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Comment by jbob2000 | Hacker News Reader

jbob2000

> They injected 581 lines of JavaScript code, resulting in a total of 48.5kb data resulting in additional data towards my data cap, as well as my page becoming interactive ~250ms slower. This means that even though my internet is faster than before, my computer performs worse when utilizing Xfinity internet.

I get the complaints, it sucks, it degrades the internet experience. But come on. This is the most contrived complaint I can think of. You get at least, what, 40GB of data a month? Please tell me about how using 0.0000048% of your data cap is affecting you. You used more data writing this blog post than that javascript code would use in 10 years.

It sucks, but stop contriving bullshit about it. It's not that bad, it's just ugly and intrusive. Take your stand on that hill, not this one.

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The argument is weak, but it's also desperate. These days trying to influence companies often comes down to some argument based on objective costs. "You are modifying my content against my wishes and adding latency to my Internet browsing experience" isn't objective.

Personally I think it is morally wrong, and it also is definitely impacting a person's Internet experience. 1/4 of a second is an eternity if you're sensitive to latency. So yeah it is "that bad", it is ugly, it is intrusive, and it speaks volumes about Comcast.

Because it’s happens with every single request. But also that doesn’t matter it’s just wrong.

250ms is a lot. 50kb isn't a lot on it's own... but when it happens consistently then it adds up quickly.

Also, it's just plain wrong to charge me for what I didn't ask for.

Pretty sure the Xfinity data cap is 1TB. I just checked, and I've used just over 1.3TB this month (yay streaming TV), no notice, no MTM, maybe I'm .... lucky?

Update: I used 1.6TB the month prior - also no notices. Maybe it's because I have Xfinity at my office too? No idea why they aren't harassing me.

I believe they give you 2 months of going over before they start charging you as a 'warning' that you're over the data limit. Not sure if they warn you if you go over in those two months or not.

The injections where particularly annoying for me because I was planning on getting the capped removed, but wanted to use those two months before doing so. I started getting those warnings about 2-3 weeks in for both months.

In my experience, they do warn you during the 2 months where the overage fee is warned. The injected message might be slightly different to indicate that it is one of your 2 months where the fee is waived.

Egad. If you see my updated comment I went well over last month (1.6TB), and now this month as well. We'll see what they say. Like most people, Xfinity is my only high speed Internet option.

They will likely encourage you to upgrade to the unlimited plan (+$50 each month)

I looked back, and over the summer I used well over 1TB for several months. Not a peep from Comcast. I'm going to shut up now, before Murphy's law applies.

i wonder if the data cap is just at the router level or if they charge you for whenever you use any of the other xfinity hotspots that they set up on their customers' routers.

If you've gone over before, they will charge you $10/50GB of additional data, capping at $200 more a month.

You can pay them an extra $50/mo to remove the data cap.

This is coming from someone who unknowingly got a $200 bill one month because of Comcast.

I left them and don't regret a second of it. Terrible customer service all around, and just an evil company from the top down, especially after having read Farrow's recent book Catch and Kill.

The issue is that most people can't change off of it due to a lack of competing service providers.

When I moved to Daly City my options were either Comcast or DSL. I picked DSL (w/ Sonic), at significantly slower speeds. Sonic's DSL is just resold AT&T DSL, which I also hate, but I hate Comcast more.

If my only options were Comcast or dial-up, I'd probably still pick dial-up.

I would love to see the news story about Comcast having fewer remaining subscribers than the DSL provider...

still wouldn't make them change their practices, I believe they are too far corrupted to ever 'heal', but it would be hilarious if they gave up serving an area because it wasn't economically viable anymore.

Well a man can dream, right? :)

Also, the cap is still 1 TB even if you're paying them $127/mo for the 1000 Mbps service, so you may as well just consider that +$50 an extra hidden fee for anything over 250 or 500 Mbps, assuming you're actually using it.

AFAIK, if you have a plan that comes with the Xfinity router, you don't have a data cap. Otherwise, you need to pay for unlimited data (which is pretty hard to explain to the call center people who really want to sell you cable and/or a landline).

I lease my modem from Comcast (not Xfinity combo) and have exceeded my cap repeatedly since switching to steaming TV without any notice.

It's only the XFi router that gives the "free" unlimited service, and even that I believe may only be in certain areas.

It depends on where you have service, the caps are not active in all markets.

https://dataplan.xfinity.com/faq/

Thanks for the link. My state (MA) was not in the list.

Interesting data point. Would also be good to know that your bill doesn't reflect your overage either.

Not all areas have data caps, it seems to be localized to specific regions.

They won't be able to to MITM encrypted connections.

Agreed.

> The way this code was implemented, the code blocks the page from loading for 250ms, resulting in a much slower internet experience.

Of all the things to complain about that load on almost every web page you visit this seems like the least of your worries.

I agree this is in poor taste, pretty annoying, and could be leveraged to dupe unsuspecting people into coughing up their Xfinity credentials, but complaining about it slowing down page load is like complaining about the heat in hell.

That’s what I’m saying! I must have really hit a sour nerve, my comment was apparently so bad that it got flagged and my post history was torn through to add tons of downvotes.

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