TPU Costs

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Hosting account (A Small Orange) status as of 2013-Jan-31:
Paid up through 2014-Feb-08
Credits: $41.89 USD
Next billing date: 2014-Feb-08 ($60 for one year, including domain renewal)

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Internet service (Shaw) status as of 2013-Feb-10:
Extreme plan (aka High Speed 25)
Bandwidth cap: 250 GByte/month
Download speed: 25 Mbit/second
Upload speed: 2.5 Mbit/second

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In light of the CRTC's plan to institute Usage Based Billing (UBB) in Canada on March 1, 2011, I thought it would be appropriate to list the actual costs of running TPU.

UPDATE 2011-Nov-16: The CRTC has reversed their earlier decision and rejected UBB. This is a win for consumers, but the full range of implications won't be known for some time. Meanwhile, Shaw Cable has been subtly changing their billing system, although so far those changes have been reasonable. On the other hand, here in Canada we pay more for Internet access that most other countries, so we still have room for improvement. You can read all the details on Michael Geist's blog.

Not included in this calculation:

• physical hardware costs (the new server: Foghorn)
• electrical power to run Foghorn
• my time administering TPU itself as well as jdrgaming.com
• base cost of the High Speed Internet package from Shaw (I would have this even if I didn't run TPU) [UPDATE: as of April 2011, I'm now on the Shaw Extreme Internet package.]

Included in this calculation:

• domain registration for jdrgaming.com ($10/year)
• hosting costs for jdrgaming.com (A Small Orange's 'Tiny' hosting plan: $25/year; note that I should really be paying for the 'Small' plan since 'Tiny' only allows for 150 MB of disk use and I'm using about 500 MB: the 'Small' plan is $60 $50/year) [UPDATE: as of 2011Mar06, I am now using the 'Small' plan, thanks to your generous donations.]
• current bandwidth cap overages (pre-UBB): monthly allowance is 60 GB; $2 per GB exceeded [UPDATE: as of April 2011, monthly allowance is now 250 GB.]

Here's a link to Shaw's pre-UBB policy (link no longer valid since 2011Feb10):
http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/Internet/newdatausage.htm

Here's a link to Shaw's current policy (link no longer valid since at least 2011Sep24):
http://www.shaw.ca/Internet/New-Data-Usage/

Okay, let's try that again: here's a link to Shaw's current policy:
Terms of Use - Acceptable Use Policy - Internet
Note the following sections in particular: Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other Limitation, and Traffic Management Policies.

Aside: why does Shaw keep moving their policy document around on their web site? The cynical side of me assumes that they do it to prevent people from being aware of the policies. More likely it's just poor web site design. Either way, Shaw must realize that the policy document is among the most important pages on their site, and yet they fail to provide redirect links from older versions.

Update 2011Oct15 - I found some more details hidden away on Shaw's web site. I can't even link to the popup that shows this information, so I'll have to quote it here: "When you subscribe to one of our Broadband packages, you will be opting into the Bump-Up Program. The data included in our broadband packages are among the most generous in North America. If you exceed your package's included data, you will automatically be bumped up to the next level of Broadband Internet package for the remainder of your billing cycle. You'll receive the higher speeds and data and will be charged the difference between package pricing. Once your new billing cycle begins, you will return to your original Internet package and your data will be reset to zero.

Broadband Plan 	Monthly Data Included 	Monthly Cost
Broadband 50 	400 GB 	          Included
Broadband 100 	500 GB 	          +$10
Broadband 100+ 	750 GB 	          +$20
Unlimited 100 	Unlimited 	  +$60

The first time your included data is exceeded, you will receive one month's grace and won't be bumped up to the next tier. The Bump-Up Program will take effect February, 2012."

Since I started running TPU, I have never been billed extra or notified by Shaw that I exceeded my monthly bandwidth allowance. However, according to other users, Shaw's enforcement of this policy is inconsistent. So it's difficult to say whether I have actually exceeded the monthly cap at any time. All I know is that Shaw has never said anything and I have never been charged anything on top of the normal monthly bill.

Previous costs for running TPU/jdrgaming (pre-UBB):

• Domain registration: $10/year
• Hosting: $25/year
• =======================
• Total: $35 per year ($3/month) << not much, really

Current costs for running TPU/jdrgaming (as of 2011Mar06), including A Small Orange's 'Small' plan:

• Domain registration: $10/year
• Hosting: $60 $50/year
• =======================
• Total: $70 $60 per year ($6 $5/month) << still not too bad

If UBB kicks in as planned, and if Shaw decides to adjust their caps and overage fees, my cable charges could increase. It's difficult to predict exactly how much they could increase, but as I learn more I will add the details here.

Possible costs (post UBB): unknown as of 2011Feb04.

I monitor the traffic on my network constantly, but in terms of bandwidth costs, the only thing that matters is traffic between my router and Shaw. Filtering out all of the other noise (LAN traffic, mainly) is slightly challenging, but I'm working on it. Complicating things further is the fact that I run a wireless network as well, and measuring traffic between the Wide Area Network (WAN) and Wireless WAN (WLAN) is even more difficult. As I get better at measuring actual WAN traffic, I'll post the numbers here.

Another complication is the recent spate of apparent Gamespy DDoS attacks on TPU. Regardless of whether these are directed attacks against TPU, collateral damage in attacks against other hosts, problems with Gamespy itself or simply the result of misconfigured game servers or server monitors, these attacks can chew up a lot of bandwidth, fast. I stop them as soon as I detect them, but sometimes I don't notice for a few hours.

One final note: as TPU's popularity rises (yay!), bandwidth use will obviously increase. I'll try to provide some perspective on how this is changing over time. Stay tuned!

Donation totals

• 2011
• February: $15 (Sisko)
• March: $15 (Sisko), $100 (DarkRyda)
• 2012
• February: $10 (Sisko)
• 2013
• February: $30 (Sisko)

Thanks, folks!

Last Updated: Tuesday, March 05 2013 @ 11:37 AM PST|Hits: 1,843