12 Midnight to 12 Noon 48 gb Reminder

[austdata]

We will continue this process for February, March and April and will then discontinue it.

How come it will be discontinued?

Mike

The users in the off peak period typically would be downloading excessively over 48GB intentionally, and discontinuing it will allow continuous uninterupted service for those users to pay $3/GB.

Interupting it would just be interupting that $3/GB income stream.

That makes sense, kind of. It's like a default opt-in system. What happens to new customers who join after? Oh, I guess they would have "+$3/GB or part over" in their T&C. Makes sense.

Thanks tocpcs.

Cheers,

Mike

[tocpcs]

Yeh, well the advertising and so forth would be changed to reflect that you get charged, so any users signing up after April should well and truly be aware of it!

I like the move, it means users will be a little more careful about going over / abusing the system so others will no longer suffer as a result of slow speeds (including browsing ).

The pools being gone, hopefully will result in good speeds, otherwise, it'll be Exetel up for some more dollars for fatter links during the off peak time I imagine (or finding another explanation for the few Mbit or so lost after 12am).

Exetel seem to do a lot right by their customers, this move is one of them (3 months of notifications after email and forum postings).

[austdata]

I still don't understand how people can use so much. I run a server and it still uses less than 100GB in and out combined. And at $22 a 10GB block I wouldn't want to be giving away 480GB to just one leach!

That's $1,056 a month for those without calculators.

Cheers,

Mike

[gravity]

Would it be possible to have the redirect page as an optional extra for both peak and off peak? It strikes me as a very useful tool for those of us who are a bit forgetful.

[James]

Not really, you just get 48GB free in offpeak time... and the rest is taken out of your quota and chargeable once you go over it. Also we wouldn't get hit by double excess charges in peak / offpeak if you exceeded your quota in both. (as mentioned previously above).

Hi Thomas,

Actually it does defeat the purpose of the quotas.

Just don't go over 48 gigabytes, which in your case shouldn't be a problem (as you haven't gone over 45 gigabytes off peak in the last 12 months).

For those who go over, they can not have internet access during off peak if they do not want to pay the VERY LOW excess fees, or they can pay VERY LOW excess fees.

[thomashouseman]

ooookay...

I won't argue... I'm obviously suggesting something that Exetel doesn't want to implement.

Out of interest, can you ever see offpeak downloads exceeding peak time downloads, or have we already reached that point? (excluding the midnight torrent-cache surge...)

Oh... and I'm pretty sure I've never gone over 48GB in the 4 or so years I've been with you.

Have a nice weekend.

T.

[stix]

More curious than anything (since I very much doubt I'll reach any limit), but what would happen if you happened to be overseas, but still using your Aussie home system by, say ssh, and reached the limit?

Stating the obvious, but you'll need to access the web page and click the Accept button.

Haha! Yes, very funny. Either that's a joke, or you've missed the point of my question.

[Alcor1]

It is unfair to charge separately for off-peak and peak quota, especially since Exetel abandoned the pro-rata charge system.

Charging $6 for 100Mb + 100Mb over (see previous post) is extreme.

It makes sense to amalgamate the two quotas for over-quota charges. If one wishes to use their peak quota during off-peak so be it. This does not invalidate having separate quotas as the idea is to direct traffic to off-peak.

How and whether someone uses all their quota is a moot point. Exetel attracts customers through their generous off-peak download quota and some of these customers will use it.

[Colt]

Fantastic. You've gone above and beyond the call to "cover" your ass.

However, with the process, will it still suffer the delay that the usage meter does ? If not, can the usage meter be sped up ?

Yes and no.

Checking an individual download status is easy so the process that triggers the emails or the temporary suspension is also easy.

Posting the results at a given time simultaneously for many tens of thousands of users is not easy and can't be done.

What about setting up a way whereby users can manually request an update from the server/exetel magical interweb realm thingy. You could place a hard limit on it for testing purposes etc.

I think this is a GREAT idea and it should have been done earlier (the 48GB limit that is).

[felix]

It is unfair to charge separately for off-peak and peak quota, especially since Exetel abandoned the pro-rata charge system.

Charging $6 for 100Mb + 100Mb over (see previous post) is extreme.

I don't really see how this can be either unfair or extreme. Everyone has been well informed and 48GB is 4/5ths of a metric bucketload of data. I'm on a 256 plan with a limited peak quota which is cool because I have scheduling in place to exploit off-peak.

Would you rather be shaped back to 64kb the whole time? We've seen countless examples when James of FA post the top 50 users list that people just don't get it. This new system is quite fair, well advertised and documented and in all reality doesn't affect 99% of the user base.

The greatest good for the greatest many. Besides, eXeTeL* is a commercial entity and as such has the right to turn a coin.

* eXeTeL - bloody hard to type for someone born 5 years too early to be 1337

[ForumAdmin]

We will continue this process for February, March and April and will then discontinue it.

How come it will be discontinued?

Mike

Because we think 3 months is long enough to advise people of what they should already know.

After three months we believe that anyone likely to approach using close to the 48 gb would have been told more than once that there is a charge if you go over 48 gb.

[Shadowcats]

Got the email and it's a good idea.
It got me curious as to what I was downloading off peak and it's never gone over 17gigs off peak average was 10 to 15 gigs so this won't affect me one bit.
But it's nice to have the warning just in case

[danander11]

I guess I am of two minds about this...

The agreement that I entered in to with Exetel when I signed up for service promised unlimited downloading from 12a-12p. Now I am told that that is not the case and that I will be charged extra for any downloads above a certain amount. Wouldn't a provider assume max use during this period and plan for that?

When I was in the US, unlimited meant just that, unlimited... by speed, amount, whatever.. If a provider changed the rules in the middle of the game, THEY were held responsible.. until, of course, the contract period had expired.

There is a fundamental process that is flawed with this kind of behavior, and the acceptance of it on the part of the subscribers. But, each to their own.

I just found it funny, (in a very non-humorous way), that I would get this notice... I have had nothing but crap service since coming over to exetel from TPG. I have an 8k, 24GB peak use plan that I have never been able to use. Most of the time I am lucky to get anything over dial-up speeds... These issues never came about until I churned over to exetel..

After exchanging 7 or 8 emails with tech support, it was determined that my speeds were acceptable.. The only acceptable connect I have is to exetels speed test server, and nothing else. I have 4 months left on this plan, then I will drop it like a hot rock.

I exchange large files, (pro-tools based music, and mechanical engineering CAD files with folks from all over.. (which is why I pay for a decent speed and larger plan), but have been unable to since coming over.

For those of you that can get anywhere close to your alotted bandwidth, congrats.. for those going over, you should get it for free as I cannot get much of anything that I am paying for.

My $0.02...

Peace!

[GaryG]

Congrats to Exetel for implementing this change in a way that maximises the communication to users.

A couple of questions

1. Given what has been posted about being able to update usage data closer to real time, why will the webpage come up at 47GB and not 48GB, or somewhere in-between?

2. If there is the capability to update usage more quickly, why not add a warning system as people approach their quotas for peak and off-peak?

A few Gig before the limits or something like that. Could be optional.

[rikeshr]

Can we have facilities like
1. turning on/off email notifications when
a. peak quota is being reached
b. off-peak quota is being reached

2. turning on/off for releasing the net connection though 10.x.x.x when
a. peak quota is reached
b. off-peak quota is reached

it's mentioned above that it will be done for off-peak
and the user does not have the option to turn on/off
acknowledging $3/GB surcharge