First of all, I am crazy. But here are my recommendations:

Everyone go find a victim host offering "unlimited" (i shudder...) web space and transfer for cheap. Sign up with an account or two, upload some 500MB files, and replicate them on the server (shell cp, or can you do this with FTP?). Then, make a couple of scripts that constantly download files from large file providers out there to use the up bandwidth. This should not violate any aggreements because they do claim "unlimited" bandwidth. Of course they will cancel your account, but when they do that you can flame on here (if there isnt enough already about unlimited insert_service_here hosts). Blaaaa.. I am really tired...

Sorry for the useless post..
Eheh.

Most have a TOS against big files.

Well,
I did it once with an 20 category FFA page submitted to worldsubmitter that sent off a confirmation e-mail everytime someone submitted something. But that was an accident, I should have known that a shared host wouldn't let me send out 300,000 e-mails a day. You live, you learn right?

But unless you're really bored, and have a lot of money to lose testing your theory, why bother? It's hard enough to find an honest web host as it is, why screw with them?

Don't you have better things to do than sitting around consuming your own bandwidth?

"If you want to take down a server, you just do a DOS attack. "

The idea is not to take down their server but show them their flaws in their business plan.

Beside, I couldn't do something that would willingly hurt someone else.

Agress with dbodner


Just let them be, they will be there own downfall.

:sickface:

Hey now...

DoS attacks are illegal... I just wanted to catch these hosts at their own game, but its kinda impossible when you have to pay. As you can tell, I VERY MUCH hate "unlimited" hosts.
I value professionalism and support MUCH over price. If only we can get our prospective clients to think the same...

Why bother trying to do anything about unlimited hosts? Flawed business models will not exist -- their clients will eventually, mostly, be burned, and will then look for something else.

Give it time.

Be professional.

Charge a little more even, perhaps you'll end up attracting a better class of client.

An analogy is consulting - the cheapest consultant does not generally get the most work, quite the opposite in fact.

Originally posted by mwatkins
Why bother trying to do anything about unlimited hosts? Flawed business models will not exist -- their clients will eventually, mostly, be burned, and will then look for something else.

Give it time.

Be professional.

Charge a little more even, perhaps you'll end up attracting a better class of client.

An analogy is consulting - the cheapest consultant does not generally get the most work, quite the opposite in fact.


I like your analogy - Very good point.
I still find it hard to compete with hosts offering lower prices. There isnt much you can assure a possible client of when they ask "can you beat this price". You can only theoretically tell them what would happen/what service they would receieve, but unfortunately some customers are too stubborn to think about that - They'd rather see the specs and price comparisons laid out for them.

If I were a web hoster I would hunt down some representative horror story posts on this forum and link to them in my sales literature (only half kidding)

Come up with a value statement that justifies your extra expense.

A well written page on the industry and the pitfalls of going cheap might do wonders - be careful to sound objective and not whiny. Prospective clients really don't understand all this stuff that the rest of us take for granted. A little explanation might go a long way.

Just some ideas.