Shawn Grover said: > Clear as mud.... > > In the first paragraph they are basically saying to be mindful of the > bandwidth usage. In the second paragraph, they say the residential > services > are intended for "personal use" but then go on to restrict services many > techs consider for personal use. For instance, I run my own email server > because I don't want to be limited by Shaw's servers (or anyone elses), or > web based email. I know my own bandwidth utilization is approx 50 meg per > month... (including my web server). If it goes much beyond that for an > extended period, I know I have a problem. However, as a tech, this type > of > usage of my own systems is very normal. I guess the bottom line is that > I'm > glad I'm not using Shaw... <grins>
You will find most ISPs are the same, I've yet to find one that has a different type of policy. With Telus you need to be on the "TELUS high speed Server 2.5" or "TELUS high speed Server 4.0" packages to have their approval to run your own servers. With Nucleus you need to be on "Business 2.5 DSL" or "Business 4.0 DSL". I can't remember what Radiant or Teragos policy is, but they don't really cater to residential customers anyway. With Shaw out of the 3 business packages, you need to be on the "Business Package". I have run HTTP / SMTP services on a home Telus line for over 2 years and about a year on Shaw, they don't really care if you keep within the bandwidth requirements and it's for personal use. I think they would care no matter what you use for bandwidth if what you were hosting was for business and not for personal use because they wouldn't be getting compensated for helping you make money with your business... after all, they would want a piece of your success which they would get by charging you more for the business service :) It all really boils down to money, if you are making money from hosting your own business webpage, email, etc using their service, they want some of that money. They aren't trying to make people upset, only run a business :) They could however legally disconnect your internet feed if they found you were running your own servers without having the proper service plan. Are they going to? Probably not, unless you are making money because of it. I will eventually leave Shaw for a business package with Radiant or Nucleus just because I want the benefit of a static IP. I would stay with Shaw for their business package if they didn't charge so much more then everyone else for it :) Cheers, Trevor
