Hosting Providers

[Knightly]

I feel stupid because there is a saying that you learn in Networking classes (a something-something rule) that basically says a small percentage of your users use about 90% of your resources.

I think you're talking about the 80-20 rule. In Networking it's said that 20% of your users use 80% of your resources.

There's also a joke about it...something like: 80% of your users know how to turn on a computer 20% of the time.

[trevius]

My main point was that you aren't at risk of any legal action being taken against you unless you are hosting illegal services from your home, which EQEmu is NOT. There is no legal recourse for hosting a server so people don't have to worry about getting taken to court over it. Sure, the ISP may be able to terminate your service if they actually found out and cared, but the chance of that are even extremely low if any.

The only reason they even care at all is because they don't want to oversubscribe for an area and then have to upgrade their own bandwidth. All networks provide services to customers that in total are many times over what the network can actually handle. They do this because the chance that everyone on the network will try to use all of their bandwidth at the exact same time is extremely low. But ya, if everyone ran a server in your neighborhood, there would be a problem lol.

[TheLieka]

ISPs aren't in the business of suing their subscribers. The worst thing they would possibly do is ask you to purchase one of their business lines - to which you just say "no thanks", and move on.

Dax

[circuitdragon]

Sorry to keep this going in this thread, but I work for a wireless ISP. Our TOS does include a server clause on our network, BUT with certain terms. A home server doing nothing more than being a server, OK...a WinXP (98,2000, etc) with a P2P app running as a file share server = disconnect BUT only after certain bandwith usage. A business server on a residential account? Fine, but no static IP, nor any priorty service if the connection fails. Point here is, its still all about how you use your connection. The TOS for any provider only serves as a legal ground for them to make any decision up to and including discontinuing your service.