I received this email (for the third month in a row) from Suddenlink about my internet usage:

Dear Customer:

In the last monthly cycle, your Internet account used 175.19 GB. That’s well above the typical monthly usage of up to 43.0 GB.

This situation could mean several things. For instance: a virus or “spyware” application might have infected your computer and started generating high levels of Internet traffic, or someone else might be using your Internet connection without your knowledge. To help guard against those issues, please consider the following steps.

• If you have a wireless router, you may have unauthorized users logging onto your account. Ensure that your router is encrypted or password-protected by visiting the Web site of your router’s manufacturer.
• Viruses and spyware applications can, without your knowledge, generate excessive Internet traffic. Install and regularly update your computer’s security software to minimize the risk of your Internet connection being used by an outside party for unauthorized purposes. Suddenlink offers a free security package for qualifying customers. To learn more, visit: http://www.suddenlink.com/netsafety/mcafee.html.
• Install software to limit or eliminate the volume of spam you receive.
• Check with other members of your household regarding their Internet activities. For instance, someone in your home might leave a streaming music player running while they’re away doing other things. During that time, your account is using bandwidth without anyone benefiting from it.
• If you’ve shared your Suddenlink Internet user ID and password with someone you suspect is causing you to exceed the typical usage range, consider changing your password.
• Some popular, peer-to-peer file-sharing programs (e.g., Bit Torrent, Shareaza, etc.) will upload shared files, by default, to others as fast as your connection allows. This activity is often invisible to you, but it can result in significant usage. Check your file-sharing program preferences to make sure the upstream Internet is limited accordingly.
• Make sure, if you use a news reader (e.g., Usenet), that it is not set to automatically download message bodies for groups to which you subscribe. Otherwise, you may download a significant volume of material that is of no interest to you.

If you wish to monitor your usage, we have set up a convenient way for you to do so. If you haven’t already done so, register your account at www.suddenlink.net; when finished, click the link for “My Internet Usage Summary.” (If you’re already registered at suddenlink.net, log on, go to “My Account,” and then click the link for “My Internet Usage Summary.”) Once there, you’ll be able to see how many GB you’ve used at any point in a given monthly cycle – and compare that usage to the typical usage for your package.

More information is available at: http://www.suddenlink.com/usage/faq/.

Thank you for taking time to review this letter and for being our customer.

Suddenlink Management

43GB? Really? I don’t even think my mother can stay under a 43GB cap, and she isn’t even an intensive user. Comcast has a 250GB cap (which I only went over in my first month because I was mad with the power of high speed internet), and I think this is reasonable. So, I checked out Suddenlink’s FAQ about usage:

Much like electric usage is measured in kilowatts, and water usage is measured in gallons, Internet usage is measured in gigabytes (GB). For reference, if someone used 25 GB, she’d be able to send or receive more than 1.5 million emails, or download more than 6,500 songs, or watch more than 150 hours of YouTube videos.

Wow, it’s like 2001 has come back for a visit and no one told me! Who worries about the amount of emails they receive and send? But on the offchance that I was being unreasonable, I checked out how some average things we all do stack up against the cap:

• Xbox Game DLC come in around 1.4 GB (You better not like expansions)
• Xbox Games on demand come in around 7 GB (6 games a month, no one does this)
• Xbox Game add on come in around 50MB
• Watching a Ustream stream is 600 Kbps (No Sheen’s Korner for you!)
• Watching a Justin.tv stream is 1 Mbps
• Netflix comes in around 1.8 GB per SD and around 3.2 GB per HD movie
• Video Podcast mostly come in around 138 MB
• Audio Podcast mostly come in at 5-20MB

To be fair, this isn’t the official cap, they’re just exploring cap sizes. In my opinion, anything under 200GB is useless (hell, even 150gb would be better than this). Is anyone else having an issue with Suddenlink about this?

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