Bandwidth Hogs

[SIZE=14pt]My biggest peeve is what I call Bandwidth HOGS.

Back home you get 55 gadzillion GB's of bandwidth that allows you to download movies from the various internet movie providers. While in your RV you make use of this wonderful service even though it denigrates WiFi service to those of use that just want to read emails and pay bills or book another RV park in our next city. I wish there was a way to prevent these bandwidth HOGS from consuming what little access we get in the RV parks.

I believe that many of the negative comments about poor WIFI in RV Parks recently have been as a result of campers chewing up bandwidth. I note that service always seems to decay around the time of dinner until 11 PM at night (Prime movie watching time).

I hope there is a special place in Hell for these Bandwidth HOGS :angry: [/SIZE]

 

At what point does a person become a "bandwidth hog"? Unless there are specific limits stated by the provider (and I have been in campgrounds that do state, then monitor and enforce) how do you decide what is too much use, and how do you decide that your activity should take precedence over someone else's? Is my email more important than your download so you should stop so that I get my share? There is an easy way to avoid these issues. If you provide your own access you do not have to worry about a shared resource.

 

There are technical ways that a campground WiFi system can be set up to provide an equal share of the available bandwidth to each connection. As new users are added, each slice of the pie shrinks accordingly. The fewer users, the more for each one, the more users, the less for each one. It's not a cheap process to set up though. I agree with Joez though, if a reliable Internet connection is important to you, the better answer is to provide your own when possible.

 

I agree with Tom. Why should anyone use all the bandwidth to download movies and things while others can't even get online for anything? Do those people think they are the only ones with the right to the internet? Some people allow their kids to go and each download stuff at the same time and that can end up preventing half the rest of the CG from being able to even get online. If CG's add monitoring devices to their internet someone has to pay for it and those same people would complain that they had to pay extra for the privilege of hogging the net.

We do have our own internet when we travel but there are some places it doesn't work as well as we would like. Our WiFi at the CG we manage is free to everyone and all we ask of people is that they respect others in their use of the service.

 

This is a never-ending topic on this and other RV forums. IMHO there is no way there will be agreement between those who expect that an advertised amenity at a CG should be robust enough for any type of usage and those who assume people should approach a shared resource altruistically.

Personally, I tend to side with the group that feels that if you advertise an amenity then you do yourself more harm than good if it isn't done well. If you can't afford to pay for high bandwidth service or it isn't available in your rural area then don't put "free high speed internet" all over your website. As a full-timer I bring my own internet connection and I really don't care what you provide, but plenty of weekend RVers choose their CG's on the basis of ads. If you disappoint them, you will read about it in places like RVParkReviews.

 

QUOTE(docj @ Aug 8 2013, 04:44 PM) [snapback]34390[/snapback]

This is a never-ending topic on this and other RV forums. IMHO there is no way there will be agreement between those who expect that an advertised amenity at a CG should be robust enough for any type of usage and those who assume people should approach a shared resource altruistically.

Personally, I tend to side with the group that feels that if you advertise an amenity then you do yourself more harm than good if it isn't done well. If you can't afford to pay for high bandwidth service or it isn't available in your rural area then don't put "free high speed internet" all over your website. As a full-timer I bring my own internet connection and I really don't care what you provide, but plenty of weekend RVers choose their CG's on the basis of ads. If you disappoint them, you will read about it in places like RVParkReviews.


I don't disagree, but I don't think I have ever seen a park advertise "free high speed internet". What I see is "free wifi". And I also realize that there are almost assuredly spots in a park where it will work better than other spots. I had one spot where my wifi worked fantastic until an Airstream moved in next door. For three days I got nothing, then they left and was back surfing away. The airstream was the only rig that effected the service over my three week stay. I cut parks a lot of slack of Wifi, since a lot of it is out of their direct control.

 

QUOTE(joez @ Aug 8 2013, 07:53 AM) [snapback]34385[/snapback]

At what point does a person become a "bandwidth hog"? Unless there are specific limits stated by the provider (and I have been in campgrounds that do state, then monitor and enforce) how do you decide what is too much use, and how do you decide that your activity should take precedence over someone else's? Is my email more important than your download so you should stop so that I get my share? There is an easy way to avoid these issues. If you provide your own access you do not have to worry about a shared resource.




And your movie consumes the same bandwidth as my emails? RV Parks should state that you CANNOT download movies on their system. I feel that you would violate that directive anyway, because you obviously "don't play nice with others"

 

QUOTE(kcmoedoe @ Aug 8 2013, 08:37 PM) [snapback]34394[/snapback]

I don't disagree, but I don't think I have ever seen a park advertise "free high speed internet". What I see is "free wifi". And I also realize that there are almost assuredly spots in a park where it will work better than other spots. I had one spot where my wifi worked fantastic until an Airstream moved in next door. For three days I got nothing, then they left and was back surfing away. The airstream was the only rig that effected the service over my three week stay. I cut parks a lot of slack of Wifi, since a lot of it is out of their direct control.



I must disagree with you that events such as you relate are "out of their direct control." If a wifi system is properly designed neighboring RV's won't shadow each other. What you describe is a wifi system that IMHO is useless to me. If I can't count on it to be available 24/7 then I have no use for it and will rely on my own resources. I require internet connectivity for business purposes and if a campground can't deliver something I can rely on, then IMO what they have spent their money on has been a waste.

 

Getting an omnidirectional USB WiFi antenna will eliminate a lot of these problems. Velcroing it to an extendable pole (Home Depot) outside will get it in direct contact with the campgrounds antenna.

