[ NNSquad ] Re: Botnets and bandwidth caps

[Kriss Andsten <kriss@proceranetworks.com>]

On 19 sep 2008, at 02.36, Lauren Weinstein wrote:

> The ramifications of caps and usage sensitive pricing in today's
> Internet environment are even nastier than is obvious at first
> glance.

Assuming that there's robots handling the other end then yes, that's  
true. I'd be prepared to say that such an assumption is false, though.

Looking at the world at large - not just the US - there's plenty of  
places with *extremely* expensive bandwidth or aggressive bandwidth  
caps, various meters, etc, etc. Even in the states, you've got the  
same issue on the business end of things: Cloud computing. Users there  
tend to pay per gig of data. Same thing applies. Do they pay when they  
get DDoS'd? I'd say no.

This is by no means a new situation and one that has been handled both  
by business and consumer ISP's alike before now. No need to cry wolf.

> --Lauren--
> NNSquad Moderator

Kriss

  [ Kriss, I think that you may be underestimating the animosity
    that many people tend to feel when the rules of the game are
    suddenly changed, and they're told that something that was not
    limited before now has a limit -- especially when some of those
    limits (as is likely in the TW case) will be quite low and tied
    to expensive per-gig excess charges.  That this will be occurring
    at the same time that ISPs continue to roll out massive non-capped
    video services will only tend to exacerbate bad feelings.  The
    term "bait and switch" comes to mind.

    I think that comparisons with other countries and business
    services will not necessarily translate accurately to the U.S.
    consumer marketplace, where the big ISPs have been selling
    their services on a "no limits" basis (and still are using such
    phrases in some advertising) for many years.

    Given the structure of the Net and the immense scale of deployed
    botnets, it would not take a large number of disgruntled "disruptors" 
    to wreak a great deal of havoc in this regard, especially if they
    chose their targets with care for maximum effect.

      -- Lauren Weinstein
         NNSquad Moderator ]