Announcement: Bandwidth quotas

Geir · 2 Feb 2005, 09:16 PM

Thus far Runbox has not enforced any bandwidth quotas aside from the 5000 messages per day limit. We now introduce a tentative bandwidth limit to curb extreme usage. This will not affect normal or even heavy usage, so most of our users will not notice any difference.

The reason for the policy change is that our hosting provider has changed their bandwidth pricing policy, and that content-based message processing such as spam scanning is becoming increasingly resource intensive.

We expect this to release resources that will allow Runbox to provide better services for everyone.

The bandwidth quota includes email you receive, email and attachments you download via POP3 and IMAP, messages you send via SMTP and from the webmail, and attachments downloaded from the webmail.

The new quotas are as follows:

Trial users - 250 MB per week/1 GB per month
Subscribers - 2.5 GB per week/10 GB per month

A bandwidth usage graph or similar will soon appear in your webmail when you are close to reaching your weekly limit.

- Geir

carverrn · 2 Feb 2005, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Geir
A bandwidth usage graph or similar will soon appear in your webmail when you are close to reaching your weekly limit.

- Geir

I would rather see a Bandwidth Usage graph all the time right with the Disk Usage graph. That would give me a feel of how I'm doing on my bandwidth regardless of being close or not.

Will you be giving the heavy users the option to buy more bandwidth or not? Or just have them buy another account?

Regards,
Rich

odedp · 2 Feb 2005, 09:40 PM

These bandwidth quotas are very generous...
I'd hardly call it "limit"....
The new weekly "limits" are much more than other paid services offer per month...

mms_crazy · 2 Feb 2005, 11:15 PM

First
I paid for a certain service.
Now you are changing it
I can see you doing this to new clients but when we both agreed that you would provided certain service for so much a year. You received payment to finalize that agreement. We entered into a contract
You can change the material of the contract at renewal time and that gives the person the option to stay or leave. You can tell this to new clients But not to the clients you already have.
You have a breach of contract with me.
You essentially have broke the contract and everyone and I do mean everyone deserves their money refunded.
Because You are failing to provided the service that we agreed upon.
It is no concern of mine what your provider is charging you or not charging you. You agreed to deliver a certain service (material) for so much a year and you are breaching that contract
Faye

Geir · 2 Feb 2005, 11:22 PM

Faye,

As explained the imposed bandwidth quota is absolutely necessary, and we believe it to be very generous.

It is within our rights to introduce such quotas, as stated in our Terms of Service (under Subscriber Conduct):

"You will obey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of Runbox Mail Manager or connected services, and observe and comply with any usage restriction set forth by administrators on this or appurtenant web sites, with regards to content, storage space, traffic, bandwidth, and other conditions."

- Geir

mms_crazy · 2 Feb 2005, 11:34 PM

UCC article 2 states: That no party may materially alter the contract without additonal consideration.
Faye

BKB · 2 Feb 2005, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Geir
The bandwidth quota includes email you receive, email and attachments you download via POP3 and IMAP, messages you send via SMTP and from the webmail, and attachments downloaded from the webmail.

So this doesn't include access to the Files area then, correct?

Geir · 2 Feb 2005, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BKB
So this doesn't include access to the Files area then, correct?

It will soon.

- Geir

goofy · 2 Feb 2005, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by carverrn
I would rather see a Bandwidth Usage graph all the time right with the Disk Usage graph. That would give me a feel of how I'm doing on my bandwidth regardless of being close or not.

Yes, such as Fastmail does, right?

Gnome · 2 Feb 2005, 11:47 PM

Well, I can't say I'm happy about this, but like Rich, I would like to see my usage always displayed - whether I'm close or not.

Geir · 2 Feb 2005, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by carverrn
I would rather see a Bandwidth Usage graph all the time right with the Disk Usage graph. That would give me a feel of how I'm doing on my bandwidth regardless of being close or not.

We'll consider this, yes.

Quote:

Will you be giving the heavy users the option to buy more bandwidth or not? Or just have them buy another account?

We haven't decided yet. Let's put it this way: If you use more than 10 GB per month you are a very resource-demanding user.

- Geir

john237 · 2 Feb 2005, 11:54 PM

First up, I support bandwidth limiting. I have had terrible message delays in the last 24 hours so anything that improves that, gets my vote.

Secondly...and this is a question. I was wondering how bandwidth is actually measured. Example, Someone sends me an email, and it arrives into my webmail inbox. That uses up a certain amount of bandwidth. Next I come along with my email client, and download that email to by email client. Again, I am using bandwidth. So basically, If I use POP mail, am I actually using twice the bandwidth than a webmail only user?

Its mainly out of curiousity that I am asking :-)

Keep up the good work
John

carverrn · 3 Feb 2005, 12:07 AM

First, I think Runbox has to immediately change all their product feature statements to clearly state the new bandwidth limits. You must get this done now even if the limits are not enforced yet. This is more important than the software.

Once this is done, all new subscriptions and renewed subscriptions will be under the new terms with a clearly stated bandwidth.

I understand the need to impose the bandwidth limits in order to provide acceptable service to all users, but I think Faye does have a point about exisiting subscriptions.

Runbox has always openly advertised "Virtually unlimited bandwidth". So I can understand why users who signed up because of the "Virtually unlimited bandwidth" may find this a violation of the agreement.

Personally I've always felt that was a risky statement to make but that was their business decision. I don't think Runbox should just cut off the existing users under the current contract. Worst case I would expect Runbox to offer those users a refund if the new limit makes the service unusable for them.

