Bandwidth questions...

[Alli]

First of all, I don't know enough about what I'm asking to know where to put this, so sorry if it's in the wrong forum.

Anyway, I managed to go over my 5gb limit today. This is because I offer some rather large video downloads. I was thinking it would be cool if I could put the largest videos in a folder that gets locked when, say, 3gb of bandwidth have been used that day, and smaller videos in another folder that gets locked when the bandwidth is up to 4.5 or so, so that the rest of the site doesn't go down due to these downloads. And maybe if it's easy enough make some sort of message that explains what's happened and that they'll be back the next day.

I saw in the tutorials section that there's a way to find out how much bandwidth your site has used that day, so would I just have to put something in my .htaccess file that says password protect this folder if bandwidth is greater than 3? Is this even possible? If not, do I have any other options?

If it's not too much trouble, it would be great if someone could tell me exactly what to put, and where. I'm kind of new even to html so I have no idea what to do.

Thanks!

[Skunkboy]

The forum you're in is fine :)

I don't know about the scripting end of shutting off your site; but, Powweb does send out a warning at 4gb by e-mail (the one used at registration). If you had all the big files in one folder, you could perhaps rename it (which I assume is what the script would do).

If you go to ops.powweb.com | Hosting Packages | Web Site | HTTP | Usage/Stats you can see your traffic OR if you run a copy of any stats program. AW Stats is the preferred stats program to use. It may take up to 24 hours for your statistics to be available at http://yourdomain.com/webstats/


Also, you may want to look into a .htaccess for your site to do the following:

Options -index
^^ line will prevent people from being able to view a list of your files

If you have problems with specific sites pulling your files, using your bandwidth... you can block them individually OR prevent any linking at all with htaccess. Information about this can be found at: http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess10.shtml

ESPECIALLY if you've setup password protection, you can prevent a hacker from viewingn your .htaccess with a deny statement. For information, feel free to check this tutorial: http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess8.shtml

Is there a pesky person perpetrating pain upon you? Stalking your site from the vastness of the electron void? Setting up a Deny statement in your .htaccess will prevent this from happening. For more information, feel free to check: http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess5.shtml

[Alli]

Thanks for the response. :)

Renaming the folder by hand is a possible solution, but it would be better if there was an automated way to do it, in case I'm not around at the time. I also didn't receive a warning email from Powweb.

As for leeching/hacking, I'll have to check my webstats when my site goes back up, but I doubt that's the problem here. Thanks for the links though.

Some sort of scripting solution would be best... anyone have any suggestions for me?

[Skunkboy]

http://prettyworthless.com/tips.php?tip=bandwidth#tip

There ya go. Found it :)

Yet another fine answer made possible by B&T's Tips and Scripts

[Alli]

Thanks! That requires powweb to actually send the email, though. They have my address so I have no idea why they didn't. Do I have to sign up for it?

[Winston]

Thanks! That requires powweb to actually send the email, though. They have my address so I have no idea why they didn't. Do I have to sign up for it?

You don't need to sign up to receive the 4GB warning email, it is setup automatically where it will send it to the email address on file for your account. You may want to check the history tab in member OPS to see if you were indeed sent a 4GB warning email.

[Alli]

You don't need to sign up to receive the 4GB warning email, it is setup automatically where it will send it to the email address on file for your account. You may want to check the history tab in member OPS to see if you were indeed sent a 4GB warning email.
Strange, it says two warning emails were sent to me yesterday, but I didn't receive either of them. I looked in my junk mail and trash too and they're not there. I did receive the reactivation email though so I can actually get emails from powweb... I haven't looked at the site Skunkboy linked me to in detail yet - is it necessary for me to receive the email in my inbox or just for powweb to send it?

[Winston]

The warning email is sent to the email address that you have under the Personal tab in OPS. Generally speaking, you should've received the warning email if you received the reactivation email.