 

QUOTE(Tom S. @ Aug 7 2013, 07:41 PM) [snapback]34383[/snapback]

[SIZE=14pt]My biggest peeve is what I call Bandwidth HOGS.

Back home you get 55 gadzillion GB's of bandwidth that allows you to download movies from the various internet movie providers. While in your RV you make use of this wonderful service even though it denigrates WiFi service to those of use that just want to read emails and pay bills or book another RV park in our next city. I wish there was a way to prevent these bandwidth HOGS from consuming what little access we get in the RV parks.

I believe that many of the negative comments about poor WIFI in RV Parks recently have been as a result of campers chewing up bandwidth. I note that service always seems to decay around the time of dinner until 11 PM at night (Prime movie watching time).

I hope there is a special place in Hell for these Bandwidth HOGS :angry: [/SIZE]




Thats why I buy all my movies, I never downloaded a movie from the web in my life. You can go to Wally-world and buy a movie for $5.00, and some stores you can get them for less.

 

QUOTE(EastPAcamper @ Sep 2 2013, 10:52 AM) [snapback]34632[/snapback]

Thats why I buy all my movies, I never downloaded a movie from the web in my life. You can go to Wally-world and buy a movie for $5.00, and some stores you can get them for less.



You may not be aware of it, but streaming video is used for a lot more these days than just old movies. There are now a number of "made for Netlix" original series as well as foreign TV series not readily available in other forms. In addition, you can watch full episodes of quite a few TV series online if you didn't see them when first aired or if you forgot to set your DVR to record them. You may be happy with the movies you can buy at Walmart, some of us are not.

Many people believe that it won't be all that many years before virtually all video content will primarily be obtain by "streaming on demand". So this problem is going to get worse not better.

However, we never use campground wifi to stream video simply because it rarely is robust enough to do it. We have a 4G Verizon connection and an unlimited data plan and use it. Even if we didn't have an unlimited plan, the cost of using data for streaming isn't really all that bad. For example, Netflix permits you to control your data rate and many TV series aren't available in more than SD anyway. At that resolution the data usage is ~1 GB/2 hours. If your data plan charges $10/GB over your allowance, that means a movie would cost ~$10 which isn't all that much more than a pay-per-view costs on DirecTV or what it costs for the gas to drive to the nearest RedBox and rent a movie and return it.

 

QUOTE(docj @ Sep 2 2013, 12:11 PM) [snapback]34635[/snapback]

You may not be aware of it, but streaming video is used for a lot more these days than just old movies. There are now a number of "made for Netlix" original series as well as foreign TV series not readily available in other forms. In addition, you can watch full episodes of quite a few TV series online if you didn't see them when first aired or if you forgot to set your DVR to record them. You may be happy with the movies you can buy at Walmart, some of us are not.

Many people believe that it won't be all that many years before virtually all video content will primarily be obtain by "streaming on demand". So this problem is going to get worse not better.

However, we never use campground wifi to stream video simply because it rarely is robust enough to do it. We have a 4G Verizon connection and an unlimited data plan and use it. Even if we didn't have an unlimited plan, the cost of using data for streaming isn't really all that bad. For example, Netflix permits you to control your data rate and many TV series aren't available in more than SD anyway. At that resolution the data usage is ~1 GB/2 hours. If your data plan charges $10/GB over your allowance, that means a movie would cost ~$10 which isn't all that much more than a pay-per-view costs on DirecTV or what it costs for the gas to drive to the nearest RedBox and rent a movie and return it.



Good point, I guess I am not the type that "must see TV" when camping, usually I am busy enjoying the outdoors or the sights during the day, and by night, let's face it, I'm beat :lol:
I guess the wife is right, I am old and crotchety :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

QUOTE(EastPAcamper @ Sep 15 2013, 12:38 PM) [snapback]34795[/snapback]

Good point, I guess I am not the type that "must see TV" when camping, usually I am busy enjoying the outdoors or the sights during the day, and by night, let's face it, I'm beat :lol:
I guess the wife is right, I am old and crotchety :lol: :lol: :lol:



Those of us who full-time don't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to do all the things anyone else does in their home. We don't camp, we RV and see no reason why we should be roughing it in any way.

 

Let's just hope for Google Fiber at some of the parks =)

 

I set up wifi at the RV park, it is very difficult to have it at each camper because of the changing nature of the units. Our wifi is free, but has a download per day limit. If just a few stream it not only rules out many others from using the service, but also slows the stream. Bandwidth is limited and needs to be shared. It is not your home private internet. Even if you buy it from a wireless provider you buy a certain amount. So ours is free, and it is monitored and we do block people who abuse it.

 

How do you know how much each person is using? Different password?

 

QUOTE(Lindsay Richards @ Oct 3 2013, 07:53 PM) [snapback]34958[/snapback]

How do you know how much each person is using? Different password?



Every device that connects to a network has its own unique MAC (media access control address) which is how a wifi system knows, for example, if you are trying to connect multiple devices when you only have permission to connect a single device. It's my understanding that data usage by each MAC address on a network can be monitored even if all users use a shared password.

 

How about you turn off your laptop or any other internet related devices and enjoy being there and enjoying the simple fact you are still able to enjoy life!!! it makes my stomach sick to hear people complain about the most stupid things, you want to hear how 'bad' some people have it in this life and still find a way to think positive... shoot me an email sometimes. i'll get you to being more appreciative with what you have. have a super day

 

If the devices are connecting through a single router, only that router sees the individual MAC ID's. Everything beyond the router only sees the router's MAC. If, for example, I connect my PepWave Surf repeater/router to a campground WiFi network, the network only sees the single PepWave connection, and does not know how many devices are connected to the PepWave.

 

That makes a lot of sense.