i've always been sceptical about sites claiming unlimited, especially bandwith, but I saw something that made me rethink. Communitech.net claim to offer unlimited bandwith. I searched the site around, looking for any 'limits' on the unlimited, and to tell you the truth i was surprised. On the site it says, and i quote "Some of our clients who take advantage of our unlimited bandwidth feature push out in excess of 100 Gigabytes of data month after month"...

Originally posted by StarfoxZL:
"Some of our clients who take advantage of our unlimited bandwidth feature push out in excess of 100 Gigabytes of data month after month"...

...and I've got some land out in the ocean for sale! all beach front property!

Don't believe it! :)

Yes, they grow bandwidth in their big bandwidth farms so they do not pay for it. And instead of selling it, they give it all away to their customers for free.


I just told Yahoo, they're moving there right away.

I took a look at their site and see how it could be tempting. Without knowing hardly anything about Communitech, and looking at them critically, here's what I see:

The terms of service (TOS) are nowhere to be found on their site. They could promise as much bandwidth as you want, then nail you when you use excessive resources (like cpu cycles and usage). That's what some of these companies do. Unless you know to look at the total picture and see the TOS, youre taking a big chance.

The more than 100 gb they refer to is almost surely on one of their dedicated servers, where exceeeive use of resources is not a factor.

While they seem to handle the unlimited bandwidth issue reasonably, there also seems to be a lot of effort directed into redirection (or misdirection). They stress the fact that they can get more bandwidth by picking up a phone. Availability of bandwidth is not the issue, paying for it is. I do see where it has some relevance, or at least they would like you to think so. The point is, they have to pay for theirs and you'll likely have to pay for yours.

It may be that they are gambling (based on the majority of their accounts) that most won't use much bandwidth, so they can promise unlimited, knowing most won't even approach reasonable limits. The problems occur when you have have a popular site and exceed those undisclosed limits. What then?

You shouldn't take these remarks out of context and judge them by that alone, especially if their overall reputation is a good one. They do seem to offer a lot for the money, including some licensed programs. Then again, so do some terrible hosts, like my last one.

Like con men (from confidence, as in what they gain), the best ones are the most impressive, convincing and slickest.

i know quite a few ppl hosted by communitech, and they're all happy with the services

Duster, the terms of service is on the site. Just click on the order button and there's a huge button taking you to the contract...you're right...there IS a limit...but you won't believe what it is...its 17 GB...A DAY!!!, and yes, this is for virtual hosting...thats 510 gigs of transfer a month!!! thats about as close to unlimited as you'll ever get!

[This message has been edited by StarfoxZL (edited 05-11-2000).]

Originally posted by Duster:

They do seem to offer a lot for the money, including some licensed programs. Then again, so do some terrible hosts, like my last one.

[/B]

just wondering, who was you last host ?

TrueHosting offers the same unlimited bandwidth deal...yet their service suck.

TrueHosting offers the same unlimited bandwidth deal...yet their service suck.

Originally posted by iRebound:
TrueHosting offers the same unlimited bandwidth deal...yet their service suck.

You know, we really don't need to have a reference to TH in every thread. It's really getting rediculous. Anyone reading this forum can also see how TH has screwed people over by reading the NUMEROUS posts just under the TH heading, we don't need it to show up in all the other threads also!

Admins: Maybe there should be a hosting forum solely dedicated to TH, since so many people have been burned by them and feel the need to comment on them in other non-related threads...? :)

Do you know they are offering you a Dedicated server for the price of a normal account?

Contrary to what many people thinks, the most expensive feature on a web server isnt the box or the hd itself... but the bandwidth.

lets say you use 17gig / day, it means you max out their connection, so they must get more servers for their other clients... you will cost them approximately 500$/month only for the bandwidth.

