Well I don't know whether this has been mentioned before, but could not find any previous threads through the search feature - so here goes...

Many providers, even the 'large' ones such as webhosting.com just to name one offer "Unlimited Data Transfer or Hits" as part of their service. However, these providers often manage to get away by banging on the fact that they can deactivate any account without prior notice in most terms of service contracts.

One one hand, they may claim that this prevents them from unauthorised use and can easily clamp down on illegal activities. On the other hand, these providers can use it as an excuse to remove accounts which (may unknowingly) consume certain levels of server resource which they deem inappropriate. Everybody knows that this is impossible, but there are still people who use such gimmicks to mislead customers.

As resellers, we are given great flexibility in pricing our services in order to get the best possible sales figures. However, to what extent should this result in providing hosting which says "Unlimited transfers" or "Unlimited bandwidth"?

Anybody using such methods as well?

Personally, I find it reprehensible that any hosting company professes to offer "Unlimited Bandwidth". It's plainly impossible. Bandwidth costs money, and somehow hosts have to pay for it.

If you land a site on an "unlimited bandwidth" host and suddenly start running 100GB a month or more, it's a pretty darned good bet they're going to find a way to can you or drive you off.

And *that* is unethical.

This is a come-on tactic. Most of the hosts that do it, somewhere in the fine print (purposely hidden usually where you need to dig for an hour to find it) say sometheing to the effect of, "unlimited -- provided you don't go over X GB/month"... and that's sleazy.

I'd much rather deal with a host who states honestly and up front what the traffic charges are for bandwidth overage.

Not only that, but the two terms can 'suck in' ordinary companies or individuals who want to host, but have absolutely not the faintest idea about web hosting and its little pitfalls. The terms sound 'grrrrrrrrrrrrreat' (in marketing terms' and as a result it gets ppl intrigued and sucks them in. I also know for a fact that many newbies are completely confused by all the terms (i.e. GBs, bandwidth, features, et. al.) and they may just sign up on an impulse - usually with a host that seems to offer the most. Subsequently we see (and still get) many consumers who get ripped off....

Sounds like a good subject for a web site: How not to get ripped off by evil web hosting companies... lol.

I think everyone already knows that UNLIMITES is scam.

With due respect, Google, I differ. I think a great many people new to hosting do not understand that facts of life with bandwidth -- if they even know what it is.

I think one needs to bear in mind that huge numbers of people coming onto the 'Net lately with web sites have very little technical background; and probably no experience whatsoever beyond, perhaps, some time spent on freeservers.

I wanted to say that buy i did'nt want to offend no one.

To the contrary, I doubt any newcomer to webhosting would be offended to learn that they must take care in choosing a web host -- and just what things of which they should take a cautionary view.

I'll bet great numbers of newcomers would be genuinely appreciative of an "Honest Talk" page, explaining the basics, on the sites of those offering hosting services.

... Of which there is already one. Deb Suran's HostHelp site has some very good articles (which I read in the beginning when I originally looked for web hosting and found to be very useful. It can be found at http://www.hosthelp.com/ and shall be added to the upcoming WHT FAQ.... Once I get all my other stuff out of the way :D

Hey, BC, that's great... took a look -- really helpful site! Gotta get that into our own link lists... thanks for the tip.

And excuse my of-which's... lol... I write like a moron before the first six cups of coffee.

Bandwidth is something that should be taken into account.

EG, I found a reseller that offered unlimited everything (no names - and yes, they were the dream host!). I phoned them up and asked about bandwidth, and yep, you get "unlimited".
I called them again and asked how much bandwidth they give (ONLY 1 GIG PER DOMAIN NAME!) That totally sucks. Not only did they lie on their advert, but there package is totally useless.

You can give everyone 500 MB of webspace but only...1 gig transfere a month!

Now does that suck or what?

The problem with "unlimited" anything is that there always a limit. Maybe very high, maybe you'll never reach the limit but still a limit. Better to know what the limits are up front than to be caught off guard, usually when you least expect it and can afford problems.

Tis true, tis true. Unlimited is a scam. I've never read a usage policy for an "Unlimited Hits/Bandwidth" host service that didn't say either:

1) We can cancel you whenever we want, or
2) Unlimited unless you exceed X GB of bandwidth usage per month. (In other words, unlimited unless you exceed the limit. :-])

So, I wouldn't recommend going with an "Unlimited Hits/Bandwidth" host simply on the premise that they have already proven themselves deceptive or dishonest by falsely promoting their service.

Take care,

Brian

As long as I know, newbie doesn't like a hosting package with a word: data transfer XXX MB..additional data transfer is US$ xx/gigs.

They didn't know about how to measure the bandwith usage.
And they didn't see that in fact on average a site only spent about 200 - 500 MB data transfer/mo,
so 1000MB data transfer/mo is enough for their site.

That's why we see a lot of big boys offer "unlimited bandwith".

I remember at the first time I run my own dotcom site, I didn't want to choose hosting package with limited bandwith in advance.

And remember, there are millions newbies in this world :)

What are your takes on "unlimited forwarders"? Many providers are also giving such a feature and i believe it is a common practice...

Hi,

Most hosts offer unlimited forwarders because they do not take any harddisk space. They do however consume bandwidth, so if you start to have a lot of them, the hosting company may charge you for the excess bandwidth.

Best way around the problem is to make sure you ask the host if your forwarders have a bandwidth charge and/if your monthly bandwidth limit includes it.

If you offer unlimited forwarders to your clients, make sure you make it clear that they can not give them away for free. Check their usage monthly.

Hope it helps.

You'd have to have many dozens of forwards each generating tons of email traffic to impact bandwidth. Most host clients setup a bunch of forwards but they don't all get hit daily or in mass volume.

When in doubt, ask the host.

I used to think it was ok to state unlimited for *some* things like forwards, etc., but now I've taken the position that this word should not be used in any way, shape, or form on a web host's feature list.

I won't shy people away from the host if they do use it for forwards, etc., but surely if they try to use it for space and/or bandwidth (transfer).

Think about it, who needs 'unlimited' POP3 email accounts? I'll tell you who- Hotmail.

I understand the, "I don't set a hard limit on these things" arguement, but really the more you think about it, the more you realize that there *has* to be a hard limit, a line drawn, *somewhere*...

Maybe 1,000 POP3's, maybe 10,000 even, but by no means unlimited (and *that's* what this post is about).

[Edited by Chicken on 01-26-2001 at 08:32 AM]

Unlimited!!! I've been looking all over for a deal like that. Later.... :D

I guess it depends on what you expect to do with things like "unlimited" aliases or forwards. Does anyone really have hundreds or thousands of aliases/forwards? Even if you have, do they all get hit all the time?

It's like the old joke about an "all you can eat" buffet. Is it really all I can eat? ;)

Yes, I agree.