How DARE YOU use the company internet connection for work?



  • My ticket:

    I often experience interruptions during long downloads, the TCP connection is just shut down. For example I've been trying for 2 days to download a RedHat ISO (>3G), without much success. FYI URL is xxx. wget restarts the download automatically but it eventually fails or the download is often corrupted.

    Their awesome passive-aggressive reply:

    I'm a bit surprised by your ticket
    The connection is currently 8Mb/s
    3GB would take about 1h if the line was only used by you, in the best case.
    I'm reminding you that you are about 500 to use this link and that it is not dedicated to you.
    For this kind of download, I would recommend using an external connection.

    It's not clear what they mean by "external connection;" I asked around and people told me to do the download at home. Which is what I did. I enjoy the amazing luxury of having 3 times more bandwidth for just one user. 

    How about upgrading the link? Yeah well, that would cost money, and those are the people who make you request a quote (from the one and only supplier) and a purchase order for $20 keyboard. I kid you not. 

    No, I'm really not kidding you.

    I have to insist because I would not believe any of you if you made the same claim. Or at least, I wouldn't have until I started working here.



  • Maybe you should send yourself an RFQ and then submit a quote and invoice for the "DVD Replication Service" you performed on your own time.Or, you could go home every time you need to download something, and make sure you produce this email when someone calls you on it.



  • @Sir Twist said:

    Maybe you should send yourself an RFQ and then submit a quote and invoice for the "DVD Replication Service" you performed on your own time.Or, you could go home every time you need to download something, and make sure you produce this email when someone calls you on it.

     

    A cow-orker suggested that I tell them that I followed their advice and downloaded the ISO on the company issued laptop's UMTS connection (the only "external connection" around), and that I would be sending the $1000 bill their way since it was their idea.



  •  You fix this by showing your manager the email and requesting an "external connection" for your PC.  IT will crap their pants once they realize this is the result of their stupidity, and then you can enjoy watching the manager wars as eventually IT breaks down and either installs more bandwidth, or you get to be "that guy" in the office with his own private internet connection.  Whatever happens, you win.

     If you have to download it at home, get your manager to pay your extra bandwidth charges.  In my country, that download would cost about $8.



  • Let my years in IT help you: "external connection" here means "wifi stolen from the office across the hall while sitting in a toilet stall for 6 hours with the laptop because that's the only place you can get any signal".  This is pretty much SOP for IT shops I've worked in.  Don't forget to pick up a Spanish-English phrasebook beforehand so when the cleaning crew comes in you can answer their queries with "bad carnitas chimichanga".  Otherwise, they're going to get worried that you've died and call an ambulance.  Also, if you can bring some runny oatmeal along to drop in the bowl while making grunting and farting noises, that would help complete the ruse.

     

    @shepd said:

    You fix this by showing your manager the email and requesting an "external connection" for your PC.  IT will crap their pants once they realize this is the result of their stupidity, and then you can enjoy watching the manager wars as eventually IT breaks down and either installs more bandwidth, or you get to be "that guy" in the office with his own private internet connection.  Whatever happens, you win.

    Yes, and then you end up being "that guy" who gets his hard-drive repeatedly corrupted and eventually "accidentally" overwrites the entire network share with beastiality porn.  Enjoy your time in prison and remember that on your first day you need to beat the shit out of someone or become someone's bitch, unless you want to spend your entire stay being brutally sodomized.  Don't forget to secure a steady supply of contraband so your "daddy" doesn't have sell your bitch ass to a gang of neo-Nazis just to get a pack of smokes.

     

    @shepd said:

     If you have to download it at home, get your manager to pay your extra bandwidth charges.  In my country, that download would cost about $8.

    $8??  Your country sucks.



  • @shepd said:

     You fix this by showing your manager the email and requesting an "external connection" for your PC.  IT will crap their pants once they realize this is the result of their stupidity, and then you can enjoy watching the manager wars as eventually IT breaks down and either installs more bandwidth, or you get to be "that guy" in the office with his own private internet connection.  Whatever happens, you win.

     Here's the thing: my boss hates them. So does my boss's boss. And his boss too. Everybody does, except the CEO I guess. Imagine a VP of a publically traded company having to waste 3 hours arguing with the CIO over a $500 hardware purchase? Well let's just say I didn't have to imagine that one.


