noticeboard.ru.ac.za

2012/10/17 - Internet Quota System Adjustments
We've just made a substantive adjustment to the functioning of the Internet quota system: the window period over which Internet quotas are measured has been reduced from fourteen days to seven days. This means that most people will get Internet access back sooner if they go over quota.

At the same time, the daily quota values applying to the per-host quotas have been doubled whilst the per-user quotas have remained the same. Theoretically this means that the per-host quotas have doubled (you can download the same amount, twice as often) whilst the per-user quotas have remained the same (you can download half has much, twice as often). The new values are available at http://www.ru.ac.za/quota/faq/?show=whatismyquota.

In practice this will have the effect of more than doubling Internet quotas, since people will regain access faster than they previously did. Because of this the change in quota window is experimental. Whilst we do not anticipate that it will revert to the previous value, it may become necessary to do so. If this happens we'll post several days prior warning about the change to this noticeboard. We will also retain the net effect of doubling quotas.

Please note that any references to "14 days" or "fortnight" in documentation on the quota system should now be read as "7 days" or "week". We've changed as many of these as we can find, but the previous value has been ingrained over such a long period that we're likely to have missed some.

These changes will take place when quotas are next recalculated, and apply retrospectively through the current quota window.
Concomitant to the quota increases, we have reduced the grace by which on can go over quota from 20% to 10%.

This change is necessary because of the number of users who routinely view the provided grace as part of their quota, rather than using it as an opportunity to curb their Internet use to essential activities and avoid having their Internet access cut off.

The absolute value of the current grace window is unchanged from yesterday (quotas doubled, and the grace window halved).

This change will only affect those users who are currently over the per-host quota, as published earlier today.
post.5532648