How to save bandwidth?

[cmM]

:x

Okay... My website has been getting a lot of hits lately, therefore I ran out of my 5GB of bandwidth/month.

Anyone know any tricks/advice on how to save bandwidth... except smaller files.

[Scottes]

Perform a log analysis and check to see what's getting hit that shouldn't be hit. Might someone be hotlinking one of your photos? Are you getting excessively hit by search robots? (If so you can fix that with robots.txt)

Do you post other places than here? I think that I post more images than you, or it's darn close, and I post some on other places. I'm at closer to 2.5 Gig per month.

Think about running your own webserver if you have a cable connection. You need a dynamic DNS site, but those can be free or cheap. It's not a project to be taken lightly (for security and admin reasons) but can be more fun when everything's under your control.

[cmM]

Thanks Scottes.

I'm pretty sure the problem is only the amount of hits I get and the fact that I post images... (my front page got 390 hits this month :? )

I post here and there, sometimes Fred Miranda's forum... that's where I get 300 views... probably that sucks up a lot of bandwidth.

I have considered using a server at home, but for now I have ADSL w/ only 128Kbps upload speed, so I think my own server would be slow as hell.... I don't even have a static IP address, I'd have to upgrade my DSL package, so I think I'm better off keeping my site hosted somewhere else. And this bandwidth issue has never happened before, and I hope won't happen again.

[tommykjensen]

What Scottes said.

But You may have problems getting the stats if You have Your website hosted. Not all providers offer stats, but it depends on the service You are buying.

I run my own webserver. Here are a few stats from my website that I only use to host images displayed here and on dpreview.

(Figures in parentheses refer to the 7-day period ending 18-Oct-2004 18:56).
Successful requests: 75,301 (4,376)
Average successful requests per day: 873 (625)
Logfile lines without status code: 255 (0)
Successful requests for pages: 66,295 (4,156)
Average successful requests for pages per day: 768 (593)
Failed requests: 125 (13)
Redirected requests: 885 (90)
Distinct files requested: 713 (271)
Distinct hosts served: 11,036 (951)
Corrupt logfile lines: 4
Unwanted logfile entries: 3,403
Data transferred: 10.86 gigabytes (874.14 megabytes)
Average data transferred per day: 128.94 megabytes (124.88 megabytes)

I changed the way I host my images end of july heres the stats for my "old" website that also has my Exihibit Engine gallery.

(Figures in parentheses refer to the 7-day period ending 18-Oct-2004 18:55).
Successful requests: 335,334 (796)
Average successful requests per day: 439 (113)
Logfile lines without status code: 2,294 (0)
Successful requests for pages: 170,275 (531)
Average successful requests for pages per day: 223 (75)
Failed requests: 3,180 (1)
Redirected requests: 3,187 (192)
Distinct files requested: 6,499 (190)
Distinct hosts served: 15,597 (115)
Corrupt logfile lines: 21
Unwanted logfile entries: 1,065,259
Data transferred: 15.09 gigabytes (15.97 megabytes)
Average data transferred per day: 20.25 megabytes (2.28 megabytes)

Both websites are subsites and on the same server. I have a 3072/768 Mbit dsl line to support them and a few other website :wink: .

With just 128 Kb upload I would not advise running Your own server. Have a look at Pbase which for a low annual fee provide space for photos.

[ilya]

Or ... having seen your website from FM ... you can simply cut down on showing off all the hot looking girls spreadeagled on top of cars :)

[Scottes]

Or ... having seen your website from FM ... you can simply cut down on showing off all the hot looking girls spreadeagled on top of cars :)

Don't listen to him Chris! That's a bad idea!


(Bad for the rest of us...)
:)

[cmM]

okay.... no more hot girls. I'll keep them to myself 8)

tommykjensen, holy crap man!:
Average data transferred per day: 128.94 megabytes (124.88 megabytes)

[Scottes]

okay.... no more hot girls. I'll keep them to myself 8)

tommykjensen, holy crap man!:
Average data transferred per day: 128.94 megabytes (124.88 megabytes)

Um, that's only 3.8 gig a month Chris. You're doing more than that.

[ilya]

Or ... having seen your website from FM ... you can simply cut down on showing off all the hot looking girls spreadeagled on top of cars :)

Don't listen to him Chris! That's a bad idea!


(Bad for the rest of us...)
:)

The smiley of course indicated that this is not a statement to be taken seriously. Those who know me know better 8) :D

[neil_r]

I had a very quick look around your site, excellent stuff.

Have you considered showing thumbnails, that way people would only hit the larger images they wanted to see. If you already show thumbnails, then I did not see them in my "quick look" so you may want to make y=them more prominant.

Of course the other option is to up the bandwith :lol:

2c from me

N

[EuropeanSwallow]

I don't even have a static IP address, I'd have to upgrade my DSL package, so I think I'm better off keeping my site hosted somewhere else.

You don't need static IP to host your server. Have a look at DynDNS (http://dyndns.org). It will register your hostname for free (under some pre-defined domains like homeip.net) pointing at your dynamic IP host.

[cmM]

okay.... no more hot girls. I'll keep them to myself 8)

tommykjensen, holy crap man!:
Average data transferred per day: 128.94 megabytes (124.88 megabytes)

Um, that's only 3.8 gig a month Chris. You're doing more than that.
Monday morning math... :roll:

:oops:

Ok well it's not search engines, that's for sure
<head>
<title> cmuntean.net cmM’s Home</title>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="imagetoolbar" CONTENT="no">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOFOLLOW">
</head>

I doubt someone else hotlinked my picture.
My index file is less than 5KB... You think it's the flash animations on my Site? Those are pretty big!.... 200KB You think ?

