BRILLIANT PLAN: I get all my AT&T data overage charges billed to Valve?

[Bunny Brewster]

Hey Valve! I live in a beautiful house in the country, up at the top of a hill in Northern California that is just out of reach of DSL or Cable internet service (for 10+ years now), so I'm currently on AT&T's maximum 10GB plan with $15 per 1GB overuse fees. Since your Steam client repeatedly ignores my request to "Pause All Downloads" - steams right ahead, it does, last month costing my last bit of service and at least $30 in overage fees.

I think since it's only fair that maybe you guys and AT&T could hash out an agreement, whereby YOU pay for my bandwidth required to allow me to continue playing the games I already paid for. After all, it's really just fair.

Say, you disallow me to play a game because it needs a 3GB patch (as you currently do), that's potentially $45 dollars out of my pocket to AT&T - towards a game I already bought. How about YOU pay it - or maybe go half/half with publisher/dev?

So what do you say, sirs?

:x

[Spawn of Totoro]

Steam is not responsible for your internet cost. You chose to live where you do. You chose who to get internet from. You are responsible for the charges you have incured.

[Bunny Brewster]

Dear Sad Spawn of Totoro -

I like where I live and I ain't moving. I am surrounded by solitary gardens, acres of trees, glass atriums, a gorgeous view of the Monterey Bay and, best of all, I can play videogames as loud as I want and bother no-one. I've also spent a lot on games on Steam and I have every right in the world to control when (and where) those massive updates occur.

The fact that the Steam client has had, for some time, a "Pause All Downloads" mode that only seems to pause in-progress updates, but can start new at random moments, is a bug in their software that they don't seem concerned on fixing. Going offline before firing up Steam ain't an option either.

Miyazaki-san would be ashamed you use his character.

:x

[Felix]

The Pause All Downloads feature is working as intended.

If you do not want games to update until you try to launch the games, you will need to change this option manually on a per-game basis. This can be accomplished by right clicking the games in question in your Steam Game Library and clicking "Properties".

[Bunny Brewster]

I see. Thanks, FrazerJC. However, I apparently have about 160 games, 240 total paid/free/demo Steam Apps total and that's really bit of a pain to set an option on each one. The "Pause Downloads" in the Downloads screen is clearly a global setting that is just not working as it should. This would be a trivial fix for Valve, and they haven't. Or maybe they have, it seems Steam client just got updated twice in one day... We'll see.

:x

[Felix]

As I previously mentioned, the Pause All Downloads feature is working as intended. It is meant to pause all CURRENT downloads and that is it. It is not a "Do Not Automatically Update My Games" button. That option is on a per-game basis, I said in my previous post.

I repeat: The "Pause All Downloads" button is working as intended and there is nothing to fix with it. You are just misunderstanding the use of the button.

Regarding Steam Client updates, I imagine you are part of the current Steam Client Beta. Patch notes for that can be found here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta#announcements

[Spawn of Totoro]

Bunny Brewster님이 먼저 게시:

Dear Sad Spawn of Totoro -

I like where I live and I ain't moving. I am surrounded by solitary gardens, acres of trees, glass atriums, a gorgeous view of the Monterey Bay and, best of all, I can play videogames as loud as I want and bother no-one. I've also spent a lot on games on Steam and I have every right in the world to control when (and where) those massive updates occur.

The fact that the Steam client has had, for some time, a "Pause All Downloads" mode that only seems to pause in-progress updates, but can start new at random moments, is a bug in their software that they don't seem concerned on fixing. Going offline before firing up Steam ain't an option either.

Miyazaki-san would be ashamed you use his character.

:x

Good for you. I've been to that area and it is very nice. If I lived there I wouldn't be using Steam, I'd be at the beach and surrounding area every day.

Love the aquarium there too.

Don't blame Steam for your choices though. Don't exclude options just because you don't want to do it.

Miyazaki would be ashamed you are not taking responsibility for your own choices and demanding someone else pay for it. That is, after all, what several of his movies entail during the story.

If you have an issue, fine. State the issue. Don't place blame where it doesn't belong.

Just follow FrazerJC advice. It will help with the issue you are having.

Have you considered satellite internet as an alternative? It isn't as fast as cable or DSL, but probebly has a bigger cap then 4G.

[mcueball]

Many modems and routers now come with a traffic meter and QoS settings that you can modify to fit your situation. Use of the available tools to prevent overage fees is your responsibility, not Valve's.

Another option would be to have Steam start in Offline Mode. This, as long as all games are currently up to date when you activate Offline Mode, will prevent downloads until you tell Steam to go back online.

[Legendary old man]

Steam requirements "broadband connection". Your crappy broadband is not Valves fault but blame you if you want. They warned you. If you can not afford it then maybe stop playing Steam games.

