Bandwidth hog

[Barry]

This forum is eating up all the spare bandwidth and has now pushed the site over the limit. Not sure what the best way is to handle this problem. I could restrict the use of image posting, require a donation from those that want to use this forum to pay for more server space, or?

Must address this issue soon. I'm glad that this has turned out to be a feature that members make use of, but it obviously is having an impact on the server and costs associated with the board.

Regards,
Barry

[Walliebee]

Hmmm... this is a problem. What about a time limit on each post? Maybe one week? After the week, the post/thread is deleated.

Pictures are a excellent way to share info ...a picture is worth a thousand word....

It seems most posts get viewed the first few days, and are then pushed down lost and gone, but eating bandwidth.

[JohnK and Sheri]

The ability to post to this forum could be one of the features only available for paid premium members. Premium member fees should be high enough to cover extra space, and there could be a limit of pictures allowed per poster. Also, a maximum size per pic would probably help. Some of the pics are so large they hardly fit on my monitor, lol.
Maybe the pics could expire after some period of time. If someone wants to save them they can download them prior to dump, or perhaps after they expire the poster can supply a link to webshots, photobucket or such.
Sheri

[Keith Benson]

I think paid premium memberships would be a great idea. If you want to post pics, sign up and pay for the space. I think this might be a way to satisfy that need, and the extra IM space requests.

If you do it, sign me up.

Keith

[Hobie]

What about a time limit on each post? Maybe one week? After the week, the post/thread is deleted.

Pictures are a excellent way to share info ...a picture is worth a thousand word....

I like this approach. Maybe delete the image but hang on to the post, so if someone is searching back, they can contact the poster directly?

[kawayanan]

Maybe I am misunderstanding something in how this is working.

As I understand it, all the pictures posted here are actually hosted somewhere else (photobucket, someones personal server, etc). Unless I am missing it, there is no way for anyone to upload pictures to the BeeSource server. I did a quick check of a number of pictures, and as far as I can see that are all using inline linking or direct linking. This means that the picture is actually loading off of another server (photobucket for example), and should not use up BeeSource's bandwidth. From the point of view of the BeeSource servers, an inline linked photo should not take up any more bandwidth than a link. Its your browser that takes the link and pulls the picture from the other server and puts it together rest of the post.

You can see if a photo is inline linked by right clicking on the photo and (in firefox at least) clicking on properties. Notice the address of the image in not the BeeSource server. This means that your browser is getting the forum page from the beesource servers, but the photo from someone elses servers (using their bandwidth). You can also see what is being loaded from where if you hit "View>Page Source" usually located in the menu bar. The page source will be much messier, but as far as I can see, the Beesource servers use much more bandwidth with all the buttons and such on each page than the photos - the inline linked photos should cost about the same bandwidth as if someone posted the url.

Am I missing something? This kind of problem is the reason that places like photobucket exist, to take the strain of hosting photos or even video off peoples servers.

Like everyone else, I would hate to see the photo gallery go. Its very nice I just don't see how it is being the bandwidth hog.

[sansabar]

kawayanan

Glad you pointed that out as I was thinking the same thing. Many user groups don't allow hosting of photos for this very reason, and if they do they limit the Mb size.
I am curious to learn how these photos hosted elsewhwere are consuming this forum's bandwidth. Perhaps the entire Beesource site is under a size constraint and has reached its bandwidth limit?

[Ann]

While I would happily pay (again, and yearly, as I do on other forums) for Beesource membership, I put all of my photos on my own webspace (resized, also to save bandwidth). As Kawayanan says, this shouldn't affect the bandwidth here at all - unless there's some other measurement that Barry is using.

[TwT]

Beesource isn't hosting these pictures so how is this using up the bandwidth, I always thought that's what the photobucket or Sony imagestation was for, I use imagestation and that's were my picture is stored, guest I could use a link but I thought it would use about the same bandwidth as a URL, maybe I am wrong but if I am please tell me what I am missing or dont understand...... but after all these years with not being able to post pictures then now we can but have to pay for it, I would rather go back to just posting links, some people cant afford to make donations but I have been a member here for a few years and really enjoy the members and site and when ever my kids get finished with college and quiet costing me a arm and leg I will gladly contribute to this forum and Beemaster forum because both have help me......