     If you have to download it at home, get your manager to pay your extra bandwidth charges.  In my country, that download would cost about $8.

     

     Well in my country a 28Mbps (unmetered, unlimited) ADSL connection is €30 a month (if you're lucky you can even get 50Mbps symmetrical FTTH for that price). Wasting hours upon hours of skilled labour on pointless IT policies? Priceless. 



  • @nixar said:

    My ticket:

    I often experience interruptions during long downloads, the TCP connection is just shut down. For example I've been trying for 2 days to download a RedHat ISO (>3G), without much success. FYI URL is xxx. wget restarts the download automatically but it eventually fails or the download is often corrupted.

    Their awesome passive-aggressive reply:

    I'm a bit surprised by your ticket
    The connection is currently 8Mb/s
    3GB would take about 1h if the line was only used by you, in the best case.

    I'm reminding you that you are about 500 to use this link and that it is not dedicated to you.
    For this kind of download, I would recommend using an external connection.

    Reading between the lines... IT have been manually terminating your connections when they see them in the firewall monitor, on the assumption that you were just messing around or doing something stupid, and now that they realise they are responsible for delaying something that was part of your proper work-related usage by two days, they are desparately ass-covering.  Who gives a fuck if the download would take X amount of time if you were the only user?  You're not the only user, so why is their firewall so godawfully misconfigured that only one connection can go through at a time?  Don't these jokers have any idea how to run a network?

    Perhaps you should put in a req for a new sysadmin. 



  •  Next time just order the dvd instead of downloading it. Simple problem, simple solution.



  •  @stratos said:

     Next time just order the dvd instead of downloading it. Simple problem, simple solution.

    You car is broken? Walk. Simple solution for a simple mind.



  • @nixar said:

     @stratos said:

     Next time just order the dvd instead of downloading it. Simple problem, simple solution.

    You car is broken? Walk. Simple solution for a simple mind.

     

    You yourself say it is pointless to waste your time on these kinds of moronic IT policies. So why do it then? Fine, you chose to download it yourself at home, also a valid solution of course, if you don't mind taking your work home with you. But to me the most obvious response to this problem is to then not download it and just order it. It avoids any discussion or using their sacred bandwith and keeps your time free to focus on other tasks.



  •  @stratos said:

    You yourself say it is pointless to waste your time on these kinds of moronic IT policies. So why do it then? Fine, you chose to download it yourself at home, also a valid solution of course, if you don't mind taking your work home with you. But to me the most obvious response to this problem is to then not download it and just order it. It avoids any discussion or using their sacred bandwith and keeps your time free to focus on other tasks.

    Downloading a DVD that I didn't think I needed until recently on a decent connection: an hour at most

    Ordering the physical copy: a few days



  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @nixar said:

    Downloading a DVD that I didn't think I needed until recently on a decent connection: an hour at most

    Ordering the physical copy: a few days

    Um, as you pointed out yourself, it took a few days to successfully download it.



  •  crontab -e

    0 0 1 9 * wget http://url....

     

     



  • @PJH said:

    Um, as you pointed out yourself, it took a few days to successfully download it.
     

    Yes. It did. 

    So that makes it ok then.



  • I remember being told something similar along those lines. Apparently people couldn't send or receive emails because I was using up all the bandwidth. I don't remember exactly what I was downloading, but I do remember there being a 2 MB connection shared between 6 different companies on the site. 

     



  • @Mole said:

    I remember being told something similar along those lines. Apparently people couldn't send or receive emails because I was using up all the bandwidth. I don't remember exactly what I was downloading, but I do remember there being a 2 MB connection shared between 6 different companies on the site.

    Maybe you were using Google Maps to find the best route through the rockies while on your way to Oregon or checking out the instructables on how to build a log cabin, eh, grandpa?  Or were you just trying to find funny videos of Injuns scalping people, huh, old man?



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Maybe you were using Google Maps to find the best route through the rockies while on your way to Oregon or checking out the instructables on how to build a log cabin, eh, grandpa?  Or were you just trying to find funny videos of Injuns scalping people, huh, old man?
    You have to watch out for those tyrannosaurid 419 scammers:

    Hello Kind Sir/Madam,

    I am fine today and how are you? I hope this letter will find you in the best of health. I am Most Honorable Doctor Albertosaurus Scarcophagus.

