[clug] broadband usage on static IP

[Bill Clarke]

hi all,

i'm wondering what the standard measure for "usage" is with a broadband 
connection with a static IP.  is it usual to charge for data even if the 
account is not logged on?

my scenario is this: i'm a cheapskate, so i pay for the smallest 
non-shaped transact plan that suits me ($19/month, 600MB peak, 5000MB 
off-peak at velocity).  towards the end of the month i'm nearing my peak 
d/l limit, so i ensure that when i'm bit-torrenting i (automatically) 
connect after midnight and disconnect before 7am (off peak times). 
however, there are a large number of connection attempts from other 
bit-torrent users once i've disconnected.  these get counted by velocity 
as data to me and charged to my account (this may not sound like much, 
but it adds up).

do other ISPs have this policy?

[from velocity support:
"""
This user was not logged on when the usage was recorded, however the 
charges and
data that were recorded are still considered legitimate.

Since users have a static IP (and no other user would be using the same 
IP), all
data sent to that IP, regardless if the user is online or not, is 
considered to
be only for that user, hence the owner of that IP address is charged for 
the data.

This particular usage (on April 6) is because they have been using a file
sharing program called bit-torrent which broadcasts their IP address 
over the
Internet as a place to download a specific file. Even though they were
disconnected, other users on the Internet still had their IP address 
listed as a
place to download the file from, which resulted in a lot of connection 
attempts
even after they were disconnected.

This is a fairly common problem with file sharing programs.
"""
]

cheers,
/lib
-- 
/lib BillClarke PostdoctoralFellow CompSci ANU cs.anu.edu.au/CC-NUMA
http://llib.cjb.net llib at computer.org  tel:+61-2-6125x5687 fax:x0010
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