comcast, chargeing for multiple devices

A customer at my job told me something about Comcast is chargeing people for useing more than one device on their service. (going by ip address)

this sounds nasty to me, and if you are useing a router how can they even tell?

you get the same bandwidth if you are useing 1 computer or 20 don't you?
so what is their loss?
as far as you takeing up ip addresses, ... wouldn't you only take more than one ip address if you were useing a hub or switch to share the connection?

i mean if you are useing a router, then you get ONE ip address and whatever set amount of bandwidth they limit you to. the router handles all the other ip addresses.

so it seems like a very shisty move to try and charge people per computer or device on network.

I don't even think they can tell if you are useing a router, (just if they require mac address registration make sure you give them the routers right?)

thoughts on this?
have i said anything inacurate? (outside of my spelling) i am trying to check my understanding here

 

Well I have had Cumcast for awhile now and
at first I had only 1 computer online. Then
had added 3 more computers over the following
months and have had the same price for usage
ever since I got it. I have my net going through
a router then distributed by a switch. It would
be shisty if Cumcast actually does charge per
device on the line.. Not sure if I answered your
question though but hope it'll help.

 

A buddy of mine also has comcast, and how they found out they he had multiple devices is that, I think, they messured his activity right when he got it and it was steady and then when my friend got a new computer and threw it on the network and started downloading stuff there like hey you can't do this, your using up to much bandwith.


But I completely agree with you in they give you a set amount of bandwith and why the hell can't we use all of it if we want that is bogus.

I think they might be to worried about someone running a webserver and what not but still you get as much as you pay for don't cut it off.

 

I got both an email and a letter stating that thy Comcast suspect me of having 2 IP addreses and that as of June 29,2004 they will remove any additional ip addresses that are not being paid for.

So I called them and they stated that an additional $4.95 would be charged for 2 additional ip addresses.This way I would have 2 ip addreses and leave the 2 pc`s connected to my hub.


But I visited Circuit City and they were selling the NetGear Router for $49.99 incl. in store rebate so decided to go that route.

With XP install was very easy and didn`t require any configuration at all except plugging in the 3 cables and 2 power cords.

So Comcast customers maybe should just go this route which will pay itself back in 11 months instead of waiting to see if they can see you...not really worth the small change.

 

Like most ISPs, Comcast maintains capacity based on demand. This factors in the number of user online at a given time and the demand they place on the network. One user does not normally demand much bandwidth and unless they are power downloaders don't regularly use 100% of available bandwidth into their homes.

Homes with multiple computers to throw off these assumptions and this results in slowdowns in the network, and complaints from other customers.

They also monitor the amount of downloading a person is doing and will contact the top few downloaders. The assumption is they are P2P illegal stuff or running a server.