Regards,
Rich

carverrn · 3 Feb 2005, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by goofy
Yes, such as Fastmail does, right?

Exactly.

carverrn · 3 Feb 2005, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by john237
Secondly...and this is a question. I was wondering how bandwidth is actually measured. Example, Someone sends me an email, and it arrives into my webmail inbox. That uses up a certain amount of bandwidth. Next I come along with my email client, and download that email to by email client. Again, I am using bandwidth. So basically, If I use POP mail, am I actually using twice the bandwidth than a webmail only user?

As Geir said "bandwidth quota includes email you receive, email and attachments you download via POP3 and IMAP, messages you send via SMTP and from the webmail, and attachments downloaded from the webmail. "

So yes, in your example the bandwidth used to receive that message and get it to your computer would be approximately twice the size of the message.

As I read the statment, reading email on the web wouldn't cost you bandwidth but if you had to download an attachment it would. My question would be ... are HTML messages and images that are displayed directly by RMM considered "downloaded attachments" (since they are technically attachments) even if I don't directly download them?

Rich

2 Feb 2005, 09:16 PM	#1
Geir The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Oslo, Norway Posts: 2,938 Representative of: Runbox.com	Announcement: Bandwidth quotas Thus far Runbox has not enforced any bandwidth quotas aside from the 5000 messages per day limit. We now introduce a tentative bandwidth limit to curb extreme usage. This will not affect normal or even heavy usage, so most of our users will not notice any difference. The reason for the policy change is that our hosting provider has changed their bandwidth pricing policy, and that content-based message processing such as spam scanning is becoming increasingly resource intensive. We expect this to release resources that will allow Runbox to provide better services for everyone. The bandwidth quota includes email you receive, email and attachments you download via POP3 and IMAP, messages you send via SMTP and from the webmail, and attachments downloaded from the webmail. The new quotas are as follows: Trial users - 250 MB per week/1 GB per month Subscribers - 2.5 GB per week/10 GB per month A bandwidth usage graph or similar will soon appear in your webmail when you are close to reaching your weekly limit. - Geir

2 Feb 2005, 11:15 PM	#4
mms_crazy Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 100	This is just great First I paid for a certain service. Now you are changing it I can see you doing this to new clients but when we both agreed that you would provided certain service for so much a year. You received payment to finalize that agreement. We entered into a contract You can change the material of the contract at renewal time and that gives the person the option to stay or leave. You can tell this to new clients But not to the clients you already have. You have a breach of contract with me. You essentially have broke the contract and everyone and I do mean everyone deserves their money refunded. Because You are failing to provided the service that we agreed upon. It is no concern of mine what your provider is charging you or not charging you. You agreed to deliver a certain service (material) for so much a year and you are breaching that contract Faye

2 Feb 2005, 11:34 PM	#6
mms_crazy Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 100	GEIR UCC article 2 states: That no party may materially alter the contract without additonal consideration. Faye Last edited by mms_crazy : 2 Feb 2005 at 11:49 PM.

2 Feb 2005, 09:40 PM	#3
odedp Master of the @ Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: Tel-Aviv, ISRAEL Posts: 1,666	These bandwidth quotas are very generous... I'd hardly call it "limit".... The new weekly "limits" are much more than other paid services offer per month...

2 Feb 2005, 11:22 PM	#5
Geir The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Oslo, Norway Posts: 2,938 Representative of: Runbox.com	Faye, As explained the imposed bandwidth quota is absolutely necessary, and we believe it to be very generous. It is within our rights to introduce such quotas, as stated in our Terms of Service (under Subscriber Conduct): "You will obey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of Runbox Mail Manager or connected services, and observe and comply with any usage restriction set forth by administrators on this or appurtenant web sites, with regards to content, storage space, traffic, bandwidth, and other conditions." - Geir

2 Feb 2005, 11:47 PM	#10
Gnome Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Philadelphia, USA Posts: 92	Well, I can't say I'm happy about this, but like Rich, I would like to see my usage always displayed - whether I'm close or not.

2 Feb 2005, 11:54 PM	#12
john237 Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 3	First up, I support bandwidth limiting. I have had terrible message delays in the last 24 hours so anything that improves that, gets my vote. Secondly...and this is a question. I was wondering how bandwidth is actually measured. Example, Someone sends me an email, and it arrives into my webmail inbox. That uses up a certain amount of bandwidth. Next I come along with my email client, and download that email to by email client. Again, I am using bandwidth. So basically, If I use POP mail, am I actually using twice the bandwidth than a webmail only user? Its mainly out of curiousity that I am asking :-) Keep up the good work John

3 Feb 2005, 12:07 AM	#13
carverrn Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 5,606 Representative of: Runbox.com	First, I think Runbox has to immediately change all their product feature statements to clearly state the new bandwidth limits. You must get this done now even if the limits are not enforced yet. This is more important than the software. Once this is done, all new subscriptions and renewed subscriptions will be under the new terms with a clearly stated bandwidth. I understand the need to impose the bandwidth limits in order to provide acceptable service to all users, but I think Faye does have a point about exisiting subscriptions. Runbox has always openly advertised "Virtually unlimited bandwidth". So I can understand why users who signed up because of the "Virtually unlimited bandwidth" may find this a violation of the agreement. Personally I've always felt that was a risky statement to make but that was their business decision. I don't think Runbox should just cut off the existing users under the current contract. Worst case I would expect Runbox to offer those users a refund if the new limit makes the service unusable for them. Regards, Rich