Hypermart/Virtualave.net <-- Requires Credit Cards

[TonySayz]

Lame, now they require you to submit credit card information because they want to charge people who abuse the 50 MB space/Bandwidth rule. So all you kiddies without a credit card need to find a new host.

Here's what Hypermart.net/Virtualave.net said:

Dear HyperMart user:

Providing free hosting space is what HyperMart has always been about. And while we are still offering that free service, we have changed some of the rules to protect our users. To prevent abuse, we will begin charging users who exceed the maximum account limits. For this reason, we now require that each new account include a valid credit card number. Remember that accounts with 50MB of disk space and 500 MB of data transfer are still free. Only users who exceed those amounts will be charged $2.50 per additional 5MB of disk space and $1 per 100MB of data transfer. You won’t be charged unless you exceed the basic account limits.

Thank you for continuing to make HyperMart the leading free hosting network on the Web.

Sincerely,

HyperMart Staff

[Chicken]

How dare they? Charge you for going over your limit as sstated in the TOS? The nerve of those bastages!

Stated another way: Sounds fair to me.

[Toefur]

Gee... Hypermart only offer 500meg transfer? I wou;d have thought these guys would offer a bit more than that?

[keith]

500 megs? per month?? just one more reason as to why i've never used them and never will.

[Woofcat]

So in other words they're pretty much dead as a free host...

[Coolin]

Gee... And we were all yelling at Nalhaz because of it's low bandwidth. Now it suddenly looks better...

<EDIT>
Ok, I've found out that they're dead. So that's two dead hosts with 500mb limits: Hypermart (hypothetically speaking) and Nalhaz (for real)

[Edited by Coolin on 03-26-2001 at 10:30 PM]

[keith]

Originally posted by Woofcat
So in other words they're pretty much dead as a free host...

in my eyes, that's the nail in the coffin. unfortunately they'll most likely still do "business" as a free host. there are and always will be tons of newbies that will find this on a search engine and think nothing of giving their credit card numbers, believing and accepting it to be a common practice among free hosts.

[Technics]

How are they chickens? All freehosts seem to be chickens who want to stop losing money and prevent freeloaders like you taking advantage of them.

[laurie]

I think it's probably a wise move. It will put a stop to warez misuse for a fact.

True it's a pain for some people but hypermart and virtualave are supposed to be business providers. Quite why a business wouldn't shell out $10/mo on commercial pay hosting I don't quite know.

[Cracker]

Originally posted by laurie
True it's a pain for some people but hypermart and virtualave are supposed to be business providers. Quite why a business wouldn't shell out $10/mo on commercial pay hosting I don't quite know.


Oh yeah, I forgot they were business only hosts. In that case, they're not chickens.

[laurie]

Originally posted by Cracker

Oh yeah, I forgot they were business only hosts. In that case, they're not chickens.

Think the reason you forgot the fact they are for business use only is that most sites using virtualave are infact personal sites.

[akersche]

Had an account with Virtualave.

BUT now it seemes they kicked my site.
Had a regular site there (leagal, no xxx and not to much space and just low bandwith usage).
Still can log in, but I get an error message.

The reason I liked them, was cause, they offered cgi!!!

Anybody knows, if I can keep my site? Or would I need to register once more, with credit card. (well wouldn't do that).

Greetings
Arno

PS: Seems it was good, that I was just testing them and left my main site at my free university account.

[laurie]

You could always email Virtualave about the error.. see if they know anything.

[Bernd]

500MB per month. Ridiculous. That's not what I would call free hosting. I know options of paid hosting that would be much cheaper.

I signed up with Freeyellow (part of the Hypermart/Virtualave family) a few weeks ago because I liked their banner policy, still without giving them my credit card number. They will probably kick me off their server when they notice I have far more than 500MB. Fine! Go ahead! I like moving every few weeks when the hosters change their rules.

What a non-sense is free web hosting of the kind of Hyperavenue/Virtualmart "exclusively for businesses" anyway. As if a small business couldn't spend a few dollars per month (the same the business has to pay for excess traffic) for inexpensive domain hosting, without banners of possible competitors and with a nice second level domain.

It is only a pity for all those kids out there (well, somehow I belong to them too) who have really great ideas, but now, after one or two years when they could get the required webspace really free, now have no choice but to go to Geocities or Tripod with all their restrictions and strange policies.

[laurie]

See my post above - my exact thoughts.

I think the number of sites at hypermart and virtualave will decrease by a large proportion - but then at least they'll be fast - and really a premium hoster rather than a free one.

You can pay for add removal but with that and extra bandwidth it ends up costing more than commercial offerings from other companies.

[Bernd]

Exactly. And I haven't seen any serious business hosted there, only lots of personal websites.

[laurie]

Not sure they thought it out too well then :rolleyes:

I think the best way for a FWP to go about reducing abuse (warez)is to use a system simular to spaceports.

