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Thread: Bandwidth Consumption **UPDATED**

  1. Re: Bandwidth Consumption

    I could be wrong, and hopefully Sherry will respond to us, but I thought before she said it wasn't really the pm's and photos that took up so much bandwidth. I thought she said the majority of it was from template downloading. I'm not really sure though. If I need to remove my gigantic picture from my signature line, I surely will!!
    Traci




  2. Re: Bandwidth Consumption

    Hi Ladies,

    I have spent most of the day investigating the source of our bandwidth consumption. The good news is that it isn't anything our Shack members are doing (ie. uploading photos to the gallery or adding images to your posts, or having multiple PMs stored).

    Most of our bandwidth, believe it or not, is being used up by spiders, robots, and crawlers. What on earth is that you ask? Well, A spider, robot, or crawler is a program that follows, or "crawls", links throughout the internet, grabbing content from sites and adding it to search engine indexes. Yahoo is the biggest culprit and is sending out hundreds of spiders to our website at one time. They have hit our website 142,742 times in the past month and have used up 5.57 gig of our bandwidth! Second in line is Google and they have used up 3.57 gig.

    Along with the pesky spiders, guests who visit The Stamp Shack website are also using up bandwidth. They spend time browsing our gallery and reading the messages on the board but don't care to register for an account. We sometimes have 50-100 guests visiting at one time so, as you can imagine, this is eating up a tremendous amount of bandwidth.

    In light of this discovery, I have implemented a few changes to the website.

    1. I have installed a program that will limit the amount of spiders/bots crawling our website AND will limit what links they actually grab. Unfortunately, it can take up to three weeks before this takes effect.

    2. Guests are no longer permitted to view the content of our website. If they wish to view the gallery or the message board, they must register for a basic account. I really hate doing this but I cannot allow our website to go offline each and every month in order to accomodate guest viewing.

    3. For this month only, I have disabled a few non-essential features (such as profile messages, member albums, and the friends list) in hopes that we can make it through the rest of the month without going offline. These features will be restored on November 1st.

    So many people have emailed me today with suggestions on how we might conserve bandwidth and I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your concern. You're all so sweet! Some people have suggested that we have our bandwidth limit increased but, as of right now, I'm not willing to do that. We are currently forking over $150 per month for our dedicated server and I really am not comfortable paying any more than that.

    Please go about your normal Shack activities. I think that by initiating the changes outlined above we should see a decrease in bandwidth consumption over the next few weeks. Of course, it doesn't help us out this month as we are already at 90% of our quota. Remember, if we do go offline, please check in with Angie's Yahoo Group for information and updates.

    Thanks so much for your concern and your understanding!! You really are a great bunch of gals

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    metro Detroit
    Posts
    8,657
    Spiders and robots and crawlers, oh my! Can't even imagine all this stuff, so beyond my scope.

    Kathy

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Lawrence, Kansas
    Posts
    5,137

    Re: Bandwidth Consumption **UPDATED**

    Thank you, Sherry. I HATE spiders and crawly things anyway. I think your decision about guests is a realistic and important one.
    ~Cheryl
    shadoob


  5. #15

    Re: Bandwidth Consumption **UPDATED**

    spiders, robots, creepy crawleys..sounds like Halloween!
    Thanks Sherry for your time & effort in figuring this out. who would have thought it?
    I wonder if we can make it to the end of the month. we will see
    thanks for taking such good care of us Sherry!

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    somewhere on the corner of creativity and insanity!
    Posts
    18,234

    Re: Bandwidth Consumption **UPDATED**

    Sherry you are doing a great job!!! I know it stinks to have to implent changes to the site but I think it's the best thing right now. I love the shack and don't want to see us have any down time. Thanks for all of your hardwork!!!!

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Hermon, Maine
    Posts
    6,732

    Re: Bandwidth Consumption **UPDATED**

    Thanks, Sherri. I'm sure that took some time and thought to figure out and correct the situation. I'm Glad we aren't going to be limited in our Shack activities. It makes sense to limit those who aren't members. I've really enjoyed my time here and look forward to lots more!
    Tracey




    My Photography Blog
    My Craft Blog


    BINGO numbers: 47, 8, 72, 98, 65, 28, 92, 35

  8. #18

    Re: Bandwidth Consumption **UPDATED**

    Boy are we lucky to have you, Sherry! You understand all of this stuff that I don't have a clue about! Thanks for taking such good care of us!


    You can't change yesterday, but you can ruin today by worrying about tomorrow.

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Cape Cod, MA USA
    Posts
    14,850

    Re: Bandwidth Consumption **UPDATED**

    I have NO idea what you just told us about the creepy crawlies in the site! I'm sure happy you understand all of this and know what to do about it!
    I agree...you are doing a wonderful job and we all appreciate you and your continuing efforts on our behalf!
    HUGS
    Joanie

  10. Re: Bandwidth Consumption **UPDATED**

    Wow, that's quite something. Lots of work for you, unfortunately. I'll bet you never dreamed your site would get so popular. I'm so glad you started the Shack. Thanks for all your hard work.

    Technique Junkie Turbo Team Member

    My Blog

    Odd Bird Planet Design Team

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