Hosting Unlimited explains FUP

James Etherington-Smith

James is journalist and sub-editor at MyBroadband, and editor at MyGaming. He is an avid gamer with an exceptional knowledge about gaming and related hardware...

Full Profile

E-mail

Newly launched web hosting company Hosting Unlimited has reinforced its commitment to its unlimited offering at R89 a month with its fair usage policy plan as well as an extensive explanation of what it covers.

“We are fully committed to our original plan to provide web hosting at the lowest possible cost in order to expand accessibility of the Internet. However, due to the queries from members of the public, it has become clear that not everyone is fully acquainted with fair usage policies,” said Jonathan Tricker, CEO of Hosting Unlimited.

“There is apparent confusion around the term ‘unlimited.’ Since our launch early last week, forum feedback has suggested that it should contain no exclusions,” he said.

“However, web hosting norms worldwide include fair usage policies as qualifiers to unlimited offerings to protect other users on the server and to ensure that the quality of their service is not impeded by the abuse of others,” Tricker said.

Hosting Unlimited are also not the only company advertising an unlimited service under terms and conditions specified in an acceptable or fair usage policy (AUP or FUP).

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering uncapped ADSL packages such as MWEB, Afrihost and Internet Solutions resellers, all operate under some sort of FUP.

MWEB and Afrihost have relatively unspecfic FUPs, while Internet Solutions’ policy came under fire earlier this month. Users on Internet Solutions accounts found themselves subjected to 10 day rolling windows, or shaping policies if they were in the top 50% or top 20% of IS users, depending on the type of account.

When Afrihost first launched their uncapped offering they had a specific usage-based FUP, but this was changed to a less specific policy over time.

“We are so grateful to the feedback received from the MyADSL forum participants because we believe it has honed our offering and given the customer what they have asked for,” he said.

Hosting Unlimited announced its hosting offerings to the South African market last week.

The company’s unlimited web hosting package, so-called because it provides unlimited disk space and allows for unlimited website traffic, costs R89 per month.

This means users with optimized websites for hobby, personal, blogging, business, photo galleries, membership sites etc., the unlimited offer extends to unlimited storage and file transfer for your active website. However, the unlimited offer does not extend to backup or to store a million pictures, but can be used to actively run and operate your website.

Tricker stressed that the unlimited offer cannot be used for the sole purpose of storing files. The website must be active.

Another aspect not covered by the unlimited offer is the unlicensed distribution of copyrighted material. This includes file sharing, file upload, file archive, backup, site mirroring, content distribution sites, porn, excessive amount of videos and music.

“The Internet is commonly thought of as a free and unlimited space, yet most domain owners will know all too well that being on the web can be a costly business that’s fraught with limitations and complications,” Tricker says.

Tricker is determined to make having a website trouble-free. Clients can email queries through and he guarantees a response within 30 minutes. “In the last week alone, clients have complimented us on our service commitments,” Tricker said.

The public nature of this forum means that anyone who has a problem similar to one that is already being discussed will be get answers without even having to ask their question and clients may even be willing to offer advice to each other.

“The web lends itself to this sort of communal give and take, and it’s so important for anyone with a website to be able to have help right at their fingertips,” Tricker concluded.

Tricker has created a free web hosting package that includes 55MB of disk space and provides 0.3GB for website traffic per month aimed at students and small start up’s. The package comes with up to three mailboxes.

Fair usage policies << Comments and views