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Google Fiber now allows servers for non-commercial use

googleprotest.com

21–30 of 155 posts

Re: Google Fiber now allows servers for non-commercial use

#21
post #2

To save people from looking, it has been changed to; --- To operate servers for commercial purposes. However, personal, non-commercial use of servers that complies with this AUP is acceptable, including using virtual private networks (VPN) to access services in your home and using hardware or applications that include server capabilities for uses like multi-player gaming, video-conferencing, and home security. ---

They specifically left email off of that list. The question is: can I host servers that may compete with the commercial offerings of Google? Can I host my personal blog? Can I host my personal email server?

Or P2P services, which could potentially present a greater threat to Google. Only a small fraction of network users are willing and able to run a personal server, and even those that do aren't capable of competing with Google in terms of hardware.

Decentralized content sharing could remove those obstacles, and a high bandwidth network could facilitate the adoption of P2P services.

Re: Google Fiber now allows servers for non-commercial use

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because not all internet is equal. Most ISP's give home users a significant discount on their service, in exchange for agreeing to certain assumptions about their use. This is done because most home users could never afford internet, if they had to pay for full price. For example, in this area, a dedicated 20x20mb connection to the internet costs about $500USD per month (Metro Ethernet). You can do almost anything yo…

Sounds like false advertising to me...

Let's just imagine for a moment what "truthful advertising" would look like. Probably something like "1 Mbps for $50/month"; when ISPs are already offering 15 Mbps for $50 today there's no way to get there from here.

Re: Google Fiber now allows servers for non-commercial use

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They specifically left email off of that list. The question is: can I host servers that may compete with the commercial offerings of Google? Can I host my personal blog? Can I host my personal email server?

I doubt they are trying to cut off competition to GMail. Email is blocked typically as a matter of convention by the majority of ISPs. It requires features 99.9% of customers don't care about in the slightest, and invites spam problems.

I'm surprised to hear that. I've never had a problem with an ISP blocking SMTP.

Re: Google Fiber now allows servers for non-commercial use

#25
post #19
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will most likely be not able to host a personal email server from a residential ISP without an IPv4 address tunnel, anyway. Without a proper reverse DNS record and an IP address not from a residential pool, most properly configured servers will reject emails immediately (in order to combat spam).

I've had no trouble paying a little extra for static IPs, not to mention delegated reverse DNS, over the past 15 years.

Of course, it all depends on the ISP. I've had nothing but denials over the years each time I've tried to request a static IP address, let alone PTR record delegation.

Re: Google Fiber now allows servers for non-commercial use

#26
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to handle everyone using their connections to the full at all times would require being able to deal with massively more usage then you ever practically see. I'm a pretty heavy user, I work with data sets, watch a lot of streaming TV, have several video chats every day and I also download games through things like Steam. My usage was less than 15% of what I could use (and that's with a slow connection, I'd…

"Being able to handle everyone using their connections to the full at all times would require being able to deal with massively more usage then you ever practically see" So what? All that means is that you can oversell throughput. How does it imply that people cannot or should not be running any particular service over their connection? The real barrier to hosting commercial services on residential connections should…

> How does it imply that people cannot or should not be running any particular service over their connection?

To limit the number of people massively over-using their connection?

> The real barrier to hosting commercial services on residential connections should be technical.

Those are just reasons why a service would be unreliable. This would give another good reason for the split, occasional downtime wouldn't render a home connection to be branded as "not fit for purpose". You can't claim it was mis-sold if you were explicitly told you can't run commercial services on it.

Re: Google Fiber now allows servers for non-commercial use

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt they are trying to cut off competition to GMail. Email is blocked typically as a matter of convention by the majority of ISPs. It requires features 99.9% of customers don't care about in the slightest, and invites spam problems.

I'm surprised to hear that. I've never had a problem with an ISP blocking SMTP.

Inbound on port 25? I know my ISP does

Re: Google Fiber now allows servers for non-commercial use

#29
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like false advertising to me...

Let's just imagine for a moment what "truthful advertising" would look like. Probably something like "1 Mbps for $50/month"; when ISPs are already offering 15 Mbps for $50 today there's no way to get there from here.

The fact that ISPs have oversold their services and painted themselves into a corner with misleading, if not downright false advertising is entirely their problem. Get a law passed and let them whine about it and then deal with it.

Re: Google Fiber now allows servers for non-commercial use

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because not all internet is equal. Most ISP's give home users a significant discount on their service, in exchange for agreeing to certain assumptions about their use. This is done because most home users could never afford internet, if they had to pay for full price. For example, in this area, a dedicated 20x20mb connection to the internet costs about $500USD per month (Metro Ethernet). You can do almost anything yo…

Sounds like false advertising to me...

In the same way that Olive Garden falsely advertises Unlimited Soup Salad and Bread Sticks when they prevent you from stocking your food truck with their "unlimited" items.
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