OK.. here's newbie again with another newbie question.

I have my forum hosted here with WebWiz.. and I have 500mb bandwidth per month.  Problem is.. I have already used 515mb in just the first 10 days!

Why is that?  is it because of traffic to the site?  We only have 37 members and they don't even post all that often!

Could someone be sabotaging the site?  like just lurking to use up the bandwidth? 

I checked around here, and found the only resolve is to make the forums show up with around 10 threads.. and that is already set that way.  What else can I do?  someone said to host the images on another server.  I have a personal website someplace else.. but don't know if that is worth the hastle, or if I should just upgrade my plan here to the "business plan" which gives me 8000mb.  But if someone is just abusing my site.. then that won't solve any problems either.

What have you guys experienced?  how many mb of bandwidth do your forums use? 

oh.. then today, we are all having a hard time navigating on the forum.  keep getting a "server busy" error message. 

I hope someone can help.. I just am so new at this .. I don't know what to do/try.

thanks much you guys.

THANKS for your reply.

OK... these mb kb and gb all just get me screwed up.  I just looked at the size of my logo, and it's "15432 bytes"  so is that mb, kb or gb or WHAT???

Now.. that must be a pretty large file, so it seems like it would be best to host them elsewhere, BUT.. then I may have the same problem there too! 

I have cut down on the images in the logo, I think I only have the one now.   and it's a .gif.. isn't that the smallest file?

I am sorry for the silly questions.. just trying to figure all this out.. there is so much to learn.

I suppose if I upgrade to the business plan, 8000mb should hold me a month eh?

Boy do I ever have a lot to learn! 

Ok.. from what I gather, my logo probably isn't the problem.  And I think that's the only image, other then the ones in the forum program.

If I am the only one who is having a problem with bandwidth, then it's not the forum, it's me.  So.. I have given this some thought today and have come up with some things to check out with you guys.

first of all.. I think the problem really lies within the number of hits to the forum.  The "cookies" thing makes since with the image being downloaded, so you wouldn't be using more bandwidth?!  but even at that, I seem to be the only one having this issue.  (to this extream)

here's my thought.  I submitted my site to all those engines, and have gotten an overwhelming amount of emails.. could it be that all those people are actually visiting the site?  Before I turned off the "active users" option, there were times that I would be there and  have 15 guests at a time! 

Another thought is that some of my members use images.   A lot of us use our "EmotiPads"  to move images into our posts.  BUT.. those are supposedly linked back to the image host, not placed on the forums host. 

Anyway.. these are just some ideas.. anyone got any other ideas as to whats going on? 

This is maybe why your bandwidth has exceeded 500Mb as you have had over 5000 hits to your site, your site stats for your site are:-

Monthly Statistics for May 2003

lol, yeah move it upto the business hosting,i get around 200 thousand plus hits a month at the moment and it doesnt come anywhere near my  limit,but at least you know your covered no matter what!

and its not like its that much more money for what u actually get, wonderfull service Bruce

THANKS again everyone!

BoRg.. I was looking at that and couldn't quite figure it out.. What I saw was the  "TOTAL VISITS = 343"  isn't that how many people have actually been to the site?  Or is that just 343 unique people?  And all 343 have been there LOADS of times?

It must be from all those submissions.  Cause I am not even listed on a search engine yet!  So those hits should really decrease after awhile?!

I will keep thinking about moving up.  I want to, but am just curious as to how well this forum will really take off since I only have 43 members, and so far 12 of them havent' even posted yet!   and since I really am not making money off the forum.. it's hard to justify spending another $100. 

What type of bandwidth does everyone else have?  and how many members does that support?   

And I totaly agree with Pam.. this IS a wonderful service!  I have had so much fun working with it, and Bruce has been a DOLL to work with!

OK.. Pam.. I just have to tell you.. I get email notifications, and I got this email this morning that said.. "WOW BORG THATS HUGE!!!"    just kinda made me giggle as to WHAT you were talking about!

Now you are trying to confuse me by adding "gigs" in there too.  BUT.. I have a calculator!  so if I have done this correctly, you use 80 'gigs'.. so there MUST be 1024 mb in a gig.. which is almost 82,000mb is what your using!!   

THAT IS HUGE! 

Well.. I suppose I have no justification as to WHY I am using that much, but the fact is I AM using that much.  So to move up to the BUSINESS plan.. I will need to "switch servers".. I think is what BoRg told me.  Can you tell me, what does that intale?  Do I have to do anything cause LORD knows that might send me over the edge here. 

Also.. will that make my site run faster?  Some members have said they noticed the site running slow.  But hey.. I am on dial up.. EVERYTHING IS SLOW for me.

Thanks once again! 

If you email support  @  webwiz.net (remove the spaces from the email address) you can get a full run down on what the upgarde process will entail.

lol, yes i could see that would give u a giggles in email, i must admit i did as soon as it went up,ooooooppppps ive done it again!!!!

when we made the server change it all went quite painlessly mate,a few member couldnt reach us for a few days coz of browser probs but as soon as they cleared there historys etc all was cool again,

yeah do it mate,jump in with both feet,you'll never have to worry about bandwidth again,and dont forget bruce could do with the money as he has that poor sole to save in russia!

Thanks for all the answers! 

Yeah.. both feet.. sure.. why not.. umm.. I just hope these people start using my affiliate link that was ment to "help support my site".  Otherwise I am going to have to start charging entrance fees!

Ok.. I guess I am going to do this.  I sure hope that 8000mb will cover all this traffic I am getting from somewhere! 

Now as far as BoRg sending all this money to our Russian Member.. (can't call him a friend, as I haven't sent in my money yet)  anyway.. I sure hope BoRg remembers to send it to that "new updated address"