Comcast to limit customers' broadband usage

[MikeHumphreys]

Straight from Yahoo news...

Comcast to limit customers' broadband usage - Yahoo! News

This is going to seriously impact a few of the IMers I know who use Comcast as their internet provider.

[Asher]

Wow... that's gonna majorly stink for those who use Comcast.

U.S. Internet subscribers are typically not aware of any limit on their Internet usage once they sign up to pay a flat monthly fee to their service provider.

Kind of makes me wonder for my own ISP and for my hosting service providers.

Asher

[Justin Mandel]

I saw this too on the Yahoo page Mike.

This would really suck for those people who have no choice of service

[Scott Ames]

Customers who top 250 GB in a month twice in a six-month timeframe could have service terminated for a year.

Ah.. yeah.. send me to my room and make me stand in the corner too. I don't think so. I think I'll fire Comcast before that happens. How the freak am I supposed to know what my usage is? They had better start providing stats.

[Michael Mayhew]

Wow! I'll terminate my cable, HD, everything. They are already getting too much of my money
Lot's of alternatives.
Let'em get cocky.

[Jeremy Kelsall]

The bad part of this is, Comcast says they do not have the capability to give you stats of your Web usage.

I saw this article this morning and called them immediately.

I talked to 3 different people and the first 2 had no idea of what I was talking about. The third guy I got on the phone was familiar with the new policy, but says as of now and the future customers will not be able to view their own web usage statistics.

So, it boils down to a guess on our part.

[KimW]

All the people I know call it comcrap. I have had them for years.Well, actually, they bought out my original ISP,made me change my primary email when they did.
Their service is terrible. Their customer support is terrible (No offense Canadians,because I know many times I ask the tech I'm talking to where they are located and I'm usually told someplace in Canada).
Recently we had a tv issue, they sent a tech out 3 times. The first two times it was the same tech ,and he didn't have a clue. He said it was the coax cable. The second time the said it was a bad cable box. Finally the third time they sent a different tech, he put a signal amplifier on and it's worked since.
Do youi also know that they broadcast more signals thru one line than most other cable companies? I know that's not the proper term,I can't remember it right now but basically most cable companies send 2 HD channels thru a signal, comcast sends 3 or more at times.
What this means is you might be paying for HD digital cable but are being sent a degraded signal.
Even though I am going to have to change emails all over the internet with people Ive purchased from over the past 10-12 years, as soon Verizon FIOS is available in my area its goodbye comcrap.

[Jillian Slack]

Wow!

Comcast isn't available where I live, but if I was a customer I would definitely get rid of them.

Just think of it -- if you work from home and you're online a lot for biz and personal reasons, plus you've got a kid or two getting online to check email and do homework, a spouse doing whatever he or she may do online, a dog and a cat each checking their email pretty often...

It can really add up.

Wait a minute. They don't have a way to check your stats??? So you're just out of luck and get turned off at some point during the month? Sheesh!

I've usually got one computer online solid throughout the business day, then Boy Genius is on his at the same time after school checking up on Facebook, doing a little homework, etc.

We often watch something together on Netflix Instant Watch. Once in a while I'll catch up on "The Young & The Restless" (don't laugh at me!) online. I've got DSL at home through one company, and I've got a wi-fi card through my cell phone provider so I can get online from anywhere.

OK so maybe I'm an Internet addict. Maybe I need a 12-step program. But I can stop any time I want. I just don't want to.

However, I do know that if my ISP decides to crack down on me, they won't be my ISP for long.

Hopefully this won't become standard operating procedure for other ISPs. Maybe we'll end up with different levels of monthly memberships.

[4thstreet]

We have Comcast, and when I saw the info on the news this morning I freaked. When they started talking about it last year, the plan was to only limit new users and not current customers.

The limiting was also mentioned by several other providers and each would have different levels that you could subscribe to ( like it was 10 years ago).

This totally sucks. We have Comcast now because the other providers pulled out of our area when Comcast moved in. I'll have to see who is going to come back in since so many will be leaving Comcast.

The only other option is to go for the business service with Comcast & that's probably what they want everyone to do.

[Patty Gale]

Well, we are moving to Colorado in 2 weeks and Comcast was who we had signed up with for when we get there, although I just put in a call to the dealer out there as I will be looking at other options, of which I think Qwest is the only one.

