limit, they would cut me down to dial-up speeds for several hours, which happened quite often. Windows updates alone would easily exceed that limit nowadays.