The 5Gb Limit - Montana Owners Club

Waynem · 07-17-2009, 04:28 AM

Recently, the 5Gb limit on data cards was addressed. Not wanting to take away from that thread, I figured I'd start this one.

Many of the wireless companies have gone to plans that allow 5 gigabytes of data to be downloaded, and then they start charging "overage" fees.

Here is what I do:
When I'm on the road, I am using my laptop computer for my web surfing, and email. Since email is a server produced commodity, we can contro, to some limit, what we download. First, I notify all those who send me those big bulky pictures (not family pictures) that I am on travel and to please not send me large files containing pictures. Unfortunately, some do not read very well and I get a few of those bulk pictures. Now I'm talking pictures that are close to 1Mb each. I must say, that so far, I have not exceeded the 5Gb limit.

Also, since the email is server based, and the email "client" on your computer has no effect on what is on the server until you open that email client, use the web browser to check your email.

My client is Yahoo. I go to Yahoo.com and open my email using Firefox (or any other browser) Then I can weed through the junk, and those file with attachments. I'll create a folder on the email server and place those files that I want to keep in that folder for when I get home. For those that I want to download to the computer, I just leave them in the "inbox" folder. When I get home I just drag the bunch that I saved to the inbox folder and open my email client on the computer. I leave ALL my email on the server and when I get home I open my email client and the all come down. I usually will go watch TV or browse while that is going on. This last trip out I hade close to 800 emails downloaded. Hmmm! I'd still have had 4.2Gb of download available. But, remember I asked that large picture files not be sent?

I also try to inform those that send large groups of pictures that someone has copied from the internet and Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd, to please just find the link for those pictures. It is so easy to do.

As example, someone just recently sent me a bunch of pictures on dog cartoons. It was definately a violation of copyright laws, but it was so easy to search on "off the mark" and come up with Off The Mark(Enjoy!)

Will you ever exceed 5Gb? Probably not unless you also do a lot of video streaming and other [s]naughty[/s]ah er - WEB things.

richfaa · 07-17-2009, 05:20 AM

Although we are on the old Verizon plan and have unlimited data we have never exceeded 5GB . We do use many of the things you mention..just in case.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 07-17-2009, 05:25 AM

Our air card is our ONLY internet connection, home or Rving. We have 2 users, heavy users on the same air card. At this point, we do what we want, use what we want, I do my research, I download and/or look at lots if images.

Good hints, Wayne, but, at this point, NOT going there, I want my internet, and I am gonna use it!

Glenn and Lorraine · 07-17-2009, 07:12 AM

Lorraine and I are quite possibly a couple of heaviest users of an air card.
Lorraine does all are our banking online and numerous other projects.
For me just maintaing montanaowners.com requires tons of downloading of photos, graphics, etc. Some owners rigs photos have been huge. I also maintain 4 other websites again requiring large downloads of pics. Personal usage also requires many many downloads. I have no less than 8 email accounts, 4 of which I call my primary addresses. All emails accounts are Web based. Within these 4 accounts I open many photos in a months time. I do get an occasional video to download.
I could go on but I think you get the idea.
We got our aircard in August of 2003. Since August of 2003 we only exceeded 5Gb 1 month. That was the month I was building montanaowners.com and the same month I completely rebuilt a clients website. On average over the past 71 months of aircard useage we are using LESS than 2Gb a month.
I seriously doubt that many MOC family members use their aircards harder than we do and therefore I would not be too overly concerned with Many of the wireless companies have gone to plans that allow 5 gigabytes of data to be downloaded, and then they start charging "overage" fees.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 07-17-2009, 07:20 AM

We must be doing something wrong Glenn, sighhhh.

Last 3 months, 2 months, right at 5 Gig, last month, OVER. We are watching the numbers monthly, now that they are printed on our bill.

Jolu · 07-17-2009, 08:01 AM

Glenn and all the others in this thread this information is helpful. We are considering an air card that will serve us on the road and at home. We use our two computers a lot. I don't think we use them as much as you do though. I never download movies or music. Sometimes I will view a You Tube clip.

I am surprised that with your heavy usage you hover around 2GB per month. That gives me some clue as to how much 5GB really is. I have viewed the "What 5GB gets you" chart but it really does not equate to me and my usage.

Thanks again for the info and I would like to hear from others as to what they use.

Another question is will an outside antenna and maybe a Amp help with signal and the speed in those fringe areas where the signal is a 1 bar?

Glenn and Lorraine · 07-17-2009, 08:46 AM

I do have an external antenna but rarely use it.
As long as I have 1 bar I get out. I have had times where the 1 bar was actually faster than 5 bars. Why?? I have no idea that's just the way it is.

Glenn and Lorraine · 07-17-2009, 08:49 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Mrs. CountryGuy

We must be doing something wrong Glenn, sighhhh.

Last 3 months, 2 months, right at 5 Gig, last month, OVER. We are watching the numbers monthly, now that they are printed on our bill.

Carol, I do know you (in particular) and Al are heavy users and maybe I should redo my statement.

Quote:

quote:I seriously doubt,with the exception of Carol, that many MOC family members use their aircards harder than we do

Mrs. CountryGuy · 07-17-2009, 09:31 AM

Glenn,

And we were SOOOOOO shocked when we started seeing the actual numbers!

I don't do a lot of video stuff, but, I do quite a bit of images of documents in my research. I also send LOTS of emails with attachments for the cemetery work I am doing for the county we live in (volunteer). Ohhhhh, and maps!! I do a LOT of google maps, with street views and close up images. I have NO idea what kind of numbers those babies ring up toward the 5 Gig limits.

Maybe it is the 8 to 15 web pages I have open at one time???

