Brian, you got it right. The ixwebhosting TOS has a "fair use" clause which
to me says "we were just kidding" when it comes to their webspace and
throughput promises. In my opinion the come-on is pretty deceptive...

http://www.ixwebhosting.com/index.php/v2/pages.tos#q4


"Brian Cryer" <brian.cryer@127.0.0.1.ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:WsCdnS0sX5xZ2HfbnZ2dnUVZ8qijnZ2d@pipex.net...
> "Steve" <nomail@for.me> wrote in message
> news:C3kGi.47045$jJ5.20067@newsfet03.ams...
>>I have been shopping around for a new host for my 4 sites (with <2GB of
>>files total). I came across www.ixwebhosting.com and saw that they offer
>>"500 GB Web Space" for $6.95/month. That's dramatically more than the 5GB
>>my current host gives. Not to mention the 3.5TB of monthly throughput.
>>Oh boy. I began to get visions of storing hard drive backups, mapped Z
>>drives on my PCs, etc, etc, to make use of that 500GB. I gave them a
>>call. The rep on the phone tells me that the 500GB must be used for
>>"web-accessible" files only, that are part of my websites, and that I
>>cannot use the space for stored files. So then, I could use the 500GB
>>for thousands of pages of pictures of my cat, but can't use the space to
>>park backup files? That just ain't right. Is it reasonable to advertise
>>"500GB web space" without adding that little disclaimer? Or should I just
>>know better?
>
> I think its quite common, and its probably there in their terms and
> conditions. Basically by offering 500GB of web space they hope to be able
> to grab your attention but they also expect most sites to be only a few
> MB. After all, most sites are quite small its only once you get into file
> sharing and backup that large data volumes typically are required as
> standard - hence why they exclude you from that. In all probability they
> couldn't support more than a few sites at 500GB.
>
> Something else to be aware of is the 3.5TB monthly throughput. Some hosts
> actually cap you on a daily basis, so they might actually cap you at 115GB
> per day (which is still more than most of us would ever dream of using)
> and they say 30x115GB/day=3.5TB/month. Of course it could also be that its
> actually unmetered but the bandwidth is limited - although with these
> numbers I think it works out at the equivalent of 10mbps upload - which
> might if they are a small host be their total available bandwidth.
>
> Its also worth looking at whether they have any "reasonable usage" clause.
> It might be that you could fit inside all their other requirements but
> once your site becomes busy they reserve the option to boot you down to
> reasonable usage. This might for example be expressed in terms of cpu
> time.
>
> BTW if you did fill up 500GB of space with pictures of your cat then you'd
> probably find that:
> 1. You'd have to contact their support a few times because they ran out of
> disk space before you reached the 500GB. (Been there!)
> 2. That it would take you an age - perhaps its me but it always seems to
> take longer than an on-paper-calculation says it should to upload even 1GB
> of files (say 1000 * 1MB files).
> --
> Brian Cryer
> www.cryer.co.uk/brian
>
>
>
>