    I am the Chairman of the Contract Award Committee, and my committee was solely responsible for awaiting and paying of contracts on behalf of the Federal Government of Godwana. My Committee Awarded Contracts to foreign contractors for Being Extremely Large and Eating Furry Animals Matters. We overshot the contract sum by Shiny Rocks 25,000,000.00. We have paid the contractors and withholding the balance.  But, because of the existence of some of the domestic laws forbidding civil servants in Godwana from opening, operating and maintaining foreign caves, we do not have the expertise to transfer this balance of fund to a foreign cave.

    However, this balance of Shiny Rocks 25,000, 000.00 has been secured in form of Credit/Payment to a foreign contractor, hence we wish to transfer into your cave as the beneficiary of the fund.  We have also arrived at a conclusion that you will be given 20% of the total sum transferred as our foreign partner, while 5% will be reserved for incidental expenses that both parties will incur in the course of actualizing this transaction, and the balance of 75% will be kept for the committee members.

    If you know that you will be capable of helping us actualize this transaction, you should send to me immediately the details of your cave particulars or open a new cave where we can transfer the money Shiny Rocks 25,000, 000.00, which you will be holding in trust for us until we come to your country for our share.  Your nature of business does not matter in this transaction.  The required details includes your company’s name, cave location, and your complete cave details where the transferred fund will be delivered by Pterosaur, such as how many delicious humans live with you, best time for a hypothetical attack, and number of readily available spears.

    Note that this transaction is expected to be actualized within 21 disappearances of the sky fire, from the day the required details are forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Finance who will approve the needed foreign exchange control allocation for the release of this money to your cave. Please, treat this as top secret. You should contact me urgently.

    Thanks for your cooperation.

    Yours faithfully,

    Most Honorable Doctor Albertosaurus Scarcophagus



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    $8??  Your country sucks.
     

     

    Yes, yes, it does.  Canuckistan internet is some of the most expensive internets in the so-called first world.  And the websites for them suck.  If it works:

    Jerks

    You pay between $5 and $0.50/GB once you reach the pathetically low cap ($2/GB for most people).  There is no longer any provider offering unlimited service in Canada (those that are have been hit up by our giant retard of a regulator, the CRTC, to stop doing it in 90 days).  If you go for the cheapest package, you could actually end up paying ~$25 to download a DVD.



  • @shepd said:

    You pay between $5 and $0.50/GB once you reach the pathetically low cap ($2/GB for most people).  There is no longer any provider offering unlimited service in Canada (those that are have been hit up by our giant retard of a regulator, the CRTC, to stop doing it in 90 days).  If you go for the cheapest package, you could actually end up paying ~$25 to download a DVD.

    With these kinds of prices its no wonder that Canada is home to one such user that made the desktop search app.. I'd go crazy too if I had to pay that.



  • This highlights the important difference between slow and disconnected. At one office we use a satellite link. During the day, if the file is large, we get cut off after a half-megabyte or so. At night the office is locked. I have to come in on Saturdays to upgrade Ubuntu on the server. We had to install a separate server, with the usual synchronization problems, because the last pages of a large report would be cut off. I have taken desktop  computers to my house in order to download applications. And no, there is no other ISP.

     If the ISP traffic is heavy, please lower my bandwidth; do not disconnect me. I will be patien. 



  • Old man? I'm talking about late last year :P Seriously. Oh, and they run the 6 company websites from that 2 MB connection too. 

     

    As for internet cost, I pay £25 UKP per month for 30GB and "upto 4MB" connection speed. If I use up that 30GB, then it's £1.50 for each additional GB. Yes I know, I should move, but I'm planning a move to cable rather than this DSL trash. 



  •  This is really strange. If I've ever had a problem of this sort, I'll complain to my manager. If he can't help, I go to his manager, and so on. I've never had to download stuff from home because it was too hard to do it at work. It would be different if work paid for my home connection, but then if they could afford to do that, I wouldn't be doing it from home...

    Make the business case, file the request, job done.



  • @rfsmit said:

     This is really strange. If I've ever had a problem of this sort, I'll complain to my manager. If he can't help, I go to his manager, and so on. I've never had to download stuff from home because it was too hard to do it at work. It would be different if work paid for my home connection, but then if they could afford to do that, I wouldn't be doing it from home...

    Make the business case, file the request, job done.

