I'm looking for a new web host for my politically oriented site. I'm worried that if someone gets upset at an editorial on my site, he may cost me money by continuously loading my homepage and exceeding my data transfer limit. Are web hosts able to prevent or
detect this? Would they charge me extra if this
happens?

Aloha,
well depending on how much bandwith you have that would be a lot of reloading to do that a lot

so let em reload it would be funny to think of that
anyway

Detect it?
Technically yes since checking the logfiles and seeing someone repeatly load the site would indicated it but probabbly not becuase who's gonna monitor the log files all day!
Prevent it?
well if the issues became a problem you could block the user but it's too much of a hassle to mess...

Just using some simple math here assuming your host give you 1 gig/mo of bandwidth and the average page is 100KB (html and images)

1gig is 1024mb and there are 1024kb in every megabyte. thus you are allowed to transfer 1,048,576KB per month. devide that by 100KB(the average size of a page) and you get the number of hits you can get per month which is around 10,500.

So if anyone really wants to run you over your limit they'd have to reload your sites thousands of times. Takeing the fact that there are 1440minutes in a day (60*24) someone would have to be reloading your site once a minute for like 10 days straight! No one going to waste that much time trying to do that...

Anyhoo... don't worry about it. A person is more likey to hack your site or try a DOS attack than waste your bandwidth.

Aloha
dexter I was going to write the same thing ??
heheeheheh
ahh great minds laugh alike

If anyone want to run up your bandwidth it'd be pretty easy to write (or use) a bot to do so.

You might want to check out www.botbuster.com

I don't use their product (and in fact if you find any other competitors I'd be interested in hearing about them) but have heard others that are happy with it. It was originally oriented more toward preventing people from downloading all your images (read adult sites) but work to prevent people from loading tons of html as well.

I'm considering it to block those "off-site browsers" that download your whole site. My site is dynamically generated and those suckers can put quite a load on the system. One guy download 20K pages. Another was downloading 10+ pages at a time.

Aloha
will have to look at the link looks curious
what about those on programs that identify them selves as a browser and you can pick which one
I use these when a client contacts me about redoing there website
I usually take down what I can get so I have an idea what I am in for then of course I tell them yeah I sucked your site down and I see you have X pages is there other stuff blah blah

any clue if these bot blockers work for thee kind of programs ??
read there facts but did not say about those that can pass them selves off as browsers.
but ya make a good poing of discussion ;)

OH are you using this bot buster if so how is it on resources ????

It shouldn't be hard to detect. If you look at your log stats you will find that the clown is your most active (or among the most active on your site). Just look at his page views and you will be able to see if he keeps on reloading.

It's unlikely to happen, but you can ban the user if needed.

Thanks everyone. I did the math and I figured that if my home page is continuously reloaded as quickly as possible, my limit would be exceeded several times over in a month. I'll calculate it more accurately now...
If it takes 15 seconds to load my home page of 50K, thats 200K per minute, which is one meg/5 minutes, which is 12 megs/hour, which is 288 megs/day, which is over a gig per four days.

Since there are some web hosts that offer unlimited data transfer, I figured I should be better safe than sorry and try one, but I'm still not sure. If I find one that offers all the features I need and that is supposed to be good, I will.

If you read enough threads in these forums you'll realise that there is really no such thing as Unlimited.

I forgot to mention that I think those with cable modems appear to be from a different computer each time they connect to the internet so they wouldn't be identifiable as the reloader so easily.

Looks like you're right, Colin. Look at this sentence from a web host review on Epinions:

"I get billed directly to a credit card every month and pay less than twenty bucks a month for almost 30-Megs of storage space and UNLIMITED data transfer (I can run in the upwards of 5-Gigs of data transfer per month)"!

Hi Wassercrats,

You are better off finding a webhost that offers high data transfer included in an account, than going with an unlimited solution. Though, it is technically feasible to offer unlimited data transfer, there will always be a catch to it, be it financial or technical. Unless the webhost doesn't have a policy protecting themselves, you will most likely get unlimited data transfer with no financial catch (i.e. no need to pay extra for extra data transfer), but there will be the technical catch (usually not mentioned) of a slower and slower website performance - and vice versa.

The best solution is to select a webhost that specializes in plans offering high data transfer limits at a reasonable price. If you go with such a selection, you will know exactly what you're getting without any incertainties.

reload a page 10,000 times to cause you inconvenience?

I think its more like they would be inconvenicing themselves.

If someone is upset at your website, I think they will find something else to do to you than sit down and click reload on your website for hours on end...

OHHHHH hehehehehe

let me reload a page what a loser

seems like you are just worried about htis as it has not happened nor will it most likely the net pisses people off all the time
so dont worry about it to much
but do some research here and find some people that offer bandwith accounts and have good service to help you out
check some sites
like www. pwebtech.com
www.site5.com
www.datapipe.com
www.dialtoneinternet.com

check em out see what they have
these are just a few I am continuing to look at that passed my test so far as far as bandwith response and monitoring there system there are many others that are good I am sorry if I did not include you
some that seem good bang for buck but you will need to know as they are dedicated servers
are
www.rackshack.net
www.efreeservers.com

anyways have fun

I may use AIT Inc. which gives 30 GB for $18.95/mo plus a $39 set-up charge. I'll look at the ones you mentioned too.

Before you think of using AIT please do a search on this board - you will find some interesting comments...

I read the messages and eliminated AIT from consideration. I also eliminated site5 and all other California based hosts because I'm afraid that a big earthquake would wipe them out. I'm starting from scratch again.

search in hostsearch.com or tophost.com
Then.. if you find something that think is what you want, make a search here or ask about xxxxxxx company.
Best Regards.
Ps: you can also check you PM time by time :)

Check my private messages? Do I have messages that I haven't read? If I do, I don't know how to check them.

:confused:

I dunno if you read it or not :)
anyway here is the link to check PM
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/private.php

Is the user control panel with the private messaging icon a secret? How would I have known about my private messages if you didn't give me that link? I only got offers from hosts and I may have chosen not to be notified by email of such offers, but If these messages are able to be sent to me, there should be a way for me to read them without an insiders help! Thanks for telling me about them.

go to http://www.webhostingtalk.com/ go to the botton of the page, you'll see Private messages, mouse over there and you must see a link.. It's a little hidden.. but is there :)

If it's as hidden as the text in the blue field under "currently active users" then I'll never find it because 95% of the first line is cut off. The closest thing I see is an icon for SENDING a private message. Or maybe my recent cold destroied the part of my brain that identifies private messages on the internet.

I'm leaning towards OLM, incase anyone's interested. Infact, it was the ONLY host that met my requirements after visiting the sites of about 20 of "the best" hosting services (according to tophost.com and ISPcheck). Feel free to destroy me and tell me why they are bad.

...oops, sorry. Wrong thread, and I can't delete this!