With GZIP compression on (either mod_gzip or php ob_gzhandler), I have reason to believe that CPanel and Ensim are not reporting true bandwidth usage. Instead, they are reporting total bytes being sent BEFORE compression. This is just not right.

In both cases below, there is NO subdomain usage, NO e-mail usage, and barely any FTP usage (a couple megabytes per month the most vs. the gigabytes used by HTTP).

With mod_gzip on:
Webalizer: 3GB CPanel: 11GB
(3-4x difference!!)

With mod_gzip off and PHP Gzip compression on (only for message board):
Webalizer: 7GB Ensim: 18GB
(2-3x difference!!)

FHDave:
I found out that with mod_gzip enabled, CPanel bandwith calculation can be off by a factor of 3 from webalizer. But with mod_gzip off, this does not seem to be a big factor anymore (within few percent or so as I recall).

I think Cpanel just gives you an idea, and is known not to be accurate. Now if your host billed according to what the cpanel says, then you have a problem.

Cpanel doesn't track traffic on all ports, which could be the cause of the discrepancies.

Matt

Ensim counts all in POP/SMTP/HTTP/FTP webalizer there is just counting hits....nothing more nothing less...

So I say the Ensim ones is accurate. Although it doesn't count mySQL.

Originally posted by voxtreme-matt
Cpanel doesn't track traffic on all ports, which could be the cause of the discrepancies.

Matt

So is webalizer :) Besides, if CPanel does not track all kinds of traffic, why is the number higher? I've tested it and seen it, the difrerence is due to mod_gzip, as hard to believe as it may sound, CPanel (and I think most control panel, including HSphere) calculates traffic prior to the compression.

regards,
-dave

Originally posted by ATST
I think Cpanel just gives you an idea, and is known not to be accurate. Now if your host billed according to what the cpanel says, then you have a problem.

How would a hosting business with cPanel resellers monitor their reseller traffic for billing purposes? I saw something about giving each reseller an IP but that seems rather excessive and unnecessary... But then, what do I know? =)

Hal

As I mentioned in my first post, the bandwidth numbers are based upon almost pure HTTP traffic (unless you want to factor in a couple megabytes of FTP traffic along with the gigabytes of HTTP traffic).

I strongly believe FHDave's explanation to be correct.

Now if your host billed according to what the cpanel says, then you have a problem.
Is there any CPanel host that doesn't do this?

I don't think this needed to be moved. Being too picky with placement.

Originally posted by HostInspect
Ensim counts all in POP/SMTP/HTTP/FTP webalizer there is just counting hits....nothing more nothing less...


But do you know how much for each SMTP/HTTP/FTP traffic? True, webalizer only counts HTTP traffic but for most sites, HTTP traffic consumes 99% of the total traffic. I don't think the difference (up to 3x) is due to SMTP (very small) or FTP or both combined.

regards,
-dave