     

    Well, yeah, that's what I did. Actually been doing that for a year (for other instances of complete nonsense), going up to a VP. It's complete madness. The whole company is wasting hundreds of man-hours of productive work every month because of the moronitude. 

    I'm suspecting that they have a screwed up accounting of IT expenses. As in, they try to squeeze out every $ on IT spending without accounting for the fact that hundreds of highly paid skilled employees wasting their time loses them 10 times as much.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @shepd said:

     If you have to download it at home, get your manager to pay your extra bandwidth charges.  In my country, that download would cost about $8.

    $8??  Your country sucks.

     

    In my country 3GB could be $450! But then only people who don't know any better use Telstra (or who can't get anything else because of Tesltra's crappy phone lines)



  • @Zemm said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    @shepd said:

     If you have to download it at home, get your manager to pay your extra bandwidth charges.  In my country, that download would cost about $8.

    $8??  Your country sucks.

     

    In my country 3GB could be $450! But then only people who don't know any better use Telstra (or who can't get anything else because of Tesltra's crappy phone lines)

    Meh, what do you expect when packets are delivered via kangaroo pouch?



  • @Zemm said:

    In my country 3GB could be $450! But then only people who don't know any better use Telstra (or who can't get anything else because of Tesltra's crappy phone lines)
     

    That's not even a rip-off; it's simply fucking insane. I knew Telstra sucked but boy. Wow. Wow!

    You could buy 6 1TB hard drives and get them delivered to the other side of the world overnight through FedEx for that much money. 

    Just ... wow.

    Here basically most ISP (except Orange, which is at least 50% more expensive but has slightly  better reliability) aligned on the €30/month for ADSL2+, which means up to 28Mbps down and 1MBps, unmetered, including free unlimited worldwide phone (except weird locations like Yemen or Afghanistan), basic cable TV channels and a PVR with modem/router/wifi, no setup fee if the copper line is up. You just pay ~90€ to close the line unless you've had it for a couple years.

    Where available (slooowly rolling out) you get FTTH (50Mbps up/down) for the same price. My ISP throws in free 10GB hosting, no ads, unlimited traffic (but no pr0n). They also offer dedicated hosting, your own box for €30/month, 100Mbps connectivity, no traffic cap.

    And they make money.

    Cheap bandwidth is nice. 



  • @AndyCanfield said:

    I have to come in on Saturdays to upgrade Ubuntu on the server. We had to install a separate server, with the usual synchronization problems, because the last pages of a large report would be cut off
    I honestly hope you're hosting your own repo for internal use when you do Ubuntu upgrades. For the Windows side of things you should have an SMS (IIRC they changed the name) server setup.



  • 1) We only have one machine, a server, running Ubuntu, so there's no multi-drop advantage in having our own mirror.

    2) A mirror requires updating the entire Ubuntu suite, which is far far greater than the portion this one server needs to upgrade. For example, we don't run python, so no need to download upgrades to python. The mirror maintenance software can handle partial mirrors, but the partiality is very course-grained.

    3) I've tried to do 'apt-get upgrade' overnight from a crontab job, but too many of the package install scripts demand user input, usually to decide between a new config file and the old one. AFAIK this hangs the crontab job.

     4) I've tried 'downloading only' in the overnight crotab job, and that worked. But the daytime install still insists on going out to  the Internet for new updates, even though I told it not to. That hangs the install because large update files get cut off by the ISP. IMHO it's a bug in apt-get.

     5) Our ISP is so rotten that even "apt-get update" hangs sometimes. But, like I said, no alternatives. No ADSL because the nearest town is on the other side of the lake.

     



  • @AndyCanfield said:

    2) A mirror requires updating the entire Ubuntu suite, which is far far greater than the portion this one server needs to upgrade. For example, we don't run python, so no need to download upgrades to python. The mirror maintenance software can handle partial mirrors, but the partiality is very course-grained.
    Slight difference between a mirror and a repository. However, as you've stated your situation doesn't merrit one.
    @AndyCanfield said:
    3) I've tried to do 'apt-get upgrade' overnight from a crontab job, but too many of the package install scripts demand user input, usually to decide between a new config file and the old one. AFAIK this hangs the crontab job.
    One of the many WTFs available from the offical packages.
    @AndyCanfield said:
     4) I've tried 'downloading only' in the overnight crotab job, and that worked. But the daytime install still insists on going out to  the Internet for new updates, even though I told it not to. That hangs the install because large update files get cut off by the ISP. IMHO it's a bug in apt-get.
    Perhaps have the downloaded debs moved to another directory, then give apt-get a special lists file that only contains a file:// url to said path. You may need to make a wrapper script to switch the lists file if apt-get doesn't let you change it on the fly.



