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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Essex, UK
    Posts
    280

    * bandwidth charges

    Hi all,

    I am a newcomer to these forums but i have been told that this is the best place to help me make sense of my current dilemma.

    I currently host with Sentris for a dedicated server.

    the package I chose is as follows...
    ------------------------
    Duron 1.3 GHz CPU
    * 512MB RAM
    * 60GB HD 7200RPM
    * Web ControlPanel
    * 15GB (48kbps) AVERAGE bandwidth per day (about 450GB total bandwidth per month)
    * Windows 2000 Advanced Server or RedHat Linux 7.1
    $98/month
    ------------------------

    well I just received an invoice stating I have just been charged for an extra $600 of bandwidth. (which is the first notification of such an overage).

    My bandwidth as stated in the usage charts of all the sites on my server total less than 300gb over the whole month so this is a puzzle. the rate at which data is being requested seems much lower that this as 300gb / 30 days is only 10gb average. whereas they have charged me for 4x units of extra bandwidth rated at an extra 61gb average bandwidth PER DAY. so in other words they believe i am using up to 244gb extra per day.

    the page detailing which server i bought is found here... (its the special server package at the top of the list)...
    http://nic.sentris.com/

    the terms and conditions i agreed to can be found here...
    http://policies.sentris.com/

    the details of extra charges can be found here...
    http://policies.sentris.com/


    if someone can please lend any expertise in this area it would be greatly appreciated. I'm only 21 and the server is to host one of my sites that receives a lot of hits (hence my 300gb usage). the money taken from my card is way beyond my monetary means and is causing some financial problems so any help would be GREATLY appreciated to help me know if this charge is some how correct or if there has been a mistake on their part or even worse i am being scammed.

    many thanks in advance

    a concerned ciqala burt

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Auckland - New Zealand
    Posts
    1,575
    61gb per day
    Do you host porn?
    If not def investigate, that does not seem correct...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Essex, UK
    Posts
    280
    Nope no porn , but I do have streaming media files but like i say for my main site it reports only 278gb total for the month... the rest are all half built sites with about 2gb b/w per month between all the sites.

    thanks

    Ciq

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    70
    May be you can check your MRTG graph if it's available.

  5. #5
    I unfortunately have come across the same problem.

    My advice.

    Do not host with Sentris.


    Attached is an image of my monthly hosting bandwidth for September with Sentris. They have teh most stuffed up way of calculating bandwidth.

    They tell me that I had used 900gb for the month. Now using maths and looking at the image... I did this calculations (taken from my e-mails to them

    Okay in simple English please explain to me how someone using 90.1 kilobit a second can use 900 gigabyte.



    90.1 / 8 = 11.2625

    11.2625 KB p/s * 60 = 675KB per minutes

    675KB per minute * 60 = 40.5 MB per hour

    40.5 MB per hour * 24 = 972MB per day

    972MB per day * 31 = 30.13 GB per month.



    How can I being charged for 900GB per month?? In order to get 900GB usage I would need to be putting out the following.



    900 / 31 = 29 GB per day

    29GB / 24 = 1.2 GB per hour

    1.2GB / 60 = 20 MB per minute

    20 MB / 60 = 333KB per second

    333KB per second = 2664 kilobit per second.



    Are you telling me I’ve used 2664 kilobit per second??



    Because that’s what I have to use per second in kilobit to use 900GB.
    Here is their f***** up explanation.

    Say, you have Special Server that comes with 15GB (48kbps) AVERAGE bandwidth per day (about 450GB total bandwidth per month)

    Monthly Average (kbps) = Average per day in a month (kbps) =
    Monthly average in (kbps) + Monthly average out (kbps)

    Basic Math says that whatever you have on the left hand side of the equal sign has also be put on the right side of the equal sign and no value can be left out

    48 kbps
    The Daily Average = -------------- = Average 48 kbps
    day

    And let's convert 48 kbps to GBpm:

    48 kilo bit 1 Mega 1 Giga 1 byte 60 sec 60 minute
    --------- X --------- X ---------- X -------- X -------- X -------- X
    sec 1000 Kilo 1000 Mega 8 bit 1 minute 1 hour


    24 hour 30 day 15.552 GB
    -------- X ---------- = -------------
    1 day 1 month month


    And since we still have that "per day" value from the above Daily Average, so the above bandwidth should actually be:

    15.552 GB per month
    --------------------
    day
    So I used 30gig of traffic in a month and got charged for 900. Is there anyone I can register a complaint with in the US?? As I'm outside the shores, and I'd love my money back and also them to get nailed for screwing customers.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails monthlystats.jpg  

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2001
    Posts
    363
    Wow... so they assume that 48kbps can result in 15GB of transfer per day ? Hmmm... I'd be very suspicious if a host can't even calculate.

    In order to push 15GB per day, you'll need an average of 1.440Mbps.

    A 48kbps connection would allow you to push +/-0.5GB per day.

    Watch out... looks like a scam to me.

    Carl

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Vancouver, BC
    Posts
    1,028
    i was just looking at: http://216.71.5.232/latest/images/band-calc.jpg (the link on http://nic.sentris.com/ as a sample of their b/w monitoring tool graphs)... and take note on how the MRTG page doesn't show device uptime... VERY odd... wouldn't u say? i know its an option not to show that/etc... but how come it doesn't? because its very easy to write a very cute perl script that'll pump out generated values to mrtg itself, yet still make it look totally legit... and i guess they could bill based on that...

    their main site itself totally doesn't make sense... their GB/day value actually equates out to their GB/month value, doesn't it?

    all-in-all, they're a scam...

