BlogHarbor weblog hosting plans allow a generous amount of Disk Space and Transfer (also referred to as bandwidth). Some weblogs may require more bandwidth, either temporarily or permanently. At BlogHarbor, you may temporarily add bandwidth to your weblog, or add additional bandwidth by permanently upgrading your hosting plan. This article will discuss the options and considerations when your blog approaches or exceeds its monthly bandwidth allowance.
What is bandwidth?
When we say that your blog allows 5 GB of Transfer in the Standard Plan for example, we mean that your blog is configured to send up to 5 GB of data -- that's 5,120 MB -- to your readers every month.
For example, if your blog homepage has 20k of text and one 80k image, that is 100k of data. If 10 readers access the page once, then the total amount of data your blog will send is about 1 MB. Your one 100k page could be viewed 10,000 times and the total amount of transfer would be 1 GB.
When you log in to your blog control
panel you'll immediately see the Usage Info
box on the left side of the control panel. