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Google Fiber now allows servers for non-commercial use

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61–70 of 155 posts

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

#61
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course comparing apples to oranges leads to absurdities; not all things have the same attributes as all other things.

How about this: if I rent a car for one day, and the rental describes itself as "unlimited mileage", I expect to be able to use it for 24 hours straight. If I get fined for using it for the full 24 hours because that puts wear and tear on the car that the car rental business did not anticipate, then I am going to accuse them of false advertising. I don't care if everybody doing that would ruin their business; if they…

They work on the basis the almost nobody will rent a car and drive it for 24 hours straight unless you are planning to use it for a le-mans style event. They will have clauses in the rental agreement that prevent you from using it to enter a le-mans style event.

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

#62
post #52

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…

Since you are defending this kind of practices, I must ask you: Can you name a single other service or product in the world that include such restrictions , and "up to X" quantity? If I only got 50% of the actually contracted time of an rented apartment (say they wrote "up to 1 month"), I would sue. If the fine print said apartment had restrictions such as only 10 enter/exits, no commercial activities inside it like…

Your analogy doesn't hold up very well. There are rentals that are restricted much more than your average apartment, they are called hotel rooms.

There are different options available, because there is demand for it.

The same applies to ISP service. In general residential service is over subscribed. This allows the company to discount the service in return for restrictions on how it can be used.

There are also dedicated bandwidth options, which are much more expensive. But you can use it pretty much however you want.

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

#63
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How about this: for $50/mo you get a guarantee of at least 1Mbps of continuous throughput (or at least a best effort at that), with no restriction on your usage beyond that? Why does it need to be black or white? Why not just dynamically adjust the throughput for "heavy users" so that nobody sees speeds below some level regardless of how others are utilizing the network? Oh, wait, these connections are so grossly ove…

That would be fine except for path dependence. You're talking about taking essentially the same service but making it sound much worse than it currently sounds.

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

#64

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.

Indeed. Chances of a random person accidentally setting up an open email relay of some sort are high.

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

#65
post #10

If only it was that simple to make Google stop spying for NSA

Google doesn't spy for the NSA. The NSA might be spying on Google, but that's not the same thing.

Replying to subpoenas and warrants was recently redefined as "spying".

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

#66
Slightly off topic, but browsing the comments on this thread I'm just amazed how good and cheap Internet has become here (Romania) compared to some of the prices out there. A major local provider recently announced a new 1Gbps plan for about 18$/month. I'm currently on their 50Mbps plan, and I get just that: 5MBytes/s up/down.

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

#67
post #52

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…

Since you are defending this kind of practices, I must ask you: Can you name a single other service or product in the world that include such restrictions , and "up to X" quantity? If I only got 50% of the actually contracted time of an rented apartment (say they wrote "up to 1 month"), I would sue. If the fine print said apartment had restrictions such as only 10 enter/exits, no commercial activities inside it like…

All you can eat buffets don't let you fill up takeaway boxes.

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

#68

Had Google actually taken action against anyone hosting a server? I guess this is more of a T&C clarification than anything else, i.e they would of not actually taken action against non-commercial servers anyway.

Still no rule against it is much better than an unenforced rule against it.

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

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Mine doesn't (Roadrunner). I run my own SMTP server off my cable modem. I have no problems getting incoming mail. Outgoing, however, was a pain because so many SMTP servers block mail coming from dynamic IPs. It annoys me to no end. I understand the reasons for doing it, but it annoys me to no end. I had to set up a small satellite server on a static IP that I route all my outgoing mail through.
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