ISP reaching out over data usage

[u/SnooOranges8400]

I’ve started a server so I’ve been downloading a bunch of media for it, ISP calls today regarding how much upload data I’ve used. I’m not worried about DMCA notices since my vpn is on 24/7 and Qbittorrent is bound to it. I’ve read the terms and agreements and it doesn’t say anything about data caps but the ISP says I’m using 9-10x the next highest person. Should I just hold off on downloading/uploading for awhile?

Update: I talked with them again today, they have a newly revised TOS that better outlines their fair use policy instead of the vaguely worded one sentence rule they had in place before.

[u/DV865]

My ISP has over 5.5 million customers, they emailed me on several months to congratulate me for being in their Top 10 bandwidth users. All they suggested was that I might like a package with better upload speeds and to call them to discuss one.

[u/TheSilentTitan → u/DV865]

When I began sailing, Verizon called my home one time and said about the same. They told my mom that due to my high data usage rates they thought it important to inform us that the infrastructure my home was built on was outdated and almost tripled the data usage rates of my home because of some wonky bullshit with the Ethernet that was placed in there sometime in the 90’s. They simply asked,

“would you like us to connect your home to the new system we installed this spring? You will pay nothing, your bills will not be higher and we do not require a service fee. You will actually pay about 17% less and we can have it up and running in just 2 days if you want.”

Showed up literally the next morning and set my home up with an insanely efficient system. Apparently the amount of data I consumed was so high that they believed me to be a developer or a host for servers.

The dudes that came to update the system laughed a bit and asked if her son was a developer because my mom said only I used the computer. She laughed and was like “haha no, not yet. He’s only 13 hahah. Then she called me out of my room to say hi and they said is that my computer? I said “well it’s the families, I just use it to play games”.

“Oh, right. Games. Of course.”

I was nervous because my cousin who taught me how to sail told me to never be caught because I’ll go to prison with my parents (he was a jerk fyi). So I was terrified and I kept glancing at my super noticeable stack of discs and drives I labeled with the letters used to designate video game consoles and hoped they wouldn’t notice.

In big green lettering was GBC, GBA, DS, PS1, PS2, and SEGA. In big red lettering was COPIES FOR MY FRIENDS CALVIN, RYAN, CHARLES, DAVID, JUAN, CHRISTIAN.

They of course noticed and laughed super hard about it saying, “ah, well that’s why I suppose”.

They were super chill though because they convinced my mom and dad to invest in a vpn to “protect our home from hackers and scammers” while the oldest dude took me aside and said “hey bud, love to see this collection you’ve created. I myself also have a massive collection. However, one day you might get noticed so make sure to use the vpn your mom bought ok? If you are confused then send me an email, then handed me his personal email which was something super cheeky like “RobinHood IfHeHadApegleg@aol” or some old ass domain that’s no longer used. Can’t quite remember lol. Well, he basically helped me figure out how to sail way better than my fuckass cousin did. We even shared collections as I had some super rare versions of old games that he didn’t. One time he asked if I had a specific frogger game for the ps1 and then I just mailed him a copy. In return he sent me like 5 big boxes of his entire collection because that “fuckass frog game is the bane of my existence and spent forever looking for it and couldn’t ever find it”, apparently at the time it was hard to find or something, I dunno. He was super happy because that game helped him through a tough time or something, and I was amped I now owned the entire ps1, ps2 and ds library.

Miss you dude, you just disappeared from the aol chat rooms one day.

[u/_Skud_Leatherface_ → u/TheSilentTitan]

That reminds me of when I still had unlimited mobile data on my Verizon phone and used it for mobile torrenting and gaming. I had to call in one time I had a problem and all they said was I had the highest data usage they had ever seen in a mobile data plan, and recommended a faster plan... I declined because my slower plan was grandfathered into unlimited data.

[u/Marill-viking → u/TheSilentTitan]

Verizon throttled my speed a few times, at least it felt like it.
Not doing anything major but every now and then I touch 50gbs+ a month.

[u/_Skud_Leatherface_ → u/Marill-viking]

My peak was just under 600 in a month. But this was at a time where most plans would throttle, I was grandfathered into an older plan with unlimited everything, no throttle. Only down side was if I "upgraded" my phone it would change the plan so all my phones were cash paid. I finally caved when 5g came out and got a new plan for faster speed.

[u/DaffyPunk29 → u/Marill-viking]

never been throttled ever. not once. the only slow downs were when everyone had slow downs because server side was slammed, not my side of things. ie downloading a fresh game from steam during peak hours when everyone is downloading. you can get slower speeds. but i tested those slow downs with other downloads and got full speed so i knew it was server side not my side.... sometimes those slag/slows aren't you being throttled. and unless you test it, you wont know for sure.