  • @AndyCanfield said:

     5) Our ISP is so rotten that even "apt-get update" hangs sometimes. But, like I said, no alternatives. No ADSL because the nearest town is on the other side of the lake.
     

    Assuming you're not speaking figuratively and that you are, indeed, on the other side of an actual lake and not that of an ocean, have you ever considered tin can WiFi?

    Get in touch with someone there, get an ADSL line there and use two directionnal antennas hooked to wifi routers. A while back we did that for a distance of about 7km. The link doesn't work anymore nowadays because there's waay too many people with wifi in that zone, so we pick up too much crap, but over a lake, you'd have none of that problem. You can do it from anywhere between $100 (2 el'cheapo routers + Pringle cans and some copper) or $500 (with real antennas).



  • @nixar said:

    @Zemm said:

    In my country 3GB could be $450! But then only people who don't know any better use Telstra (or who can't get anything else because of Tesltra's crappy phone lines)
     

    You could buy 6 1TB hard drives and get them delivered to the other side of the world overnight through FedEx for that much money. 

    Those drives would probably have more bandwidth than the internet connection too.



  • @tdb said:

    Those drives would probably have more bandwidth than the internet connection too.
     

    Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of TB HDDs! But the latency is quite poor...



  • @Zemm said:

    @tdb said:

    Those drives would probably have more bandwidth than the internet connection too.
     

    Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of TB HDDs!

    It's the only transport medium where the performance increases when you push it off the edge of a cliff! 

    @Zemm said:

    But the latency is quite poor...

    Also, packet loss, with the above technique for greater throughput.


  • @nixar said:

    Assuming you're not speaking figuratively and that you are, indeed, on the other side of an actual lake and not that of an ocean, have you ever considered tin can WiFi?
     

    Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/ (I think there are mirrors available, probably ask Google) Back in 2004 I had about 40km of wireless links using 802.11b, up to 4km long, using something similar (though not USB), and got a constant 500kilobytes/s transfer on it. This was a network that contained 17 nodes at its peak - 6 of which used a routing Linux box, some with a waveguide antenna for "client" node access.

    @nixar said:

    The link doesn't work anymore nowadays because there's waay too many people with wifi in that zone, so we pick up too much crap

    You could try helical antennas and/or models with more directionality! :)

    @nixar said:

    You can do it from anywhere between $100 (2 el'cheapo routers + Pringle cans and some copper) or $500 (with real antennas).

    My city used to have a pay-TV (and one-way Internet) service using 2.3GHz (MDS) - but it was replaced with satellite. The company gave up ownership of the MDS antennas and they were perfect for wifi - a minor modification produced a high-performance antenna for virtually free. This isn't exactly what it was, but similar.



  • @AndyCanfield said:

    3) I've tried to do 'apt-get upgrade' overnight from a crontab job, but too many of the package install scripts demand user input, usually to decide between a new config file and the old one. AFAIK this hangs the crontab job.


    Put [code]apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade -d -y[/code] in your crontab. It will download the .deb files and store them in /var/cache/apt/archives . Then just run apt-get (dist-)upgrade WITHOUT update'ing before. It'll use the locally stored packages.



  • It is a real lake. That's why the phone lines are too long for ADSL - they have to  go around the lake. We have a sister company a few km up the road, so I looked into wireless. Unfortunately there's a hill between us, so no line-of-sight is possible. And the radio spectrum is very tightly controlled here in Thailand.



  • @AndyCanfield said:

    It is a real lake. That's why the phone lines are too long for ADSL - they have to  go around the lake. We have a sister company a few km up the road, so I looked into wireless. Unfortunately there's a hill between us, so no line-of-sight is possible. And the radio spectrum is very tightly controlled here in Thailand.

     

    Is wifi regulated heavily, too? It was verbotten in France to do what we did at that time -- might still be, actually. 

