Slashdot Mirror
Time Warner to Charge Extra for Over-Quota Bandwidth
duckygator writes: "I just came across this article on NetworkWorld discussing Time Warner's announcement that they will begin charging users a fee for exceeding a monthly download limit. The actual limits and associated fees aren't discussed. Guess I knew this would be coming sooner or later ... Now I guess I'll just have to guess where the threshold will be. Anything more than email? Active gamer? Graphic artist?"
I'm sick of seeing companies changing the price model for bandwidth. Once you have an OC-192, what the hell does it matter if you fill it, or not. You're already paying for the whole damn thing, whether it is full or not. Some people will use the network like mad, and some won't. That's how it works. Not to mention, that's why we pay for your fucking service.
I may download 18 full 650MB isos one month, and the next month I spend all of my time writing code and checking my email. That's the way it is supposed to work. What one guy doesn't use, the other will.
Besides, if you're tired of your users filling up your OC-192 24 hours a day with peer to peer filesharing apps, why don't you try doing something truly innovative. Start your own server to act as a proxy, and firewall the users from actually passing through your router. Now you've just removed all of the pointless "I'm still here" packets, and only left the data transfer packets. What's better, your network users can share all they want over your internal network, and it won't cost you a dime in additional internet bandwidth. What a fucking idea!
Sorry for being such a prick about this, but I've had my fill of clueless network admins who insist on fighting what their users really want.