List of ways to save bandwidth

[chrispadfield]

Yes they will make big changes in saving bandwidth with 90 users online and might reduce server load (custom avatars being turned off for example would) but not by a huge amount.

[Saiyan XL]

very nicely explained..

[kitzzy]

One of your suggestions is to turn off PMs, would setting a lower PM limit also help?

Also, how exactly does turning off the Calendar save bandwidth? Is it because of the queries to display the contents of each day? I take it Lots of queries = lots of bandwidth, right?

[chrispadfield]

Originally posted by kitzzy
One of your suggestions is to turn off PMs, would setting a lower PM limit also help?

Also, how exactly does turning off the Calendar save bandwidth? Is it because of the queries to display the contents of each day? I take it Lots of queries = lots of bandwidth, right?

Bandwidth is the amount of data you transfer, ie number of web pages, images etc downloaded and has nothing to do with the amount of queries run or processing on the server.

Turning of PMs or the calendar saves bandwidth because people can't use the system, thus there is less to do at your forums and they do not stay as long. You have to decide if bandwidth costs are that high that you want to restrict what your members can do.

[kitzzy]

Ok that makes sense, but then why is turning off jumpmenu help bandwidth? Is it same reason? Less functionality or what? I thought that one had to do with queries too ... the only reason I thought queries had something to do with it, is because isnt that a call to the server also and thus data is being transferred?

[Erwin]

Originally posted by kitzzy
Ok that makes sense, but then why is turning off jumpmenu help bandwidth? Is it same reason? Less functionality or what? I thought that one had to do with queries too ... the only reason I thought queries had something to do with it, is because isnt that a call to the server also and thus data is being transferred?

Turning off forumjump will save some bandwidth but it's negligible - what you are saving is the HTML needed to put up the dropdown menu. Turning it off will also save you only 1 database query. If you are really pushed, switch it off, but otherwise, the savings are not that great.

[ummahforums]

Originally posted by chrispadfield
2) Use hack to save custom avatars as files
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...ight=bandwidth
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...m+avatar+files

I dunno what I'm doing wrong here, but I get this error when I try to click on the above links: "You do not have permission to access this page."

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by ummahforums
I dunno what I'm doing wrong here, but I get this error when I try to click on the above links: "You do not have permission to access this page."

Change the 'com' to 'org'.

[Virago]

Originally posted by Steve Machol
Just set it to 1. Any more than this would be a waste of resources and provide almost no benefit.

I noticed the GZIP compression level on our board is set for the max of 9.

Could someone explain what/how much this could waste resources? Sorry to be a newbie at all this, but before I try any changes, I need to clear them with the board owner so have to present a case for it.

Also, I've just started paying attention to the server load averages and they're all over the place. Earlier they were at 18.85, 17.38, 12.75 548 users online. A few minutes later I refreshed and got 0.68, 1.17, 1.19 554 users online. What causes them to vary so much so quickly?

[Steve Machol]

Trust me - just set it to '1'. I have a post somewhere in these forums that shows the added benefits of going higher are miniscule, particularly in light of the increased strain on the server. I can't find it right now though.

[joeboo]

Oooh, interesting little guide

[Brian Scherzer]

I wish that I understood the technical aspects of the "whys" better than I do. Nonetheless, I had run into a serious bandwidth problem on both of my vbulletin sites. Use had jumped significantly and I was exceeding the allowed bandwidth (20 gigs per month on one site and 30 gigs per month on the other). I read this thread, tried some things, and sure enough....using the GZIP compression setting at "1" led to over a 50% reduction of bandwidth use! I could care less "why" it worked. All that I know is that by turning the GZIP compression setting to "on", I saved my websites from being booted off of their respective servers. Although resource use went up, it has not created a problem and I'm a VERY happy camper. My thanks to the vbulletin folks for taking the time to give computer idiots like me some tips!

[ummahforums]

Disabling auto e-mail notification also helps save a lot of bandwidth.

[buro9]

Would these not be cached because they are stored in the database and not directly on the server and are sent as a result of a query not a file request?

I could be wrong and often am but this is how it looks to me.

Any more ideas?

That's pretty much it... the querystring generally acts as a fresh request even though the query returns the same result... the only way to trick this is to have some sort of apache re-write going on whereby you can map a path to avatar.php

e.g.

/forum/avatar/file/321654/avatar.gif
could be mapped to
/forum/avatar.php?id=321654

but because the first uses apache URL re-writing, no querystring is passed and thus all browsers, proxies, caches, etc will believe that it is a static file and cache it fully.

you'll also need avatar.php to return date headers stamping it with when the avatar was uploaded... otherwise the caches, etc will believe it's a new file every time - as most check header for dates and size stamp when deciding whether to fetch again or use the cached copy.

[rake]

I would recommend www.rackshack.net for a server at $100 per month and about $250 set up (rubbish server) but you get 300GB bandwidth and they have a decent network (with stats to show its use).

Rubbish server? I'm sorry, but i have to disagree. Rackshack offer the best unmanaged dedicated servers you can find. 25% (maybe a bit exaggerated) of the hosting companies use rackshack servers. They are not rubbish servers, uh-uh.

http://www.rackshack.net/english/aboutus/networks.asp
decent....




This page proves what Steve said:
http://leknor.com/code/gziped.php
Notice that the difference between gzip 1 and 9 is in most cases minimal.