    You can get around the line of sight thing with a passive repeater, or even an active one: lead-sulfur batteries, solar panels, and 2 WRT-54G connected back to back with a tin can antenna each. Or get in touch with someone who's not in the line of sight, and give them internet access in exchange for letting you plant your thing there. 

    Last, that's expensive but compared to a satellite it might be attractive, if you can get line of sight you can use a laser IR transmission.  Doesn't play well with fog though.



  • @AndyCanfield said:

    It is a real lake. That's why the phone lines are too long for ADSL - they have to  go around the lake. We have a sister company a few km up the road, so I looked into wireless. Unfortunately there's a hill between us, so no line-of-sight is possible. And the radio spectrum is very tightly controlled here in Thailand.

    Water is a transmission medium too, you know, and sound carries really well in it.  Why don't you get a pair of 14k4 acoustic couplers, hook them up to some waterproofed mikes and speakers (bit of power amp needed too), and drop one pair in at each opposite end of the lake?

    Otherwise, looks like it's RFC1149 for you.

     



  •  The night job succeeded; it basically consisted of:

    apt-get --yes update </dev/null
    apt-get --yes --download-only --quiet --show-upgraded update </dev/null
    apt-get --yes --no-download --simulate upgrade </dev/null
    

    To simulate the daytime update from stored files I disconnected my LAN cable and gave this command:

    apt-get upgrade
    
    The result was failure, including this:
    Err http://th.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main libnss3-1d 3.12.3.1-0ubuntu0.8.04.2
      Could not resolve 'th.archive.ubuntu.com'
    

    So despite your assurance that "It'll use the locally stored packages.", in fact it is pulling something in from the internet. What I don't know. My situation is unusual enough that I don't expect any priority; apt-get works fine normally.

    There is now a vendor offering WiFi in our area. We will be checking signal strength and that may work. Thanks everyone.



  • @DaveK said:

    Water is a transmission medium too, you know, and sound carries really well in it.  Why don't you get a pair of 14k4 acoustic couplers, hook them up to some waterproofed mikes and speakers (bit of power amp needed too), and drop one pair in at each opposite end of the lake?

    Gosh, we could use Floppy Fish Net. Bolt a CD to to a fish, use a fish net at the other end of the lake. When you pull it out the fish is floppy and the CD falls off. Of course the packets may arrive out of order, but standard  TCP/IP can handle that, eh?

    Thank you for your suggestion.



  • @AndyCanfield said:

    @DaveK said:

    Water is a transmission medium too, you know, and sound carries really well in it.  Why don't you get a pair of 14k4 acoustic couplers, hook them up to some waterproofed mikes and speakers (bit of power amp needed too), and drop one pair in at each opposite end of the lake?

    Gosh, we could use Floppy Fish Net. Bolt a CD to to a fish, use a fish net at the other end of the lake. When you pull it out the fish is floppy and the CD falls off. Of course the packets may arrive out of order, but standard  TCP/IP can handle that, eh?

    Thank you for your suggestion.

     

    This does sound like it's compliant with PETA-DSS.



  • @AndyCanfield said:

    apt-get --yes update </dev/null
    apt-get --yes --download-only --quiet --show-upgraded update </dev/null
    apt-get --yes --no-download --simulate upgrade </dev/null



    If you really did THAT, it's a classic example of user error.

    UPDATE refreshes the database. UPGRADE downloads the packages (and installs them, unless you pass -d)


    apt-get --yes --quiet update
    apt-get --yes --download-only --quiet upgrade
    

    Then, later

    apt-get upgrade
    

    Without an update in between.

    That hard?


  • Garbage Person

     @Zemm said:

    @tdb said:

    Those drives would probably have more bandwidth than the internet connection too.
     

    Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of TB HDDs! But the latency is quite poor...

    You know, Amazon has an add-on service for their annoying cloud-computing garbage that uses this model. You ship them storage devices, they plug them in and copy data to/from it, and ship the device back to you. This "device" can range from a flash drive to a preracked SAN (or a truckload of preracked SAN, if you so desire). This way you can transfer huge chunks of non-latency-critical data back and forth from your application without blowing the budget on bandwidth.