Point is, you can use a lot of your 5Gigs, if you play hard. When you Facebook, Blog, web page, surf with images, map everything and anything, email heavy with friends and then MOC, well, you CAN eat up the gigs.

As I pointed out earlier, at this point, I have no intentions of cutting back or changing my habits. We also are not able to upgrade our air card without fear of having to pay overages.

Life on the internet has choices, we each make them, and then we have to live with them. All that said, I LOVE MY AIRCARD!!! And we are looking at those numbers every month now. Shocked!! Yep we were.

Edited: We do not have to pay overages at this time. Make that YET! This too can change!

ols1932 · 07-17-2009, 10:43 AM

Our high speed satellite internet system gives us 5 GB per week. When I first read this post my mind immediately said 5 GB? But then I re-read and saw that you only have 5 GB per month. I guess I can see where you'd go over in a 30-day period but for us in a 7-day period, we've never come close to our limit. That surprises me too because Marge is on the internet all the time uploading pictures and downloading pictures and doing who knows what on the websites she maintains. I'm glad we selected the plan we did because that way I don't have to be worried about overages.

Orv

kerry · 07-17-2009, 11:47 AM

Alltel air card is unlimited. $59/mo. If you teather to your cell phone, $25/mo. Kerry

Glenn and Lorraine · 07-17-2009, 12:07 PM

As I had said earlier, we've had our card since 2003. We did upgrade to the USB720 but we did not lose our unlimited status. I cannot understand how the average could possibly use 5Gb in 6 months even a year muchless 1 month.

BTW kerry, Alltel is now owned by Verizon so be careful if you ever decide to upgrade. That $59.99 unlimited is now a thing of the past for all new accounts and upgrading of old accounts

harleyrider · 07-17-2009, 01:11 PM

I just got my USB760 2 days ago.so far i have used 134MB.Their is 1024MB to 1GB.I have been on line a lot changing over my e-mail address.i lost the last one when I cancelled comcast.Been using Skype a lot also.And with all this use still only 134MB.I just can`t imagine ever ever going over the 5GB limit.

With all the stuff that Glenn does and he has only going over once,leaves my mind at ease I`ll never go over the limit.

dsprik · 07-17-2009, 04:19 PM

Stupid question coming... Who measures the usage and how do we know they are "accurate"?

Also, Alltel is currently unlimited (only one) and they are merging with/being bought out by Verizon, which does have the 5 GB limit. Alltel/Verizon merger is beginning to accelerate at the current time. I have Alltel and new things are happening with a quickening pace. Having to call tech services more and more frequently with, "OK, now what is THIS that's happening on my phone???" (Programming message is now different and has different options that I am unfamiliar with, etc).

dsprik · 07-17-2009, 04:28 PM

BTW, this is neat. If you want to switch from your Alltel phone and get a Verizon phone, you STILL have to pay the $200 penalty fee to Alltel if your time is not up on that contract. I'm sure there is a technical FCC rule or obscure business requirement for this. Just sounds ludicrous. And when I pressed the sales rep for a logical explanation, he simply told me he didn't have one.

Fee is to discourage customers not to switch to a competitor before the cell company can recoup their price of the phone that is still out there from giving the phone to someone for "free" or minimal cost. These things are very expensive and getting more and more so. Too bad the FTC is allowing competitors to merge...

Mrs. CountryGuy · 07-18-2009, 03:02 AM

Dave,

"Stupid question coming... Who measures the usage and how do we know they are "accurate"?"

Just in the last couple of months, those numbers are being printed on our Sprint bill, I guess they do the measuring??

Delaine and Lindy · 07-18-2009, 03:44 AM

We used the Air Card for internet when they first came out. It was a card that was inserted into the Lap Top. We then went to Hughes Net while traveling and still have Hughes net for our home service. Last winter we had to go back to the Air Card due to the RV (?) park we were in while in Florida, was suppose to have WiFi what a joke there was no service at all. We went back to AT&T USB wireless with the Cradle point 1000. It works great in a 3 G area, but doesn't work at all at home base. And the second Month in 25 days we had used up the 5 Gigs, AT&T will turn the service off when you use the 5 Gigs or they did ours. We do use two Lap Tops and DW did download a lot of info on Motor Homes, we at that time was doing research on a MH. We do turn our service off while at the home base. I do think the Air card is worth the money. Just needs more service towers. In 2005 we were lucky I guess but we had service almost everyplace we traveled thru, and that was about 22,000 miles! We have went so for as to offer AT&T land to build a tower on, they are going to research the site, we were told that it cost a Million dollars to build a Tower? Life is Good. GBY....

richfaa · 07-18-2009, 04:12 AM

Dave..Go on the verizon site and look around.There is information there on Alltel to Verizon Customers... You can call up your data usage every day on the verizon , My verizon, page.Our billing cycle ended on July 16th and since then we have used .00000155639648375 GB of data. Both of us are on line a lot.. It will take awhile to get to 5GB.... The usage is displayed in KB so you will need to move some decimal points to the left.

dsprik · 07-18-2009, 09:38 AM

Thanks for the info, Rich. I would be curious as to just how they accurately measure this. If you look at this on paper, it seems very accurate and I'm sure it probably is. However, I could put a bunch of digits down at random and tell you this is what my research revealed and many would think (who didn't know me) I was extremely accurate, too. Doesn't mean that I am...

Mrs. CountryGuy · 07-20-2009, 04:53 AM

The heavy user (sigh) checked her Sprint useage just minutes ago, month ends July 25th, they have clocked me at 4,329,952 KB to this AM, the 20th. 4 gig is 4,194,304 KB(if CountryGuy's calculator on his cell works).

Note: not a lot of useage this last weekend, as we were playing with kids, grandkids, etc in campground.

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