[newbee 101]

All my pictures are on my own domain. Maybe just new people looking, causing more website traffic at BeeSource?

[nursebee]

Stop letting pics get posted. Just encourage photo sharing site usage and allow links to them. Comments on such can be shared here.

Or else just join the ranks of a free photo sharing site and sell out to google, yahoo, or microsoft for billions in a few years.

[bluegrass]

Is it worse if we attach thumb nails instead of posting a link to the host? I think that pictures make this site...words don't decribe what a picture can.

[Troy]

I agree, the old adage is true. A picture is worth a thousand words. And I don't feel like typing a thousand words.

[berkshire bee]

I think if we use the img button at the bottom of the screen so that pictures come up with the text that info is stored on the server, but I'm not sure. If that's the casseif we eliminate that and only use links to our own sites and hosts like photobucket, maybe the problem would be solved. The way to check might be to clear all existing posts and start from scratch using only links to the pictures. It's worth a try since this is such a good forum. I'll talk to acomputer geek friend and see what he says

[thesurveyor]

I may have a solution. Can you PM the amount of bandwidth we are talking about. I own company that does offsite data storage for businesses. I have quite abit of bandwidth and could probably help you out. We also do webhosting, but I have made the offer before, I could absorb the cost of the hosting as my contribution to the board.

I also have some customers that colocate servers at my location. I am unsure how you have beesource set-up, but I am sure that I can probably help.

I would be more than willing to discuss this issue and see if I can be of assistance.

You can PM me or you can call 828-527-0131.

They will answer the phone as Rentavault, just ask for Doug.

Thanks

[berkshire bee]

I talked to my computer geek friend and he said yes, the pictures that are imbedded in the posts take up an enormous amount of space. Like I thought, the thing to do is just post the text and link to the pictures stored in other places like photobucket. or your own personal website.

[kawayanan]

I talked to my computer geek friend and he said yes, the pictures that are imbedded in the posts take up an enormous amount of space. Like I thought, the thing to do is just post the text and link to the pictures stored in other places like photobucket. or your own personal website.

I consider myself a "computer geek" too. Maybe your friend misunderstood the situation. I still don't see how inline linking could use up bandwidth here (other than bringing in more interested surfers). If BeeSource let us upload photos here and post them, then yes it would take a lot more bandwidth. Inline linking however should only a few characters more bandwidth than a url (or about the same as posting the code for a link). The place where the photos are hosted use more bandwidth, thats what places like photobucket are meant for.

I am not surprised that this forum take a good amount bandwidth though, even without hosting pictures. Right now, I assume Barry is footing the bill. I am very thankful for that, because I have found BeeSource both invaluable for info and fun. If there is a bandwidth problem, I see a few possible solutions:

• ask for donations or charge for membership
• have ads (like google ads or something) to pay for the hosting
• take an offer from someone like thesurveyor who may be able to provide bandwidth or hosting

For the first one, I would like donations better (if it works). Charging for membership would probably decrease the new members, since new beeks might not want to pay before knowing how useful this site is.

Personally, tastefully done ads don't bother me. Some people hate all ads, but simple text ads in a sidebar never bothered me. Big flashing "Punch the Monkey" banner ads do however.

Taking an offer of bandwidth or hosting would have to be Barry's call. I can understand that he might feel like he was loosing some control or ownership of the site. It might however be a workable solution. It all depends on the situation.

Maybe Barry will chime back in with a little more info on the actual situation.

Kawayanan

[Ann]

There is a Donations Button on the Beesource homepage (not the forum homepage). Perhaps Barry could put a button here, as well. I've donated, and plan to again.

[tarheit]

Wish I could donate the extra space and bandwidth on my account. I'm hardly touching it's limits. Have an extra 250+GB space and nearly 3TB bandwidth I'll never use. Does the BB allow storing photos on a different server?

-Tim

[xC0000005]

The HTML source says :
<img src="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...e/IM000540.jpg>

And a quick check versus my bee vac pics (in another post) shows that it's definitely my server handing out the pictures. That makes me kind of curious why this forum is devouring the bandwidth. That said, if bandwidth is an issue, and you can peg it to this forum, close it rather than take the hit.