Unlimited Hard drive space

I really hate to see hosts offering unlimited space or bandwidth.
So many customers that don't know a lot about hosting will go for this, they don't think about it being impossible to provide, and may not know that unlimited bandwidth isn't possible.
 
Decker said:
:D Only one way to 'Unlimited Space' using a NAS setup - but their really expensive in real life for hosting, need your own datacenter really. Usually used for corp backup solutions or mainframe replacement technology.
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Yeah that'd be great a whole DC full of NASs and backbone connections nothing else. :D

Anyone up for 100TB disk space? :)
 
Unlimited according to the Cambridge English Dictionary is "not limited; having the greatest possible amount, number or level". [ Link ]

It's impossible to have unlimited of anything really.

Earlier on in the thread someone talked about unlimited conversations. Well, you do die eventually - so there is a limit: you can have plenty of conversations up until you die, however it still won't be unlimited.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to have unlimited of anything. You cannot have unlimited bandwidth, space, or even domain names. It's impossible to have unlimited of anything - yet many people seem to not realise this.

You may think you can do something unlimited times, yet there is always a restriction - you cannot go swimming unlimited times, since you eventually die, and you cannot swim when you're dead. And the list continues...

You can have very large amounts of space and bandwidth; yet never unlimited.

Many small webhosts claim unlimited so they can have a lot of clients. It's really human greed - we all want bigger things, regardless of whether we really need it or not. Larger webhosts do the same; however they are clever and have it written into their Terms and Conditions that it isn't really unlimited, and your account will be terminated when you are using too many server resources, and so on.

It's best to stay away from any host that offers unlimited, regardless of their size. Unlimited is just impossible - regardless of what some may say.
 
rwaforums said:
Yeah that'd be great a whole DC full of NASs and backbone connections nothing else. :D

Anyone up for 100TB disk space? :)
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more like 1,000,000,000 TB if you filled the whole DC :). THats what should happen. Alll providers should build one big DC and house this thing. Multipul OC-192 connections. w00t!
 
The theory behind NAS and SAN come to that is it's theoretically expandable ad-infinitum so it's probably the closest you can get to the claim :)
 
BTW, your in Ireland, and I shouldnt say this here probably, but I host one of Sinn Fein's sites...
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Didn't notice your edit.
No reason not to say it here :)
I am in Belfast so this is one of their main places for government.
I think they also have a party in the South but they are a lot bigger in the North.
I am from a place called Derry and they are probably the biggest party there also.
 
I just bought an unlimited space hard drive at staples last week :D it was only $2.99, unfortunately, it's full already and I can't get in contact with the manufacturer or the store.
 
mattsoftnet said:
I just bought an unlimited space hard drive at staples last week :D it was only $2.99, unfortunately, it's full already and I can't get in contact with the manufacturer or the store.
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:) I think you pretty much explained the principle that unlimited disk drives do not work ;)

Welcome to hostingrefuge.com
 
Unlimited until they sell the company

You see alot of small hosting companies go for sale where the hosting plans offer way too much disk/bandwidth for the price (or even unlimited). Hosting companies can't make a profit if just one client goes hog-wild with disk space usage. I'd stay away unless your website is just a hobby and you don't really care if it has problems or gets moved around to different hosting companies or gets closed out. Keep a backup.
 
Hello.

Claiming to provide "unlimited" bandwidth/space is simply claiming to offer something you can't provide.

But then again, a lot of hosts oversell and technically wouldn't be able to provide what they claim if every user actually used the resources they purchased.

I guess it comes down to whether it is ethical or not.

Regards,
Zeeshan

P.S. Just my 2 cents.
 
I wish there was an unlimited harddrive out there :) But that is impossible and I think it does come down to ethics and taking advantage of those who do not understand the principle.
 
ZeniorsDotCom said:
But then again, a lot of hosts oversell and technically wouldn't be able to provide what they claim if every user actually used the resources they purchased.

I guess it comes down to whether it is ethical or not.
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Although I agree that offering unlimited anything is a bad plan, overselling is not unethical IMHO. The insurance industry does this. They sell billions of $$$ of polices. If everyone dropped dead tomorrow they wouldn't have enough to cover all the policies they oversold. However, they do keep enough in reserves to handle abnormal "usage". That's what a host needs to do. Balance disk space, bandwidth, etc and have reserves.
 
It all depends how overselling is done. The chances of everybody using their full allocated disk space and uploading at the same time on the same day is very very slim. If servers are monitored very often (like every few minutes) and warnings are set in place then issue's will not arise.

For transfer and overselling... a dedicated server at a reputable datacentre may come with 400Gb transfer (for example)... what happens if your clients use 600Gb that month. Well... the datacentre charge you fee's in most cases. All you need to do as the host is make sure that the server can handle that traffic and also that your plans are priced appropriatly so you can afford to pay the overages.

It all comes down to managing the resources well.
 
Personally, I'd avoid a host who offered unlimited bandwidth of diskspace. The word they need to use is unmetered. The problem is, if you put a site on there that took up a huge ammount of space and it only cost you $14.99/month, I'm sure they'd have something to say about it. It's a form of overselling.

Matt
 
Hello.

I find it hypocritical that people call "unmetered" unethical and approve regular overselling. Both methods are simply claiming to offer something they couldn't possibly offer to ALL clients.

Regards,
Zeeshan
 
Fair point you have there. The good side of it is, is that it works. Most users will look at it and think, great offer, I'll take it! As long as the host can manage the overselling, it's not a bad selling point for them.
 
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