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Posts
    1,926
    I'd refuse to pay the overages until they clearly explain how they came to their calculations. I'd probably also demand the issue be looked at by a third party mediator. You have the graphs to proove your case, so I'd see what they do when you refuse to pay up until the matter is fully investigated by a third party.

    Also $600 for a full month of 200 GIGS a day over the limit is too low to be realistic. At cost that might just about cover that overage if it were pure cogent, but who bills overages at cost?
    Proud member of the RIAA closed quaters combat cell !!!
    You'd better drop that CD-R before I shoot you !!!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    44
    maybe your servers got hacked.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    1,378
    I sorta agree with not paying... Make sure that you 'back up' your graphs and all, maybe even post them here or something for a 'timestamp' -- if they really are a scam, they might just delete your graphs.

    I would not pay the overages if their statistics are off by that much. It may be vaguely illegal to not pay, but if they refuse to show that you actually used the bandwidth, I strongly doubt they'd even think of pursuing any sort of action?

  11. #11
    Definitely do not pay if they are trying to charge you for bandwidth you did not use! Sure looks like a scam to me. Pay for whatever services you did use and cancel your account with them ASAP.

    IANAL, but it's pretty clear that they won't pursue legal action over this - there's no court in the world that would rule in their favor, since anyone with basic math skills can see the flaw in the above explanation.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Chile
    Posts
    43

  13. #13
    >15GB (48kbps) AVERAGE bandwidth per day

    Simpe: GB here means GigoBit, not GigoByte

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jul 2001
    Posts
    363
    Originally posted by Mike2k
    >15GB (48kbps) AVERAGE bandwidth per day

    Simpe: GB here means GigoBit, not GigoByte
    Errrm... according to which maths ?

  15. #15
    then they shouldnt mix their upper and lower case and should not breach an age old convention Kb - kilbit KB= kilobyte. theyre using dirty tricks.
    --
    Rich

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    Westbury, LI NY
    Posts
    1,705

  17. #17
    I wrote them:
    What do you mean by 48kbps(15GB)? If i multiple 48x3600x24~3.96GigoBits~0.49GigoBytes
    per day, but why do you say 15?? So what is the real allowed traffic
    in Gigabytes per month? And how much for traffic over allowed?


    This is what they answered me:

    48kbps (kilo bit per second) is equivalent to 15GB (Giga Byte). That
    is the daily average. Each server can have up to 1Mbps of bandwidth, at
    any given time, if you need more than that, then you need to go for
    Reserved/dedicated bandwidth plan.

    ================================
    I just can't see how "48kbps (kilo bit per second) is equivalent to 15GB (Giga Byte). "

    But if i multiple 48kbps*3600*24*30=exactly 15 Gigobytes but per month!!! =)))))))))

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jul 2001
    Posts
    363
    "48kbps (kilo bit per second) is equivalent to 15GB (Giga Byte). That is the daily average."

    Huh ? are they serious ?
    Wouldn't it be better for them to start selling cars ? Never seen this before...


  19. #19
    I have now e-mailed them about 20-30 times. Asked to be given a number of a real person and not an answerphone with no joy.

    I'm tempted to reverse the charges they put on my credit card, but I need to find another host first.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Kelowna B.C.
    Posts
    1,686
    Bandwidth Calculator

    This gives all the conversions
    Hosting.Express | Affordable Web and Email Hosting
    Shared | Reseller | 24/7 Support | NSA Free
    SPECIAL OFFER - domain name, email and cPanel web hosting = $3.73 per month | Contact Us: 1-800-861-1888

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    DC
    Posts
    3,643
    I took one look at this place, and with their conversions, got very very confused. Then I decided not to go with them

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    1,953
    I worked it out, I got 15 gigs for the entire month.

    48 kbits/8 for bytes is 6 kilobytes a sec
    6*60=360 amount transferd in a minute
    *60=21600 amount transferd in an hour
    *24 =518400 amount in a day

    518400/1000 =518.400 put it in megabytes
    518.400/1000 = .5 gigabytes - put that in gigabytes

    .5 gigs is 15 gigs a month

    Remember that 48kbits is SLOWER then a 56k modem
    =
    Chicago Electronic Cigarettes: Tobacco Free, Smoke Free. 3 E-Cig Models, 11 flavors, and accessories.
    http://www.chicago-ecigs.com

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Posts
    1,926
    But they still are advertising 15 GB daily avarage, so where do they get that from. I'd charge back and if they make a fuss claim false advertising, or at least try to come to some kind of arrangement.

    If this went to court I'd say they have a very week case.
    Proud member of the RIAA closed quaters combat cell !!!
    You'd better drop that CD-R before I shoot you !!!

  24. #24
    wow.... they have totally screwed up the math...

    i wouldnt pay them...

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Posts
    677
    Either they are bad mathematicians or they are scam artists. Their website don't seem to be working. My guess is they had scammed enough people, and is now making their exit with cash they had cheated. And since they are gone, perhaps chargebacks won't work .

    I would do the chargeback rightaway if I was you. Backup the content anyway possible, even if at home.

    regards

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