What Counts As Bandwidth?

[Turbo50Mike]

I have the silver plan, and mostly use TCH so that I can send videos to friends and family.

 

Well, seems like someone took a liking to one of my vids, and it circulated all over the internet, and in three days I used up 17Gigs of bandwidth.

 

 

But here's my question - What exactly is bandwidth? Let's say I have a file that is 20 megs. If 1,000 people "Right Click Save As" that file from my site, will that count as my 20Gigs of bandwidth?

 

What if they just click on the file and stream the video without downloading it to their computer. Which is better to keep the bandwidth useage to a minimum?

 

Are there any tricks or secrets to keeping bandwidth useage to a minimum?

 

Thanks,

MJB

[TCH-Rob]

Let's say I have a file that is 20 megs. If 1,000 people "Right Click Save As" that file from my site, will that count as my 20Gigs of bandwidth?

It is

 

What if they just click on the file and stream the video without downloading it to their computer. Which is better to keep the bandwidth useage to a minimum?

 

Makes no difference. All data comming in and out of your account including HTTP, FTP and POP/SMTP are part of your bandwidth. What is the trick? There isnt one, just keep an eye on your accound and make adjustments, increasing the account as needed.

[Turbo50Mike]

Great. Thanks for the speedy reply. Like you said, I'll just have to keep an eye on it, and make sure no one takes advantage of the files I have on there.

 

MJB

[LisaJill]

Just as an addendum - if they're going to play the video over and over it'll keep using bandwidth - if they save it then play it locally it'll only use the bandwidth once for the download. So it is ultimately best to have them download it first. =)

[TCH-Rob]

You could also password protect them to keep them from spreading as an option as well.

[TCH-Bruce]

To save bandwidth you could zip the video and force them to download it to play it. This way someone wouldn't play it over and over from your site.

Edited August 7, 2004 by TCH-Bruce

[thqh]

I thought the video would be downloaded automatically to the Temporary Internet Folder, and each time they open the site, the video file will be loaded from their own cache, so this would not affect the bandwidth usage. Is that not true for embedded video files?

[TCH-Don]

Some visitors will have their browser set to reload your page and files each time they visit the page.

 

Others like myself will have their browser set to reload the page or files the next time I open my browser .

 

And a few may leave their browsers set to use their cache for a longer period,

but there is no telling how many days they will use the cache before it is purged.

 

So we all need to keep an eye on our bandwidth.