[LoTekRabbit]

facedown님이 먼저 게시:

Steam requirements "broadband connection". You crappy broadband is not Valves fault but blame you if you want. They warned you. If you can not afford it then maybe stop playing Steam games.

Your user name should be changed to facepalm.

I suggest you read through his post again and try to actually comprehend it this time.

[Legendary old man]

I did. You want Steam to pay your overage because the "do not update" does not stick and you have crappy internet with overage charges. I understand how dumb a request that is. Do you?
I guess "pause" does not mean forever. Someone told you how to keep it from updating but it is too much trouble for you. Ok than, I can just assume you like to hear yourself complain about dumb crap.

[LoTekRabbit]

I don't agree with his post either but it's not a case of him not being able to afford it and you posting "Steam requirements - broadband connection" as if he has a choice of upgrading his net.

[Bunny Brewster]

Spawn of Totoro님이 먼저 게시:

Good for you. I've been to that area and it is very nice. If I lived there I wouldn't be using Steam, I'd be at the beach and surrounding area every day.

Love the aquarium there too.

Don't blame Steam for your choices though. Don't exclude options just because you don't want to do it.

Thanks! Yeah, the Monterey Aquarium is great - usually take visit once every other month to see whats new, jellyfish exhibit seriously can't be missed. Actually, I spent all day yesterday exploring downtown Monterey and Cannery Row on foot, took a short pleasant nap in the grass near the Coast Guard pier, then walked around the sand in Pacific Grove. Then I get home and want to shoot at spandex-wearing dudes in Far Cry: Blood Dragon.

Spawn of Totoro님이 먼저 게시:

If you have an issue, fine. State the issue. Don't place blame where it doesn't belong.

Miyazaki would be ashamed you are not taking responsibility for your own choices and demanding someone else pay for it. That is, after all, what several of his movies entail during the story.

So clearly wrong, on both counts. I signed up to Steam, I purchase all my games, I pay for AT&T 10GB/month tethered internet access (they do not offer unlimited LTE service). What I request can not be any clearer and well within my right to ask, that Steam client does not initiate large (10MB+) downloads without my awareness and permission. I will state this again. 1. I can't get DSL or cable so I'm stuck with AT&T LTE. 2. AT&T offers no unlimited data plan over LTE. 3. I can either run Steam or not run Steam. What choices do I have?

Notice both Apple's iTunes/AppStore and Sony's PSN never initiate updates or downloads without your explicit permission. Neither will Google's Android Market but Google Play Music needs some serious work in the bandwidth management department.

Spawn of Totoro님이 먼저 게시:

Have you considered satellite internet as an alternative? It isn't as fast as cable or DSL, but probebly has a bigger cap then 4G.

I have a friend who used to have DirecWay satellite internet service. Problem was that a request must bounce 22,000 miles between earth and satellite a total of four times. It may be fast for downloads but https:// connections (like to his gmail account) constantly timed out. Also, sharing the same "pipe" with millions of customers can't be good. Maybe they've improved browsing performance but I'd imagine using icky gimmicks like speculating on which links you click and preloading pages.

[Bunny Brewster]

TenClub님이 먼저 게시:

I don't agree with his post either but it's not a case of him not being able to afford it and you posting "Steam requirements - broadband connection" as if he has a choice of upgrading his net.

That is correct. I don't have a choice. AT&T offers no unlimited internet service nor does anyone else. I keep a grandfathered Virgin Mobile unlimited "broadband" service as backup but their modem constantly needs to be yanked and plugged back in, their "3G Broadband" really means 32kB/sec (it was 150kB/sec when I first signed up), and hasn't worked at all in a week.

[Bunny Brewster]

facedown님이 먼저 게시:

I did. You want Steam to pay your overage because the "do not update" does not stick and you have crappy internet with overage charges. I understand how dumb a request that is. Do you?
I guess "pause" does not mean forever. Someone told you how to keep it from updating but it is too much trouble for you. Ok than, I can just assume you like to hear yourself complain about dumb crap.

Your parents must be proud.

[Bunny Brewster]

mcueball님이 먼저 게시:

Many modems and routers now come with a traffic meter and QoS settings that you can modify to fit your situation. Use of the available tools to prevent overage fees is your responsibility, not Valve's.

Another option would be to have Steam start in Offline Mode. This, as long as all games are currently up to date when you activate Offline Mode, will prevent downloads until you tell Steam to go back online.

No, you don't get a traffic meter or quality-of-service controls when you are tethered to an iPhone.

Look, I've spent as much time as anyone tweaking my router, flashing openwrt onto it, editing firewall and QoS rules (editing/writing ipchains by hand is a real thrill!), setting up squid on my router and tweaking the hell out of it to cache as much data as possible. Only way to do that ith AT&T service is by jailbreaking my iPhone.

Running Steam in offline mode might be an option but I notice games constantly complain about missing features when you do that.