[clug] broadband usage on static IP

[Tom.Minchin at csiro.au]

I've had a similar problem with Telstra and dynamic IP addresses. 

Eg when you inherit an IP address from the previous user who setup all
sorts of servers and the like receiving huge amounts of traffic, then
they finally disconnect and get a new IP address. You end up with all
the traffic destined for the previous user...

Telstra just played dumb - eventually I convinced one of their billing
operators (from many attempts) that the service wasn't functional whilst
the unwanted traffic was coming in. They gave me a refund for the month
(including the excess traffic charge).

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-bounces+tom.minchin=csiro.au at lists.samba.org
[mailto:linux-bounces+tom.minchin=csiro.au at lists.samba.org] On Behalf Of
Bill Clarke
Sent: Monday, 11 April 2005 12:43 PM
To: clug
Subject: [clug] broadband usage on static IP

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
PGPid:B381EE7DB7D3E58F17248C672E2DA124ADADF444 GNU unix LaTeX XPilot
Buffy DrWho Goodies StarTrek XFiles Origami SML SMP MPI mozilla tcsh
Asimov Bear Clarke Donaldson Volleyball Ultimate Cricket emacs C++ X
Jordan Kay Lackey Martin Stasheff DeepPurple H&C KLF Queen PinkFloyd
--
linux mailing list
linux at lists.samba.org
https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/linux