[belldandy]

- what does spaceports do?

[laurie]

Think it gives you 20mb to begin with and you can apply for free space upgrades with a reason.

So warez people are stuck - as they can't say "I need more space for warez"

[Coolin]

Spaceports' 20gb transfer limit also helps in preventing warez ;)

[laurie]

Yup.. 20gb is still enough for most sites.

[Webdude]

Hypermart is charging $1 per 100 megs over 500? Ouch...thats about $10 per gig.....and it is amazingly easy to go over 500mg transfer. Is that that a cashcow I see coming for them, as well as a LOT of teed members?

[laurie]

It is 10gb a gig ;)

Yes slightly on the expensive side. Personally I would say they are no longer a FWP.

[LeX]

The minute any kind of service asks for your credit card number, in my book it's considered "pay service", wether they bill you or not.

[NC_TOM]

I don't really like that they have done this, but I would have to admit it IS a great idea. They will lose about 90% of their current members, but the ones that stay will probably sooner or later find large bills on their credit card.

Let's say they have 1 million members.

90% leave.

They now have 100,000 members. 25% of those members (25,000 members) each need to pay $1/month for extra bandwidth or space. That's $25,000 extra profit per month that they're collecting while having a much smaller member base.

The idea seems like it should work, and it's a good one. However, when the people see unexpected bills on their credit card, they will be pissed and there will be a lot of members coming and leaving, most of whom will be unhappy.

[LeX]

Originally posted by NC_TOM
...and there will be a lot of members coming and leaving, most of whom will be unhappy. [/B]
There will?

[Hoth]

Originally posted by Chicken
How dare they? Charge you for going over your limit as sstated in the TOS? The nerve of those bastages!

Stated another way: Sounds fair to me.

Sounds fair to you?

If they'd just charge up front and be honest about it, then good for them. If they're hoping to get people to go over the bandwidth (or space) limit, won't warn the people about it, and won't shut down the people's sites for it, but would rather charge people who think they're getting free hosting, then that's dishonest. It's not the slightest bit fair, they're simply trying to take advantage of people, trying to trick people. They're looking to increase their profits by getting people to go over the limits so that they'll have an excuse to charge them.

It seems as though encouraging people to go against something in your TOS can be very profitable, once you get a hold on their credit card info. I wouldn't call it fair, though.

[LeX]

Hey, who's hosting your site on their servers? Them. Who gets to decide? Them. Who's using their resources? You. Who has to pay? Guess what? You.

[Cracker]

Well Lex, you can't forget that it was their users that put Hypermart where they are today, and by them all leaving Hypermart's server, they can put Hypermart into the poor house.

[Technics]

I some how doubt hypermart decided this quickly the directors or whatever they are called in the USA will have had numerous board meetings to decide on what todo to stop loosing money at the rate they are doing.

To be honest i think they will in the next 12 months be a full paid host and won't offer freehosting any longer.

[DivaStarlet]

Wowee...VirtualAve is not worth it in my opinion. I got an account there weeks ago to host my graphics and web design website, but so far all I have been able to view of my own work is those ever-so-cheerful "404 File Not Found" pages over and over and over again. I used FTP to upload files, they show up on the website's file manager, I click on them to view them, I get the 404 error page...I FTP an HTML file and the same thing happens, so I go into the site manager, delete everything, and re-upload everything through the browser and copy and paste the HTML in their editor...I still can't view the files and the funniest thing is when I try to view an HTML page now, the title that I chose for that page shows up along the top of the window, but the page itself is the 404 error page! So I emailed their tech support which was took three days to reply (as opposed to the quicker response they promise) and all they could tell me was that they think the problem was an isolated case and send me FTP instructions...not much help at all. Very frustrating for me since I have been looking for a place to move to ever since Tripod went on their deleting spree. I was going to try SpacePorts but in viewing some of their current pages, I got flooded with multiple pop ups all over my screen. Ick! Sooooo now I plan on giving Worldzone a try once they get their move completed! :)

*~DivaStarlet~*

[Coolin]

Originally posted by LeX
Hey, who's hosting your site on their servers? Them. Who gets to decide? Them. Who's using their resources? You. Who has to pay? Guess what? You. Well... Who's putting their banners on your site? You.

[LeX]

Yup, because it was either pop-ups or banners (right?), so most people would go for the banners.

[Weapon]

Do you think the people who signed up before they started the credit card thing get away? because I signed up ages ago and have not yet got a letter from them saying I have to put my card details in it, heck they might just kick me of there server

[TonySayz]

They said that only sites that are signing up need credit card information. You should be fine, I have several accounts on hypermart/virtualave and I haven't gotten any notices either. Why would a company want to kill 99% of their clients off? It's just for the new users incase of abuse.

[Coolin]

Darn! Why didn't I sign up earlier!?