My home network is on a 50GB plan with Bigpond, and 3 days ago I received notice that I’d hit 40GB for the month. Our month ends on 10th, therefore 10GB left to go for the week. For some reason however we used that 10GB in 3 days. grrr… now we are speed limited to 64kbps. Ok – the solution for me today is to bump the limit – which means 100GB and $129/month now instead of the $109/month I was paying. However that only takes effect from midnight tonight so I’m stuck at 64kb for the day today.
Consider for a moment that if my business was 100% reliant on the Cloud for everything then I’d be totally screwed for the next 24 hours. If I had staff then they would be stuck at stupidly low speed and be unable to work.
Now – the next thing I need to do is to install a firewall that allow me to measure which devices are downloading the data, and WHAT they are downloading. Maybe then I can catch out my kids when I find they are downloading lots of things I’ve told them not to :-) more on that another time.
It’s not Telstra’s fault that you’ve been shaped, sorry.
Also, if you were running your business on the Cloud with that connection, I dare say you’d be monitoring usage a little better anyway, no? I know I do, and I use an SBS network…
Yup – you are correct – it’s not Telstra fault I’ve been shaped. However Telstra’s pricing practices vs reality is a real issue for me. I’d happily go with someone like TPG on their “unlimited/1MB shaped” connection, if only they could provide me DSL2+ speeds to my home. Telstra I’m told have not permitted others to install higher speed gear into this rim exchange… hence Telstra is my only option for decent speed internet.
And yes – I do need to get better monitoring on it so I know more about what is being used and why… however that then adds to the burden of “Cloud computing”… another thing that goes unnoticed in the march towards the cloud 🙂
I’d check and double check about the ADSL2 with other providers though. If all else fails… Get a 2nd connection with a cheap TPG account, and route all email through that account, or all data to / from akamai and MS (I think this would include MS Updates) So when your WSUS pulls down SP2 for vista and SP2 for server 2008, it won’t add to your monthly usage with telstra for general net access. Yes not the cheapest method, but can be done.