I suggest that you read the ToS a bit more... if they can cancel youtr accoutn anytime, without any warning... I suppose they would do that once you reach the 1-2 gig/day

But oh well, perhapse these guys just won a million and wants to star a charity web hosting service :P


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[Félix C.Courtemanche | Web Designer]
[Head Designer | Co-Admin]
[webmaster@can-host.com]
[Can-Host Networks | http://can-host.com ]

i read their ToS properly, and here's what they say, "CommuniTech.Net may also at its discretion at any time, suspend access to any client's website without notice, due to over-consumption of bandwidth (exceeding 17,000MB/day transfer)"

it sounds strange i know, but thats out of their ToS, but i doubt all of their hosted sites pull that much bandwith...

If it's truly unlimited, then why do they have the following listed in their TOS?

"Sites whose primary purpose is for file distribution or mirroring of a site are strictly prohibited."



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Mike Astin
WebAuthorities
sales@webauthorities.com

come on..give them some credit...you have to admit 17 gigs a DAY is pretty good, and to most people it'll be almost unlimited...now try to find a host like that...

Then join them! We are telling you bandwidth cost money, atleast a couple bucks per Gig. So 17 Gigs a day would cost atleast $500 month like they say. Just don't join there and come back here to complain after they shut you don't just when your site gets popular.


Should we give them credit for lying and deceiving?


Originally posted by StarfoxZL:
come on..give them some credit...you have to admit 17 gigs a DAY is pretty good, and to most people it'll be almost unlimited...now try to find a host like that...

they're just a tad over my budget, and anyway, i'm already hosted at www.pcisd.com (http://www.pcisd.com) and i'm very happy.
And i don't believe they're lying. Most sites that claim unlimited on their page, you find in their ToS that if you prove to be using too much bandwith, then they'll charge you extra or something...none bother to say HOW much bandwith. In Communitech's contract it clearly says that exceding 17 gigs a day is considered as abusing their unlimited policy...

Where did you see the bandwidth even mentioned in the contract? I might have missed it, though I went over it twice.

What I did find was item number 9:

"Excessive Usage

Client agrees to take all responsibility for all programs including CGI scripts executed under their account. Programs that consume an excessive amount of CPU run time or Random Access Memory (RAM) are not permitted. Client agrees and understands that such excessive use can have an adverse effect on the performance of the webserver. Client agrees to accept responsibility for programs
executed under his/her account, regardless of who authored the program. The use of cgi or html chat scripts or pages is strictly prohibited. CommuniTech.Net provides two (2) acceptable chat programs for clients at no charge. CommuniTech.Net reserves the right to suspend accounts without notice to clients who violate these terms. CommuniTech.Net has sole discretion over what constitutes excessive usage.

Programs provided by CommuniTech.Net as an installable feature are not exempt from this policy. While every efforts is made on CommuniTech.Net's end to ensure the program it provides are efficient, problems with excessive usage on particular programs may occur."


Smoke and mirrors, that's what it comes down to. Master of prestadigitation (slight of hand tricks) use misdirection to focus attention elsewhere. So do many hosting companies.

It may be possible to use a huge amount of bandwidth with only static HTML pages on a site (remember, CT doesn't allow much file transfer), but as a practical matter, any site that attracts taht much traffic is likely to have programs that will violate the excessive usage clause. Forum/Bulletin boad programs are just one example. They are a popular program as they help to build a sense of community, yet they can consume a large amount of resources.

Smoke and mirrors. It does look like CT could be good for light use, especially for those who have only HTML pages on their site.
Indeed, the "unlimited bandwidth" issue seems designed to attract them as CT (and other hosts) know that many people focus on that issue. However, anyone adding a discussion program or others that actually do something, will find out the limitation imposed by cpu usage.

On dedicated servers, it may be a legitimate offer, as cpu usage limitations do not affect other accounts. However, it there were to get an influx of high usage accounts (in excess of their 100 gb a month account), how long do you think it would be before everyone would get the 30 days notice of a change in terms?

There are lies of comission and lies of omission.

The ethics and honesty of a company are as important to some of us as any technical offerings, even more so. An attempt to deceive any potential customers means they could attempt to deceive all cstomers. That's not the type of company I would want to do business with. You might decide otherwise.

download the contract duster
i'm not saying that i'm supporting them or anything, as i said i'm hosted at pcisd and happy, i just want to know how the hell they can afford so much bandwith

I read the contract. If you can't point out where the bandwidth is mentioned, downloading it probably won't do any good. I read the PDF version online. Maybe the Word version is different.