The nice thing about Comcast was that I was able to sign up only for internet access and not have to get their bundle of cable, phone, etc. in order to have internet.

We use Skype and cell phones, which means my computer is on all the time, so I'm not about to get landline service (at $60 a month) just to get DSL internet.

Comcast's new plan is a step back to the stone ages similar to when AOL gave you the options of how many minutes you wanted to be able to access the internet for.

Obviously, Comcast's infrastructure hasn't kept up with the technology or this wouldn't be an issue.

[MommyEnterprises]

I used Comcast, I guess I need to read and see if the change will affect me.

[Jelasco]

Just one more reason why Comcast blows. I'm grateful I don't live in their territory.

[adamv]

I was with Comcast several years ago for high speed internet and I had trouble getting connected every single day between about 5pm and 7pm. I switched to my local phone company for DSL but I had issues with them and switched back to Comcast.

The internet connection is far better now than it was a few years ago for me but I have my computer connected to the internet all day, every day. Looks like it might be time to see about getting high speed internet through my directv service.

[jjpmarketing]

Well if the cable companies start pulling this net neutrality bull****... other companies will start popping up to offer the non-net-neutrality services.

You know who they are turning into? The oil companies. They are essentially jacking up the prices on their service because bandwidth is in high demand... and there are usually no other alternatives for users. Cable companies are very, very bad about this.

They come into an area, push the smaller companies out of the area with great customer service, and cheap products... and then customer service goes way downhill... and prices go up.

[adarwish]

I've never had a good experience with comcast. Their service is unreliable, their customer service is horrific. I stay away from them at all costs.

[Darrell Hagan]

Pretty much sux for sure. I see near the end of the article that Time Warner is going to test usage pricing. This is just the beginning folks. Internet service in the U.S. will likely become like some membership sites are now - more $$ = more/faster service. Net neutrality might go bye bye.

I think that sooner or later after Comcast gets people used to limits, they'll figure out some way to generate revenue from the caps.....

- Darrell

Now some of us have a good reason to switch to Verizon FIOS...

[jjpmarketing]

I am hoping this will be a minor change in the ISP world. I am hoping that it will be similar to what they charge for faster speeds now.

For example, you have some DSL companies that charge a price for 1.5 mbps, 3.0 mpbs, and 6.0 mbps. Hopefully they will just trade in the speed pricing for bandwidth pricing.

One thing I do see as a problem, and something that will spawn a bunch of lawsuits is the fact that people won't be able to know their bandwidth usage. That leaves room for major abuse from the ISP's. There has to be some law that would protect users from this... or then again maybe there will be a law implemented to protect users if there isn't already one.

[adarwish]

Open Left:: McCain Prepares to Hand the Internet Over to Comcast, Verizon, AT&T

Funny how the thread right next to this one delved into discussions of who is better for IM - McCain or Obama.

Obama's support for net neutrality is huge for us. McCain's opposition to it is very dangerous.

Obama pledges Net neutrality laws if elected president | Tech news blog - CNET News

[John Rogers]

I was considering a switch to Comcast as my DSL requires landline phone service that I really have no use for. What really sucks is I live about a quarter mile outside the fiber service area. Looks like DSL remains my best option for the immediate future.

John

[jjpmarketing]

Originally Posted by adarwish

Open Left:: McCain Prepares to Hand the Internet Over to Comcast, Verizon, AT&T

Funny how the thread right next to this one delved into discussions of who is better for IM - McCain or Obama.

Obama's support for net neutrality is huge for us. McCain's opposition to it is very dangerous.

Obama pledges Net neutrality laws if elected president | Tech news blog - CNET News

That is just another reason why I know voting for Obama is the right choice. I was already decided... and voted for him in the primary election. But that fact alone insures that I won't change my mind.

[Jason_V]

"If a customer exceeds more than 250 GB..."

I'm not exactly sure what this means. I understant they're capping it at 250 gigs per person per month. However, this is fuzzy to me. They gave the example of 50 million emails or 124 standard definition movies.

Who the hell in here gets 50 million emails or downloads 124 movies in a month?

Yeah, at first I was a little pissed when I read this, but someone needs to put that amount of space into more tangible terms in relation to IM before I fully understand it. For example, how many PLR pack downloads does that equate to. How many website uploads does that equate to, etc..

