[ NNSquad ] An example of the problem with bandwidth caps

[Ben Kamen <bkamen@benjammin.net>]

Today I've been trying to download a movie I purchased online.

And tried.

And tried.

And tried.

At some point rather far through the > 1GB transfer, something happens and the download fails.

So I start again.

I've probably downloaded the same 1,000Kbytes or so 6 times.

Somewhere, out in the net - my transfer gets interrupted for whatever reason (and this is TCP folks)
and I have to start over.

And it counts against my BW cap. (ComCast, so not exactly small, but still measurable)

As a consumer, I think, "How can I reset those bytes that all summed up to failure?" 

I already know what my ISP might say, "not our problem..." and point the finger elsewhere. 

Actually, how do I know my ISP isn't interfering with the transfer causing the failure in the first 
place!?!  (And it's a fact that Comcast has definitely been caught with it's hands in the cookie jar.) 

Makes one ponder the possibilities.

-Ben

  [ Of course, part of the problem in this particular case would
    seem to be the use of a file transfer protocol that needs
    to restart from the beginning after a failure.

      -- Lauren Weinstein
         NNSquad Moderator ]
    

--
Ben Kamen - O.D.T., S.P.
=============================================================================
As seen somewhere on the net: My other computer is your Windows Server.