You've missed the point about the connection between bandwidth and resource usage, and the type of programs a site has. In actuality, a lot of sites don't approach the bandwidth limits that most companies have. The cpu usage limitations on shared servers effectively limit higher bandwith usage accounts. Because of that inherent limitation, they don't have to deliver anywhere near as much bandwidth as they promise, much less pay for it.

Smoke and mirrors. Keep your eye on the bandwidth (not on cpu liimitation). Presto! They make your high usage account disappear (suspended)!

I think common sense would help out greatly. If you need to host a site, checck to see if the plan you are choosing allows enough bandwidth. We all know there isn't such a thing as unlimited.

Look at the host's dedicated server/colocation offerings. There you should see a true price of what the host charges for bandwidth.

Also, another board is full of comments from people who have tried to run a popular UBB off a communitech virtual account with problems.

A virtual account is NOT a dedicated server, and thus you can't expect to use all of the server resources for under $20/mo.

Virtual account hosts always say what you want to hear on the fron, then TOS you aside when you start using up large amounts of everything.

If you think you can pull 17G a day off of a $20/mo account, please let us all know how it goes.

Exactly, and their best dedicated plan costs $1000 a month and gives you 3 Gigs a day. So if you think your getting more bandwidth, or even close to it, for $20, your very gullible and not too bright.


Originally posted by Chicken:
Look at the host's dedicated server/colocation offerings. There you should see a true price of what the host charges for bandwidth.

Well they will give you the bandwidth, according to their ToS if:
-you have no files on your domain
-do nothing to attract visitors
-have no domain name. :p

Seriously, reading their ToS, they can effectively offer unlimited bandwidth, when they don'T allow pictures, video, files, everything that eats a little bit of bandwidth. It is impossible to bring for 17gb of bandwidth with only 1 web page of text (I suppose news and search engine sites are not allowed either)
:)

I beleive that you think 2 seconds and find out that 17 gb per day is just a plain joke to get customers.


------------------
[Félix C.Courtemanche | Web Designer]
[Head Designer | Co-Admin]
[webmaster@can-host.com]
[Can-Host Networks | http://can-host.com ]

hehe, that's pretty funny. Right now, I am trying to find a web host that allows more than 100 gig a month or around that much for around $30/per month to host celebritygallery.net. I have talked to at least 20 different companies and all of them suggested dedicated server. Ironicly, all their plans says "unlimited traffic". Well... Let me know if uh any place will let me host my site. email me at webmaster@webreview.org.

P.S. Web Hosting companies, check out www.webreview.org. (http://www.webreview.org.) Register your company with us if you haven't already done so.

100 Gigs for $30??!! That's $0.30 per Gig, your crazy! Gigs are atleast $2 each, and that's if you buy in bulk.


Originally posted by Jia:
hehe, that's pretty funny. Right now, I am trying to find a web host that allows more than 100 gig a month or around that much for around $30/per month to host celebritygallery.net. I have talked to at least 20 different companies and all of them suggested dedicated server. Ironicly, all their plans says "unlimited traffic". Well... Let me know if uh any place will let me host my site. email me at webmaster@webreview.org.

P.S. Web Hosting companies, check out www.webreview.org. (http://www.webreview.org.) Register your company with us if you haven't already done so.

I've known an awful lot of folks who have been happy with communitech.
You're right though when you say that if you want to have a pic site or an mp3 site or a file distribution site that you should look elsewhere--no reputable hosts allow these types of sites on shared servers.
If you really think you can draw 17 gig a day in traffic, you should be getting your own box. If you're drawing less than 50 or a hundred a day, you'll have no problem at communitech.
Ask these guys how well their hosts handle their "high-traffic" sites (of what, maybe 10 or 20 gigs a month, in their dreams???). If they pay more than $15 or $20 for that, they're being ripped off and you shouldn't listen to their advice anyway.