[John Rogers]

Originally Posted by Jason_V

"If a customer exceeds more than 250 GB..."

I'm not exactly sure what this means. I understant they're capping it at 250 gigs per person per month. However, this is fuzzy to me. They gave the example of 50 million emails or 124 standard definition movies.

Who the hell in here gets 50 million emails or downloads 124 movies in a month?

250 GB is a lot. For the vast majority of users, it is plenty. For a consumer downloading HD movies, it may or may not be. For a family of six downloading HD movies and sending and receiving emails with large attachments, quite possibly not.

I suspect the cap is to weed out the commercial users paying consumer rates. I'm not a Comcast customer, but I also suspect there is something already in the contract regarding commercial use.

John

[midwestmedia]

I'm a Comcast user and I'm not worried. The limit would be difficult for most regular IM'ers to meet even with the personal use equivalent to a movie download every few days.

Plus, the article said that they will call you if you exceed the limit to give you a warning. If you get a call, just make note of what you did in the days leading up to it and shift your usage.

I think John hit the nail on the head...they are trying to find commerical users who haven't signed up for commercial accounts. That and people who are pirating dozens of movies a day.

Jen

[Patty Gale]

What is disturbing about this new policy is not so much the amount of downloads, etc. It sets a precedent and opens the door for more limitations and variants of how much you can and cannot use.

What is this same philosophy were applied to television? You already pay X amount of dollars for cable / or satellite access or whatever you get... what if they said, "Well, you can only watch X amount of channels based on the frequency useage for the amount of time your tv is on?

Not exactly the same thing, but you get my point.

[jjpmarketing]

I believe it is 1 for 1. So if you download a PLR video series... that contains the AVI's or WMV's or MPG's or whatever... that is 100 MB per video... then 10 videos would equate to 1 GB of bandwidth used.

But I agree the precedent it sets is a dangerous one. Like I said, they could easily become the oil companies.

20 MP3's per month would amount to about 100 MB's for songs. They usually average about 5 MB's each.

How many YouTube videos do you watch? The first view will amount to about 1 MB per minute of video streamed. Subsequent views of the same video shouldn't amount to anything if YouTube caches video downloads.

100 minutes of video could equate to 100 MB's of bandwidth. A typical family could easily eat through 1 GB per day... without even really trying.

[KimW]

Originally Posted by jjpmarketing

I am hoping this will be a minor change in the ISP world. I am hoping that it will be similar to what they charge for faster speeds now.

For example, you have some DSL companies that charge a price for 1.5 mbps, 3.0 mpbs, and 6.0 mbps. Hopefully they will just trade in the speed pricing for bandwidth pricing.....

Where I live comcast already does that.You can pay for 8 12 or 16 mb download speeds. Personally I think that's a crock.If I'm paying a premium price for broadband service,I should get broadband service.

Originally Posted by John Rogers

...I suspect the cap is to weed out the commercial users paying consumer rates. I'm not a Comcast customer, but I also suspect there is something already in the contract regarding commercial use.

John

Until recently I had two comcast accounts.one at my house and one at my business, I owned a computer service repair service. At my shop I had to pay $95 a month for the broadband,and towards the end they thru in free basic tv.
At my home I pay aprox $50 for the cable and for the most part the service is better than what I was gettting at my business account.
Figure that.

[jstover77]

I used to work as a contractor for Comcast. Not only was it a nightmare as an employee, but I had the joy of walking into customers houses and hearing all the nice things they had to say. I used to tell customers that I didn't even have Comcast, and they usually would become friendly at that point.

I had a friend who was a fellow contractor who got banned from using their internet service for using up too much bandwidth. And he was an employee!! This was over a year ago, so this has been going on for a while. He made the switch to FIO's as did I, cause there is no limit on bandwidth usage.

I got to go. Buying 10,000 shares in Verizon.

[jjpmarketing]

@kimw

I was saying as a replacement. If they charge for both speed and bandwidth I would be extremely pissed. But at least that way for people like my Dad who rarely use the internet... he wouldn't have to deal with a crappy connection.

I was saying so there is minimal change in pricing for most people. The only people affected would be people running P2P servers, Email Servers, File Servers, etc. from their house.

@jstover77

I wish FIOS was available in my area. 30 MB service would be sooooo nice. Not to mention have 2 MB upload speeds.

