Bandwidth Issues
It’s getting towards the end of the month for me. That means, I’m almost at the end of my bandwidth allotment. When you host a website, you pay for server space and bandwidth. As the site gets more popular (more people come to the site), your bandwidth will increase. My bandwidth has increased from 6 GB (gigabytes) used in January, 2005, to over 30 GB this month. Along the way, I’ve had my Internet Service Provider increase the bandwidth, at a cost to me.
What can I do about this? Well, a couple of things. First, I’ve stopped what is called “hot linking”. That is when other sites simply place a link to an image on my site from their site. By clicking on the link on their site, my site has to serve the image up (uses MY bandwidth) for their viewers to view. This does not increase their bandwidth at all. Now, they are no longer able to do that. They must come to my site to view the photos.
And speaking of photos... I’ve temporarily taken the photo gallery completely off-line. If you try to view any photos, it will bring you back to the home page of the blog. Photos take the most bandwidth of all.
I’ve also learned that there is a concerted effort to bring my site down by forcing the bandwidth up and causing me to pay more and more each month. You can use your own imagination to guess who may be doing this, based on the content of my site. I am not going to throw stones here or open myself up to possible litigation by mentioning names.
The Abu Ghraib Prison abuse photos are gone. I deleted the photos and put up a notice that they were not deleted because of any government pressure, but rather one of expense. They were getting thousands of hits per month. I simply don’t want to pay the expense, when it is such a small focus of what I am and what this site is about. I disagree with what happened at Abu Ghraib. I think that statement has been made.
My bandwidth recharges as of October 31 at 11:00PM EST. At that point, the counter will go back to zero. But, I’m right on the line and I will not pay for more bandwidth. Once it reaches 31 GB, the site will refuse everyone, until October 31st. I mention this so you will know what happened should you be refused. If that be the case, I will see you all again after Oct. 31.
Continue to leave comments as you wish, and I will continue to post as the spirit moves me. All of that takes virtually no bandwidth.
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Thanks Jeff. The thing that brings me the most joy in doing this site are the comments and the email feedback (aside from the hate mail that it brings as well).
Someone asked me a few days ago what I've learned from doing this site. What came to mind is what I've learned from people. There are some really nice and decent people out there with warm hearts and souls.
There are people who hate people like me, but that doesn't necessarily make them "bad" people - just misguided and misinformed people. I honestly believe that if they knew me as a person and knew the content of my character, that hatred would dissolve. Maybe I'm naive, but I believe that's true.
Then, there are people who hate, who are just rotten people. They even hate themselves, truth be known. And, even though they hate me, I am the least of the problems they have in their lives.
That's what I've learned from doing this site. :)
Good luck, Bill. Hopefully removing access to the gallery will also remove the problem. I wish there were some better way of dealing with, and permanently removing the problem because I LOVE your photographs!
You do great work here, Bill. I pray that your site remains for as long as you have the will.