My internet service went down yesterday afternoon after a brief period of intermittent status.

I tried everything on my side with no luck, by the time I called the ISP (small town provider with banker's hours), he was gone home. The "STATUS" screen on my router config screen showed no date or time info, which is how I usually tell the problem is at the tower in town (RF wireless).

So, I spoke with him this morning and he said "yeah, I shut you off yesterday because I got calls from several businesses complaining and when I shut you off solved the problem". "I meant to call you but got busy. You had something uploading at over 400kb/s!"

I told him I had Microtorrent running downloading 3 files - but the download bandwidth for each was miniscule (9-15kb/s each). I was not seeding anything to my knowledge.

He turned my service back on.

OK, so here are my concerns:

1. What the hell was uploading from my computer without my knowledge? I have AVG, Windows Defender, and Sunbelt Kerio Firewall running and had no warnings of anything nefarious.

2. The more I think about it, I'm a bit peeved at the ISP for shutting me off and not calling. I spent quite a bit of time yesterday troubleshooting thinking it was my equipment. He was friendly on the phone this AM, but it's almost like he was pissed yesterday so he decided to let us "cool off" overnight...  We are long time customers (one of the very first wireless customers), and there is no history of any such problems.

What do you guys think?

sounds like a top notch outfit

I assume this is your only option for connectivity?

The guy running that ISP sounds like a prick.

Did he explain what the traffic was? Also i find it really hard to believe you where uploading 400k/s over wireless, is he sure you were causing the problem?

If he shut you off for d/l'ing 400k/s, that's messed up. He should have rate limited you first.

Quoted: sounds like a top notch outfit I assume this is your only option for connectivity?

Yes, short of satellite service and dial-up, he's the only game in town.  

I'm too far out of town (2.5 miles) for DSL.

I am going to email him and wish to get the point across that I'm not pleased without going too far.  How's this sound?

===================

Mr. Smith,

Just finished speaking with you.

Please do me a favor in the future and let me know (phone call) if there are any issues so I have a chance to remedy the situation from my end, prior to cutting off service.

I spent quite a considerable amount of time yesterday afternoon troubleshooting my equipment.  My wife is in school and I have commitments which require dependable access to email and the web.  We understand that equipment fails, and there are technical issues, but that wasn't the case here.

Thanks,

Topknot

My self I would of throttled you down to dialup speed..
What I want to know how you are getting 400kb/s via wireless?!?

He needs to rethink his rate limiting. Its not your fault. Your internet activities should not interfere with other users if his equipment is setup properly. 400kb/s  is nothing. Even for a wireless link unless he's not using 802.11g.

-Foxxz

Quoted: My self I would of throttled you down to dialup speed.. What I want to know how you are getting 400kb/s via wireless?!?

You also would have probably been professional enough to give me a call too...

The most I've ever seen (momentarily) on downloads is 150 or so.

Usually it's about 50-60 kbps.

Quoted: Quoted: My self I would of throttled you down to dialup speed.. What I want to know how you are getting 400kb/s via wireless?!? You also would have probably been professional enough to give me a call too... The most I've ever seen (momentarily) on downloads is 150 or so. Usually it's about 50-60 kbps.

I would of redirected ya to some furrie pron, let it go for a few hrs while slowly dropping the speed.. then called ya to tell you are hogging the bandwith with your furrie pron downloads..

traffic shaping FTW!!! QoS. its a groovie thing!

Any chance someone else is using your 802.11?

I expect stories of ISP bandwidth throttling to become much more common in the future.  ISPs have publicly announcedtheir intention to balance bandwidth usage among their customers by cutting back peak users.

I think this really depends on if he meant 400 kb/s or 400 KB/s, as that makes a huge difference.