The policy is that we provide you with a fair share of rebel's resources. Those resources are time on the modems, network bandwidth, and use of CPU. In addition you also have an allowance of 10MB of disk store for storage of your personal files, such as stored email and personal web pages.
Our interpretation of the policy is that CPU is not an issue, and so we make no attempt to monitor or control the use thereof. Until recently we also have had no need to monitor nor control network bandwidth (which approximately means the amount of data sent and received), however we are now monitoring this resource as it appears that some subscribers may be transferring large amounts of data to the detriment of others. I would say it is likely that we will implement some sort of control, however I am not able to say exactly how the control will work, nor when we will introduce it. I can assure you that we will extensively consult with our subscribers before we make any change to the status quo.
We monitor and control time on the modems, and the program which performs this task is called, "the fair share daemon." Whenever all modems are in use, the fare share daemon determines which subscriber (out of those logged on) has used the most time for the day or week. Assuming that this subscriber has already had a minimum fair share, the daemon sends email messages to that subscriber, at approximately 5 minute intervals, requesting the subscriber to log off. A minimum fair share means 2 hours per day up to 10 hours per week, with at least 20 minutes for each session. If the subscriber logs off and stays logged off for a period of 30 minutes, a new session can be started; so that means that after logging off for 30 minutes a further 20 minutes can be enjoyed without being asked to log off. I remind you that all of this is only relevant while all modems are in use -- if even one modem is unoccupied, nobody is asked to log off. If the subscriber fails to log off within a reasonable time, which is 20 minutes, the daemon terminates that subscribers session and enforces a period of 90 minutes without login. If the subscriber attempts to log on during the 90 minute period, he or she is immediately logged off, and the 90 minute counter restarts. This is unashamedly designed to encourage our subscribers to share the resources.
The fair share daemon notifies the subscriber that it is time to log off by sending email. We recommend that our subscribers keep their email program running while they are connected in case they are asked to log off by the fair share daemon. Subscribers who do not keep their email program running may find their session unexpectedly terminated, and that they are then unable to immediately log back on. As explained, this occurs after a period of at least 20 minutes notice to log off, and certainly only occurs while all modems are in use.