Question on bandwidth

[Chris123]

Hello,

I have about 220 domains on a virtual server. I don't do much transfer, and average approximately 45 gb per month. I pay around $280 per month.

About 6 months ago, I found a good deal on a co-location so I said what the heck, and bought a new Dell server. I would save about $40 a month, and I wanted the experience of hosting all my own domains.

They hooked up my new server and I transferred all my domains over to it. HOWEVER, all of a sudden my bandwidth started going up compared to what I did just a month before. Instead of doing 40 gb per month, it doubled to 80 gb per month! Considering I hadn't done any work or promotion on these sites, I found it very odd that my bandwidth would go up like that so fast.

So now I was getting monthly hosting bills of over $200 more than I was paying before. One of the reasons for buying my server was to save money, not pay more than I was before.

I called them to check if there was an error, but they said all was fine. I decided to give it another month to see what happened, and what do you know, another month of around 80 gb. At this point, I transferred all my domains back to the virtual server they were on to begin with, and my bandwidth suddenly decreased to the 45 gb per month range like it was before. Strange, huh?

Okay, now the point in all this? I have a server sitting in my office doing nothing. I am looking for co-location again, but have the jitters. How do you all keep track of your bandwidth? How do we ensure in keeping the webhost honest? I am not saying they ripped me off, but it sure seemed mighty odd to me.

Thanks,
chris

[Bridgette]

Did you use gzip on one and not the other?

That is really strange... I wonder if the virtual server included log traffic etc for free and the co-located one counted all that.

Good luck finding another site. Could you let us know what happens?

thanks,

Bridgette

[Chris123]

Hi Bridgette,

No, everything was the same as before. All I did was transfer the domains and files to it and that was it.

I am just getting tired of looking at this server sitting next to me doing nothing. I am starting to feel sorry for it. I am getting ready to hit a few of my domains very heavy, and need to put it to work.

It looks like there are some great host recommendations around here, and I will be sure to research a few of them. I am just wondering if there is someway on our end that we can measure bandwidth, but I do believe that has to be done by the host???

[Bridgette]

Hi Chris,

I know there are some programs you can run to track your bandwidth. (on a co-lo, you have root, right?)

http://www.superscripts.com/scripts/valve.html (This is supposed to be good for stopping bandwidth thieves, but I've never used it so check it out first)

Bing and a few other programs may be of help to you... I just don't know which ones though. I was a geek many many years ago. Now, I'm just another addle-brained exec type. ;)

I'm sure the real tech guys around here will be along with suggestions & they probably know exactly what you need.

Good luck to you!

Bridgette

[eva2000]

that is normal you see virtual hosts only charge you for bandwidth out (bandwidth your visitors request pages from) whereas, dedicated means the server is dedicated to just your sites and includes either

both bandwidth in and out of your server from everything including email, ftp and any web logs you download.

[eva2000]

Originally posted by Chris123
Hi Bridgette,

No, everything was the same as before. All I did was transfer the domains and files to it and that was it.

I am just getting tired of looking at this server sitting next to me doing nothing. I am starting to feel sorry for it. I am getting ready to hit a few of my domains very heavy, and need to put it to work.

It looks like there are some great host recommendations around here, and I will be sure to research a few of them. I am just wondering if there is someway on our end that we can measure bandwidth, but I do believe that has to be done by the host??? the transfer of files via ftp on a dedicated server would also be counted towards your bandwidth.. your host should be able to provide your with bandwidth stats or a mrgt graph showing your dedicated server's bandwidth in/out totals

[aaronx88]

It would be nice to check how your bandwidth is calculated as well. 95th percentile or actual usage.

Based on what you said, your dedicated server cost you around $280 for 45GB of data and with co-location, it will cost you $240.

If you know heaps about managing a server and dont need much support, check out www.weinbar.com for co-lo 1U server with 50GB at $140.

There a heaps of good host out there as well and it is just a suggestion.

[Chris123]

Originally posted by eva2000
the transfer of files via ftp on a dedicated server would also be counted towards your bandwidth.. your host should be able to provide your with bandwidth stats or a mrgt graph showing your dedicated server's bandwidth in/out totals

Thanks Eva2000.....

Yea, I thought about that and that is one reason why I decided to give it an extra month. I had a lot of files, but nowhere in the area that would increase my bandwidth that much.

I could understand my bandwidth going up a little, but more than double really threw me off :)

And thanks to you Aaron. Unfortunately, I do not know heaps about managing a server. But I was actually learning a whole lot during that two months of co-location and that was the best part of colocation, imho. I got to the point where I could add domains, edit the email for those domains, and other various minor admin duties. I still have a long way to go, and am not real confident yet to have all the burden on me :)

I got an email from my existing host, bluegravity.com, on co-location. He sent me these prices: Pricing is $187.50 per 0.25 mbits/sec (approximately 80 GB per month) and $100 port charge.

I need to get more info, because I think they will provide me service on my co-lo but don't know for sure.....