    Also, I was sitting in the office of one of my partner companies and overheard the following conversation between the president and one of the developers - "So I just got an email saying we're 1.5TB over quota for this month." "Oh, what's our quota?" "4GB." ".... You might want to increase that. The streaming video for the security system takes more than that" "But I thought we moved the security server to the datacenter?" "We did, but the cameras are still here and the data needs to get to the server." "I don't understand this stuff. Let's just see what happens"

     I then had a chat with my contact there to move my client's site from their developmestruction server to the production datacenter.



  • @nixar said:

     @stratos said:

     Next time just order the dvd instead of downloading it. Simple problem, simple solution.

    You car is broken? Walk. Simple solution for a simple mind.

    Your legs are broken.  What now?


  •  @nixar said:

    @Zemm said:

    In my country 3GB could be $450! But then only people who don't know any better use Telstra (or who can't get anything else because of Tesltra's crappy phone lines)
     

    That's not even a rip-off; it's simply fucking insane. I knew Telstra sucked but boy. Wow. Wow!

    If my bleary, jet lag-addled calculations are correct, the lowest-end of the 'extreme' packages could have you hit your monthly quota in 54 seconds. Nice!



  • @Eternal Density said:

    @nixar said:

     @stratos said:

     Next time just order the dvd instead of downloading it. Simple problem, simple solution.

    You car is broken? Walk. Simple solution for a simple mind.

    Your legs are broken.  What now?
    Obvious really.  Build a giant mecha-exoskeleton from the wreckage of the car and DESTROY TOKYO!!!1!




  • @AndyCanfield said:

    This highlights the important difference between slow and disconnected. At one office we use a satellite link. During the day, if the file is large, we get cut off after a half-megabyte or so. At night the office is locked. I have to come in on Saturdays to upgrade Ubuntu on the server. We had to install a separate server, with the usual synchronization problems, because the last pages of a large report would be cut off. I have taken desktop  computers to my house in order to download applications. And no, there is no other ISP.

     If the ISP traffic is heavy, please lower my bandwidth; do not disconnect me. I will be patien. 

     

    Why not use private torrent trackers?



  • @Master Chief said:

    Why not use private torrent trackers?

    #1, I've never gotten biittorrent to work. Apparently the router must be reconfigured, but the IP address we show to the Internet is of a router in the ISP, not the one in our building. We can not reconfigure the ISP's router. It's the same reason that we can go into our other server via an ADSL line but not the one that's on the satellite link; we can't reconfigure the ISP's router to pass port 80 on to us.

    #2, The main is with web pages. An HTML report of the status of all orders for one customer can take 600 kilobytes, and that gets cut off.

    #3, The other pain is apt-get upgrade; I hesidate to stick my nose into the guts of that thing to let the (isolated) server decide what it wants, then tell a (connected) server to fetch them, then try to use torrents to transfer the files from the one server to the other.

     



  • @Mole said:

    As for internet cost, I pay £25 UKP per month for 30GB and "upto 4MB" connection speed. If I use up that 30GB, then it's £1.50 for each additional GB. Yes I know, I should move, but I'm planning a move to cable rather than this DSL trash. 

     

    No idea how you manage that. BT (the default choice until recently) will give you unlimited transfer for £25 a month, at up to 8MB. If a company is giving you less than BT do then they're doing it wrong.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Kemp said:

    @Mole said:

    As for internet cost, I pay £25 UKP per month for 30GB and "upto 4MB" connection speed. If I use up that 30GB, then it's £1.50 for each additional GB. Yes I know, I should move, but I'm planning a move to cable rather than this DSL trash. 

     

    No idea how you manage that. BT (the default choice until recently) will give you unlimited transfer for £25 a month, at up to 8MB. If a company is giving you less than BT do then they're doing it wrong.

    Umlimited transfer? At up to 8MB?

     I'm sure there should, at a minimum,  two asterisks in that sentence, one pointing to a note about fair use, (which is not a fair definition of unlimited), and the other expanding on the "up to" and explaining why it doesn't say "at least."

    Regardless, given the price plans displayed here,  there is one such descibed as 20MB/Unlimited@£24.46 (with two such disclaimers, and other crud in with the offer) with, get this, on the same page another "heavy usage option." Now why - if the first mentioned is unlimited - can they offer such an option?

    For the lazy (or if the link doesn't work), the 'heavy usage option' comes with an (apparent) absolute 20GB cap. No pricing details given for if you go over that cap. Which in itself implies interesting.cn things about the above 'unlimited' offering.

     

     


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