How truly Unlimited and/or Unmetered is Bandwidth?

[stingray]

Hello KWWHunction people

I am seeing providers here offering vps with Unlimited - unmetered Bandwidth whereas others with the same money offering Premium Bandwidth of 200 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB etc.
Why would someone opt for the ones who offer restricted bandwidth and not the others who offer unlimited and/or unmetered?
What exactly is meant by Unlimited or unmetered? is there a catch behind it ?
Maybe this is a noob question to most of you, but a clarification, especially by server providers, would assist the newcomers to make better desicions when renting a service and don't fall in a trap ending up paying huge bandwidth bills

Thank you for reading this and I hope I get some feedback about the subject

stingray Reviewed by stingray on 5th Mar 2012. How truly Unlimited and/or Unmetered is Bandwidth? Hello KWWHunction people I am seeing providers here offering vps with Unlimited - unmetered Bandwidth whereas others with the same money offering Premium Bandwidth of 200 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB etc. Why would someone opt for the ones who offer restricted bandwidth and not the others who offer unlimited and/or unmetered? What exactly is meant by Unlimited or unmetered? is there a catch behind it ? Maybe this is a noob question to most of you, but a clarification, especially by server providers, Rating: 5

[Jesse]

Unmetered = http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=925491

Unlimited = not possible. Sales technique

[stingray]

@Jesse Thank you for your response.
Going through the thread you suggested, I came across another issue (related to this subject), I do not fully understand

You will NEVER or shouldn't get overcharged unless your in the 95% percentile.

What does that also mean?
Before anyone asks, I am telling you that I rent a vps on a 1 Gbps port and I use it for downloading/seeding torrents. The provider advertises Unmetered bandwidth. Is there a chance I get charged for bandwidth because of this 95% percentile (which I do not know what it means and how to avoid it) or any other scenario?

[HH-Abdullah]

@Jesse Thank you for your response.
Going through the thread you suggested, I came across another issue (related to this subject), I do not fully understand

What does that also mean?
Before anyone asks, I am telling you that I rent a vps on a 1 Gbps port and I use it for downloading/seeding torrents. The provider advertises Unmetered bandwidth. Is there a chance I get charged for bandwidth because of this 95% percentile (which I do not know what it means and how to avoid it) or any other scenario?

No, you cannot get billed for more bandwidth or overage because it is unmetered. 95th percentile does not apply to unmetered, they are both different things.

In 95th percentile, take example of 1000Mbps bandwidth commit on 10-gigabit port. You can go more than your commit limit, 1000Mbps for 36 hours in a month and you will not get billed for it, so that means you are able to use over 1000Mbps for 36 hours in a month (5%) without paying overage.

[Jesse]

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/95th_percentile

[foxman]

There is always limitation even if the the Host says unlimited bandwidth.

[M0neyMan]

There is always limitation even if the the Host says unlimited bandwidth.

this is *technically* correct...but then again they make 40GE cards now and i cant think of anyone on this board maxing that out

...so in a sense...kinda unlimited

[stingray]

There is always limitation even if the the Host says unlimited bandwidth.

This is exactly what I am worried about. Hidden charges or caps or ....
That's why I opened this thread, so people can share their thoughts or (bad) experience

[UKInternetGroup]

There is always limitation even if the the Host says unlimited bandwidth.

Correct, but for the sake of a normal website being hosted on shared hosting server, if the hosts bandwidth limit is 1000TB amonth no normal site is going to use that so yes you can have unlimited bandwidth within 1000TB across 20 sites say! Always check the hosts TOS this will normally tell you where there unlimited limit stops.

VPS unlimited bandwidth i wouldnt touch personally, but thats my view on it all! id see unlimited vps bandwidth as crap bandwidth and lots of it but i like limited bandwidth which i no is of a good quality

[accyuklad]

well vps unlimited can limit your download connection from example 100mbit to 10mbit