Yes, those Livingston Portmasters? Expensive, but great boxes. -RickG On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 10:16 AM, jp<j...@saucer.midcoast.com> wrote: > Back in the day, we used to pay $10000-12000 for VCR sized rackmount boxes to > handle > dialup users at $20/month. At $5/month, the economics are great for backup > infrastructure, assuming a $1000 box of computer parts and hard drives can > handle the > same quantity of customers. > > It's the tech support that is tough. I can't see how to make money providing > customer > support from helpful and smart humans for $5/month, and backup is easily as > confusing > as dialup if not more so. The customer must understand concepts instead of > memorizing > the steps needed to get connected. > > We offer backup, but not that cheap. Most of our business comes from a > computer shop > we work with who chooses online backup for customers when appropriate. If you > have a > computer shop along with your WISP, you could probably do well with it. > Otherwise, > it's a hard sell to make people worry about their data until they lose it, > especially > for residential use. > > On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 09:22:24PM -0700, John Thomas wrote: >> Are you willing to setup a server for their backups? >> For home users, Mozy charges $4.95 per month. If you setup your own >> backup server, you would have the initial expense of a server with big >> drive space, but you could charge $4.95 and at least save money on your >> upstream bandwidth. >> >> John >> >> Mike wrote: >> > In my heart, I know you are right. The nature of our business is we >> > buy bandwidth wholesale, and then resell it to others who can't >> > afford to buy dedicated bandwidth. We factor an oversubscription >> > rate, and count on bursty, short lived traffic from users that share >> > the bandwidth. >> > >> > If I could afford to add bandwidth so everybody could maintain a 500 >> > kbps connection for days on end, then I would. But the economics are >> > I pay $350.00 for my first MB and $250.00 for each additional. So a >> > person using the system for backup is utilizing a $175.00 resource >> > for $42.40 a month; IF the back-up software only uses 500 kbps, and >> > I've seen them surge way over that. >> > >> > So, two people running Mosy hog a Meg or more of a precious >> > resource. Four of them, and they've used a couple MB or more. I'm >> > sure you get the point. >> > >> > I do have a Netequalizer in place with fairness rules that will >> > penalize those packets, because they are long duration IF and when >> > the network gets near capacity. So, they get penalized, and grandma >> > downloading pictures from her grand kids also gets penalized, even >> > though her use is bursty and infrequent, just because there is not >> > enough overhead on the pipe BECAUSE of the long duration back-up users. >> > >> > Without the Netequalizer, just a few of these users would bring my >> > network to its knees. >> > >> > I am beginning to think Mosy and their ilk belong in the same camp as >> > Netflix and the P2Pers. >> > >> > Mike >> > >> > At 05:51 AM 8/13/2009, you wrote: >> > >> >> Mike wrote: >> >> >> >>> Seems wrong too that a company can make money off using MY bandwidth >> >>> for hours on end with no compensation. >> >>> >> >> You are getting compensated, by your customer, so now it isn't really >> >> your bandwidth, but theirs. The customer is paying you to transport >> >> data, be it pictures of kittens, a HDD backup, or something else. If the >> >> terms of your contract are such that you can't support this usage, then >> >> you should probably look at changing the terms of the contract. >> >> >> >> However, I would think that it would be pretty easy to look at the flows >> >> and put throttling rules in place that limit Carbonite/Mozy/xyz traffic >> >> when there is congestion. >> >> >> >> Josh >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> >> Josh Cheney >> >> josh.che...@gmail.com >> >> http://www.joshcheney.com >> >> >> >> >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> WISPA Wants You! 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