Hey all,

Was just checking out Telecom's recommendations for reducing bandwidth usage when I came across this:

Shut down file sharing programs - such as KaZaA or Gnutella - when you go offline.
Other users can download from you without your knowing and this counts against your usage. This is the single biggest contributor to usage overruns and subsequent excess usage charges. Be very wary when using these programs.

While it has a point, it seems badly misphrased. Firstly, most P2P programs do let you know when you are uploading. It's has a screen where you can see. You may not notice especially since you tend to let them run in the background but saying without your knowing IMHO suggests hidden, worm like activity. Without you noticing would be a much better phrase.

But the major flaw is "when you go offline". I have no idea what Telecom think going offline but most people I know of would think of going offline as disconnecting from the ISP. If so, there is no risk of people downloading from you since you are disconnected. If you reconnect or have auto-reconnect on and something causes an auto-reconnect then sure this may be a problem. But if you are really offline and do not reconnect, what's the problem? A better way of saying it may be something like, "when you are not actively downloading with them".

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