Hello everyone,


All the time there were conception, what everything is limited. When newbies shout on "offers" you can deflate them by "come on, everything is limited" phrase. But not when such offer is by giant company(surfspeedy.com). Can you explain, is it like "loss leader"? I cant imagine, HOW can you survive by offering everything unlimited: disk space, bw, mysql, domains, email.... and everything only for ~10$/month.
What kind of server do you have to have? Is it just a question of investment?

Interesting, can i setup Skype mirror on their server?

Thank you for replies

It's all about volume. First of all, I doubt that everyone who signs up for an unlimited account will use the entire space up. In this case it becomes a matter of numbers -- X amount of customers might use all the space up, but Y amount of customers will only use a certain amount of space. If you think about it that way, their service model makes it possible because those using a lot of space are countered by those not using a lot of space...

For example, if you and I have an account, and you decide to use 1000 MB of space, but I only use 10 MB for a very small web site, then isn't there enough space inbetween? Clearly you are using the most of your ten bucks a month, but I'm not. When you average that out you'll see how much space is being used by the average customer -- at this point it's a matter of statistics, i.e. knowing what percentage of customers will use as much space as possible and knowing what percentage of customers sign up but don't use much at all.


JP

But its... "based on hope"...How far can you go with this? I can upload my entire hdd and they can say nothing? I upload and upload... and they will upgrade and upgrade hdd's only for me? :) Or i make downloads-2.com website mirroring programs. So, what they will do then? :/

They probably limit the bandwidth somewhere, if they give you 10GB of space but only 512MB of data transfer then that's all you can send for that month, assuming FTP uploads/downloads count towards bandwidth.

They probably have fair usage limits. On the telly when your ISP says "unlimited this, unlimited that", in the small print is says "subject to fair usage"...it's the same in hosting!

edit: you've misread their site. It's unmetered space. This is just you can have as much as is avalible.

. . . But not when such offer is by giant company(surfspeedy.com).
They're far from a "giant company". Put them up against the real giants, and they're tiny - not that being tiny is a bad thing. :)

As for their unlimited offer, oh well, it's their hole they're digging. :erm:

They probably have fair usage limits. On the telly when your ISP says "unlimited this, unlimited that", in the small print is says "subject to fair usage"...it's the same in hosting!

edit: you've misread their site. It's unmetered space. This is just you can have as much as is avalible.
From their TOS(http://www.surfspeedy.com/about_us/terms_of_service.htm):
Unmetered Bandwidth Program

Surfspeedy offers an Unmetered Bandwidth Program to eligible participants. This program gives our clients an opportunity to enjoy our services at a set price regardless of the fluctuations in bandwidth usage. However, to avoid the possible abuse of this service, all members of the Unmetered Bandwidth Program must qualify. Should any participant of this program become unqualified to remain an ongoing participant, SurfSpeedy will notify such participant and give the participant the option of receiving standard SurfSpeedy services. SurfSpeedy shall be the sole party to decide eligibility for the Unmetered Bandwidth Program. Any user guidelines posted by SurfSpeedy regarding this program must be followed by all participants, including any information about eligibility. SurfSpeedy reserves the right to issue individual waivers of these requirements as found, in SurfSpeedy's sole discretion, to be reasonable. Any significant or substantial modifications to your website after you have been found to be eligible to participate may result in your removal from the program. In general, the following requirements must be met by any prospective participant:

90% or more of your content on your website must be linked from an HTML or similarly coded web page where all content is freely available to the public. Your website consists of web pages of a standard design, essentially HTML based text and graphics and not elements that generally consume more than a common amount of bandwidth when compared to the typical page found on the World Wide Web.

The following types of sites are not eligible for the unmetered bandwidth program:

• Websites that primary consist of files offered for download or facilitation of the same.
• Websites that primarily offer graphics.
• Websites that deal in adult content.
• Websites that deal in video, MP3 files or other large types of formats.
• Websites that offer Internet Telephony services or other types of real time communications.
• Peer to Peer File Sharing Networks.
• Websites that primarily offer Streaming Content.
• Websites that "game" or otherwise cheat any search engine or rely upon Search Engine Optimization services in an unfair manner, in the sole judgment of SurfSpeedy.
• Websites that use or benefit from Bulk Unsolicited Email ("Spam.")

edit: you've misread their site. It's unmetered space. This is just you can have as much as is avalible.So you noticed this too! :P I've been trying to explain the difference between unmetered and unlimited in another thread here - and I'm the only bright enough to understand it apparently! :)

Thank you for realizing there is indeed a difference!

Interesting, if i'll became their costumer now, how much space "will be available"? :)

Answer in theory: They cant survive.

Answer in practice: People naturally get as much as they can for their money, but people average disk space usage is not even 500mb.

If only these unlimited hosts got landed with clients that actually use the disk space they buy.

So you noticed this too! :P I've been trying to explain the difference between unmetered and unlimited in another thread here - and I'm the only bright enough to understand it apparently! :)

Thank you for realizing there is indeed a difference!

I agree with you that most people blend the term unmetered and unlimited when they shouldnt. I have a problem understanding how peolpe are trying to use sometimes though.

Can you explain how it pertains to "unmetered disk space" ? That term doesnt even begin to make sense to me.

edit: you've misread their site. It's unmetered space. This is just you can have as much as is avalible.

So if I signup today and they only have 1MB left on the server, you are saying that they are providing what I signed up for because I can use "as much as is available"?

Unmetered implies that they do not meter it, so they will not impose a limit. Yes there is a difference between this and unlimited, but when talking about shared hosting and disk space, it can only be misleading.

The way most of these hosts get around it is by seriously limiting what you can host.