[Patty Gale]

He made the switch to FIO's as did I, cause there is no limit on bandwidth usage.

I'm pretty good at most technical terms, but what is an FIO?

[jjpmarketing]

Patty FIOS is Fiber Optic Service for consumers. A lot of businesses are using Fiber now... but Verizon is building a 100% fiber network. It is a lot faster than Cable or DSL. For what you would pay for a 10 MB connection with cable you could get a 30 MB connection with Verizon's FIOS service.

http://www22.verizon.com/content/ConsumerFios

[Jesus Perez]

This is terrible for the precedent it is setting.

But I'm not surprised.

And actually, I'm kinda glad they're doing it. I personally don't download 10gb's per day. Nor do I upload that. And I am definitely a power user on the internet.

This is clearly targeting the extreme users that are running home servers and torrent services from the comfort of their home. And I don't think it's right for them to pay the same amount that I do. Nor should my service suffer.

Do I agree? No. But I also don't agree with the people running major servers from home and utilizing the bulk of the bandwidth in my neighborhood.

This will not impact me. I'll never get a call.

And you know what? I've had comcast for over 8 years in diverse locations across South Florida. It beats Bellsouth DSL hands down. More bandwidth, faster speeds and no need to pay an extra $20 for a phone line I never use. And when Comcast goes down 3 times a year or so...it's never for more than 2-4 hours tops. I can't reference Verizon because they haven't penetrated this market yet.

[Andy]

Cable companies have a long history of "in your face" customer service. They seem to take more joy in making customers miserable than g'vment folks.

That said the nature of cable makes this announcement inevitable. Unlike copper, everybody's using the same bandwidth on cable. It's like a straw - it only holds so much.

Segmenting is the expensive way of doing things and cable companies hate spending cash flow. So they'll limit your access. It's not bad now but eventually you'll pay by the bit. Okay actually you'll have your choice

128 bit "Mega Pack" (a fraction of what you'll soon be getting) $99 a month

64 bite sized bits $79

2 bit economy pack $59 plus a $29.99 "access fee"

God bless,

Andy

[KimW]

Originally Posted by jjpmarketing

@kimw

I was saying as a replacement. If they charge for both speed and bandwidth I would be extremely pissed. But at least that way for people like my Dad who rarely use the internet... he wouldn't have to deal with a crappy connection.

I was saying so there is minimal change in pricing for most people. The only people affected would be people running P2P servers, Email Servers, File Servers, etc. from their house.

@jstover77

I wish FIOS was available in my area. 30 MB service would be sooooo nice. Not to mention have 2 MB upload speeds.

ah, I gotcha now.

[jjpmarketing]

I never even thought about this... How much bandwidth would my venting cost? I mean "Call of Duty" is a necessity. Someone pisses me off, I logon to XBOX live and shoot a bunch of people.

Online gamers will get hit hard I'm sure.

[Michael Worthington]

Originally Posted by adamv

The internet connection is far better now than it was a few years ago for me but I have my computer connected to the internet all day, every day. Looks like it might be time to see about getting high speed internet through my directv service.

Hi Adam,

I've had the satellite service from Directv which is actually HughesNet now, for almost 3 years because it's the only option for broadband I can get.

If you download more than 400 MB in a day you violate what they call their "Fair Use Policy" and you get throttled down to less than dial up speed for 24 hours.

There is a window in which you can download as much as you want and not affect your service...its from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM EST.

Also, I pay for the ProPlus package which is supposed to be 1.6Mbps (megabits per second) download speed and 250Kbps (kilobits per second) upload. $79.99 a month plus tax...around $85 total.

My download speeds average around 150 KILOBYTES per second and 20-25 KILOBYTES per second upload.

If you live in an area like I do and cable or DSL is not available, then satellite is better than dial up, but if you have any other option, I'd go with that first!

Just my informed opinion.

Michael

[Dana_W]

From what they're saying - at least in the article that I read on it this morning - that amount of bandwidth would equal 50 million emails in a month OR 124 full length movies. Wow.

First of all no-one but spammers needs to send out 50 million emails in a month, do they?

But only 124 full length movies...or the equivalent...that kinda sucks. I hope the video bandwidth dilemma is solved soon, not just in the Comcast area but for everyone.

