What sites do you jump on to waste excess bandwidth?

September 7, 2009 12:24 PM

What sites do you jump on to waste excess bandwidth?

I always end up with a few Gigs of downloads left. I usually jump on Apple Trailers.

I already use torrents, just wondering if there's any other sites you guys/girls know of...

posted by jakubsnm to computers & internet (9 comments total)

I hope this doesn't seem a silly question, but why would you want to do that? I've never heard of anyone with a download cap deliberately wasting their unused bandwidth.

If everyone tried to waste every last byte of bandwidth, your ISP would be forced to increase their prices. Having a certain amount unused is what keeps the price down.

Of course, if you're really set on this, why not just download a ton of DVD rips and delete them without looking at them?
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 12:49 PM on September 7 [1 favorite]

If everyone tried to waste every last byte of bandwidth, your ISP would be forced to increase their prices. Having a certain amount unused is what keeps the price down.

This. Read this. Read it again. "Unused" bandwidth is not "wasted excess".

Don't be that guy.
posted by mkultra at 12:55 PM on September 7 [1 favorite]

+1 for all the comments made so far

Why on earth would you want to waste your bandwidth?
posted by FusiveResonance at 1:30 PM on September 7 [1 favorite]

Keep a text file open throughout the month and make a note of any sites that you want to noodle around on but don't because you don't want to use up your bandwidth cap. That way, when you reach the end of the month, you already have an idea how to use up your remaining bandwidth.
posted by mayhap at 2:10 PM on September 7 [1 favorite]

Sometimes when I have minutes left on my cell phone plan, I dial random numbers until all my minutes are used up.

No, wait... that would be really stupid.
posted by rokusan at 3:15 PM on September 7 [1 favorite]

This might not be the sort of thing your looking for but could you burn some bandwidth helping seti or folding@home?
posted by drezdn at 3:54 PM on September 7

My reasoning for doing what the OP does; if I and others constantly push the bandwidth limit that my ISP gives, the ISP will see the need to increase bandwidth allotment for the month. I pay enough for it that I feel it's necessary to make use of every bit (pun intended). Of course my reasoning can be 100% flawed and could go in the way the few posters above have said.

I just save all my torrents in utorrent, and if I'm not at my limit I contribute to the community by seeding. For the months that I am heading for excessive bandwidth territory, I minimize my uploads.
posted by Sonic_Molson at 8:44 PM on September 7

Last.fm. Make an account - it's free - and listen to the "Radio" selection of your choice. You can listen to selections based on genre, tags, and based on a particular artist/band.

Other internet radio is good, too. Shoutcast.com is a good place to start.
posted by Xoebe at 7:04 AM on September 8

This might not be the sort of thing your looking for but could you burn some bandwidth helping seti or folding@home?

Those services actually use very little bandwidth- they're a better use for spare CPU cycles, if that's your thing.

My reasoning for doing what the OP does; if I and others constantly push the bandwidth limit that my ISP gives, the ISP will see the need to increase bandwidth allotment for the month. I pay enough for it that I feel it's necessary to make use of every bit (pun intended).

I completely agree with you that bandwidth here in the US is ridiculously overpriced and underperforming. The cynic in me, however, is pretty sure that the executives of the major ISP's are perfectly aware of how cheap and plentiful bandwidth is in other parts of the world; that increasing bandwidth for everyone isn't a matter of essentially "turning up the dial", but creating a new network; and that they just don't want to make the significant capital investment needed to get there, when they can easily squeeze money out of you on their current aging infrastructure through "package" deals.
posted by mkultra at 8:33 AM on September 8