[tommykjensen]

Maybe You should ask Your provider for some stats, maybe they will provide it for a small fee. Because You really need the logs to see whats eating Your bandwitdh.

[Scottes]

If you're getting 300 hits over on FM, I'd be sure that this is the culprit. 300 hits of an 80KB file add up, let alone if they look around and start hitting 200KB animations.

One idea might be to limit view time. (Although I hate this idea.) But don't link to your gallery image, but rather make a copy of it in a different directory. After a week, remove the image or replace it with a small version or something. Then you won't get all those hits from people browsing old posts.

Though I think the best bet is pBase for your Share type of posts, like here and FM, and just leave your web server or your web site. pBase is like $23 a year, isn't it?

[cmM]

I do have web statistics available, but I can't figure much out from it... and the actual log files, that's just plain gibberish... it records each request coming from where when what browser, etc.... we're talkin a million friggin lines. Here's a portion of it:
67.19.166.66 - - [11/Oct/2004:00:13:24 -0400] "GET /files/me6_avt.jpg HTTP/1.0" 200 20323 www.cmuntean.net "-" "-" "-"
12.221.178.84 - - [11/Oct/2004:00:13:25 -0400] "GET /files/me6_avt.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 20323 www.cmuntean.net "http://www.chicagohotness.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=730" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)" "-"
216.160.203.30 - - [11/Oct/2004:00:15:31 -0400] "GET /images/dodo_alan2.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 58151 www.cmuntean.net "http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/136941/7" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)" "-"
216.160.203.30 - - [11/Oct/2004:00:15:31 -0400] "GET /images/sep23cfw6.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 82655 www.cmuntean.net "http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/136941/7" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)" "-"
216.160.203.30 - - [11/Oct/2004:00:15:31 -0400] "GET /images/sep23cfw22.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 82100 www.cmuntean.net "http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/136941/7" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)" "-"
67.19.166.66 - - [11/Oct/2004:00:16:43 -0400] "GET /files/me6_avt.jpg HTTP/1.0" 200 20323 www.cmuntean.net "-" "-" "-"
68.253.255.41 - -

And the web stats: Here's a doc file I made out of it:
http://www.cmuntean.net/files/traffic.doc

[tommykjensen]

Ok then have a look at the log analyzer Analog (http://www.analog.cx/)

With this You can see which pages and files are requested most and a whole lot of other stats. Preferred browsers, os, where people are coming from and so on.

[tommykjensen]

pBase is like $23 a year, isn't it?

Yeah something like that. I do have a pbase account but my photos of lion cubs does not attract as much traffic as photos of pretty girls :lol:

[cmM]

Ok then have a look at the log analyzer Analog (http://www.analog.cx/)

With this You can see which pages and files are requested most and a whole lot of other stats. Preferred browsers, os, where people are coming from and so on.
Thanks Tommy.
For some reason though, that things generates errors when I'm trying to run it using my log file (which is a different extension .log.42 than the plain .log, and it's missing some info for the program to run properly). Maybe it's user error too...i'll research some more.

[tommykjensen]

What kind of errors do You get?

[cmM]

C:\Documents and Settings\tempeng\Desktop\analog 5.32\analog.exe: Warning F:
Can't auto-detect format of logfile C:\Documents and
Settings\tempeng\Desktop\analog 5.32\logfile.log.42: ignoring it

[Scottes]

Chris, I sent a PM.

It's not a standard logfile. I'm guessing it's a Windows server, though it might be different because it's a virtual server setup. Anyway, it's got 2 extra fields. My analyzer choked on it until I stripped the extra two fields.

In a nut shell, you post too many pretty girls at fredmiranda.com.

That isn't a bad thing... :)

[jukas]

Chris,

Those look like logs generated from a Windows server. If your hosting provider gave you the actual logs files, take a look at them, they'll probably be listed something like ex041015.log . Windows by default lists the logs as exYYMMDD.log but your hosting provider may have changed it.

If you'd like, zip up the complete log files and email them to me at

jukasATcursedbrotherhoodDOTcom

and I'll run them through a copy of WebTrends I have here, and either email you back the report, or slap it up on my domain (I can even PP it) for you.

[cmM]

well, it's been pinpointed.

In a nut shell, you post too many pretty girls at fredmiranda.com.

I posted the pretty girls here too BTW, only difference is this forum doesn't have 45,000 vandals :P

Thanks guys.

Guess I gotta get me a T3+ line at home and get me a linux server :D

[BrandonSi]

I would spend some time at webhostingtalk.com in their forums. Every now and then you'll see some good deals for hosting. I got 20GB space and 250GB xfer for $9.99 a month.

[cmM]

I would spend some time at webhostingtalk.com in their forums. Every now and then you'll see some good deals for hosting. I got 20GB space and 250GB xfer for $9.99 a month.
Great resource!
Thanks for that link

I have hosting from 1and1.com, and they were a business-to-business web hosting provider. When they opened to the general public they had a promotional package for a short time.

My hosting is FREE for 3 years, with no contractual obligation or anything like that, so that works well for me. If my website becomes busier, then I'm switching to something bigger.

[BrandonSi]

I would spend some time at webhostingtalk.com in their forums. Every now and then you'll see some good deals for hosting. I got 20GB space and 250GB xfer for $9.99 a month.
Great resource!
Thanks for that link

I have hosting from 1and1.com, and they were a business-to-business web hosting provider. When they opened to the general public they had a promotional package for a short time.

My hosting is FREE for 3 years, with no contractual obligation or anything like that, so that works well for me. If my website becomes busier, then I'm switching to something bigger.

No problem-o.. always happy to help out another bears fan.. (you ARE a bears fan, RIGHT?!)

[KO_300D]

PM sent