[Jesus Perez]

Originally Posted by jjpmarketing

I never even thought about this... How much bandwidth would my venting cost? I mean "Call of Duty" is a necessity. Someone pisses me off, I logon to XBOX live and shoot a bunch of people.

Online gamers will get hit hard I'm sure.

I can't see gamers using 10gb per day. That's a LOT of transfer. (The equivalent of 2 DVD's per day.)

To understand, let's look at the flip side: You would need 100 gigs a month excluding custom maps, for a 20 man server. You're just one player. You'll never come close.

[Patty Gale]

Patty FIOS is Fiber Optic Service for consumers.

O.k. I understand, now. That's actually what we have in our home. AT&T UVerse running on fiber optics. I've been using it since the beginning of this year. Prior to that, we had regular DSL with AT&T.

Honestly? I don't notice any difference in speed between the two.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Comcast must be getting hammered with calls about this because I just
called to give them a piece of my mind and I got the "all circuits are busy"
message.

Is there a way to figure out what you're using per day? I have absolutely no
idea how to track this.

How are we supposed to know?

I mean for crying out loud, I'm technically challenged as it is. This is the last
frickin thing that I need.

Unfortunately, next to dial up, I have no other options but Comcast where
I am.

Sheesh!

[mmurtha]

Hey guys,

It seems to me that Comcast is targeting prolific users such as pirates, cronic email smpammers, comercial users (who aren't paying for it), etc ...

Now I don't know about you but I am looking forward to them shutting down some people, or at least slowing them down.

This can be a good thing for most net users in the ling run!

And no, I am not with Comcast. I use Armstrong because it's the only compnay in this area.


Mary

[CarlosGarcia]

Guys,

You think Comcast is bad at 250 GB?

Here in Canada, Rogers our Cable Internet Provider already implemented caps at 95 GB,
and if you go over that it's $1.50 per GB to a max of $25, after $25 it's unlimited though.

At least Rogers had the decency to implement a system that warns you at 75% of your useage,
and they tell you when you've reached 100%, plus you can check your stats online.

Bell, the DSL provider caps you at 60 GB down, and 30 GB upload, which is worse.

250 GB is more than plenty for most people. They claim 99% of users will not be affected,
I guess it all depends on what you do every day. Are you downloading movies, and watching
YouTube videos EVERY SINGLE day, 24/7?

Most IM'ers are not, and will not likely be affected by this.

The only downfall is that they're not providing you any stats or warnings, which is where
they're really dropping the ball.

[jennstall]

Originally Posted by jjpmarketing

Patty FIOS is Fiber Optic Service for consumers. A lot of businesses are using Fiber now... but Verizon is building a 100% fiber network. It is a lot faster than Cable or DSL. For what you would pay for a 10 MB connection with cable you could get a 30 MB connection with Verizon's FIOS service.

Verizon | FiOS Internet (High-Speed Fiber-Optic Broadband Internet)

I am very impatiently waiting for FIOS. I wish they would hurry up rolling it out. I live in Boston. It's available in the burbs, but not Boston itself. Argh.

And I was thinking about moving to Vegas next year and it's not available there either. Double argh!

[Josh Anderson]

I learned a lesson long agao...

Never buy your internet from the cable guy if you have a choice.

Cable has many issues including that it is a shared pipe so it gets congested.

Comcast's proposition is their attempt to solve a problem which is that cable is just not capable of providing for an ever increasing consumption of bandwidth.

Its Craptastic!

I have been with Qwest.net DSL for years and I love it. My upload speed is faster than all the cable company options in town and my download speed is not limited at peak times by traffic jams which always happened back in the day when I was on cable.

Cable companies sell you on how fast your connection might be but they fail to tell you that it can be slow as snot during peak hours because you share the pipe.

[BIG Mike]

I'm not sure that it is of any real immediate concern - I burn up a lot of bandwidth, but 250GB's a month would work for me. I'd be more concerned about Comcast claiming that can't provide usage stats. That I suspect is more of a case of "Won't" provide them.

From the article, it looks like Comcast may be having some other difficulties as well, so for now, I wouldn't worry too much. I would look into alternatives, but don't jump the gun just yet unless you're really displeased with their service.

This is really a return to the old days - anyone remember when residential phone service was metered? Then ma Bell started offering unlimited service - what most folks don't realize is that they cleaned up with it, not only on the charges, but on the changes in the billing process itself.

It's going to be interesting to see how this shakes out....

[summer07]

Originally Posted by jjpmarketing

...You know who they are turning into? The oil companies. They are essentially jacking up the prices on their service because bandwidth is in high demand... and there are usually no other alternatives for users. Cable companies are very, very bad about this.

They come into an area, push the smaller companies out of the area with great customer service, and cheap products... and then customer service goes way downhill... and prices go up.

Bingo! I use them because there's no alternate high-speed service in my area. Given a choice, I wouldn't use them.

They are already filtering and restricting my internet access, without my permission and without notice or disclosure.

About a year ago I tried to access a uk-based IM website, but it appeared to be down. I emailed the site owner and she told me to try using a proxy. Sure enough, I could access her site then. It's happened several times since, now that I know to try using a proxy.

It should be illegal, but with everything deregulated, the big fish are turning into pig fish. (oink!)
.

[Patty Gale]

I have been with Qwest.net DSL for years and I love it. My upload speed is faster than all the cable company options in town and my download speed is not limited at peak times by traffic jams which always happened back in the day when I was on cable.

That's good to know. I just got off the phone with Qwest setting up service for when we get to Colorado in a couple of weeks.

[jjpmarketing]

@bluesquares -- Ok. So it really will only affect a PC Gaming Server. XBox won't use hardly any of what you say is required. I don't play it every day anyway... I just had no idea how much it would use. IM and the Warrior Forum consumes too much of my time.

@Carlos - That is awful. Is Bell connected to AT&T in any way? I have heard of Bellsouth being referred to as Ma Bell referring to the original phone company before it was forced to split up into smaller companies. That became Bellsouth which has now been bought out by AT&T. I have my DSL through AT&T, and it slows down a lot at times, almost to a crawl... and it makes me wonder if they are using bandwidth metering.

@Jennstall -- Don't feel bad. Kentucky will probably be the very last state in the continental US to get FIOS. What sucks is that its available in parts of Indiana... but not Kentucky.

@Summer07 -- I have often wondered if companies did that... but really due to liability issues, you can't blame them. You are essentially accessing sites through their network connection to the backbone of the internet. A company could sue them just because some person used their connection spread a virus, send spam, run an illegal P2P server, etc.

The issue with the IM site? It may not be that domain in particular. It may be an ip range associated with that host of the domain... or anything else for that matter. That is primarily the tactics used by spam filtering companies and companies like AOL.

They will block an ip, and if issues get worse they will block a whole range of IP's. Someone using dynamic ip's could just wait for a new ip address and continue doing what they are doing. That is why that happens.

I for one have never had problems accessing sites in the UK, Australia, Canada, etc. or any US site for that matter. Of course you live in California... so who knows what their mentality might be when they filter out that site. California has some "interesting" laws.

[CarlosGarcia]

As far as I know, Bell is its own company, not connected to any others.

Ever since Rogers came into the scene, Bell has lost a TON of customers, since they always
had a monopoly, and had the attitude that if you don't like it, too bad, you have no other
options anyway.

Anyway, 95 GB is still plenty for me, but I just don't like the fact that I have limits you know.

Also, if Comcast claims that you've gone over 250 GB in a given month, then obviously
they have a way to track it, and need to prove it to that customer in some way,
with Rogers you can check your usage online at any time, so I don't see why Comcast can't.

[summer07]

Originally Posted by jjpmarketing

@Summer07 -- I have often wondered if companies did that... but really due to liability issues, you can't blame them. You are essentially accessing sites through their network connection to the backbone of the internet. A company could sue them just because some person used their connection spread a virus, send spam, run an illegal P2P server, etc.

The issue with the IM site? It may not be that domain in particular. It may be an ip range associated with that host of the domain... or anything else for that matter. That is primarily the tactics used by spam filtering companies and companies like AOL.

They will block an ip, and if issues get worse they will block a whole range of IP's. Someone using dynamic ip's could just wait for a new ip address and continue doing what they are doing. That is why that happens.

I for one have never had problems accessing sites in the UK, Australia, Canada, etc. or any US site for that matter. Of course you live in California... so who knows what their mentality might be when they filter out that site. California has some "interesting" laws.

Thanks for the explanation, Dennis. I still don't like having no choice about my surfing being "filtered", but at least now I can see a business reason behind it instead of a conspiracy theory

audre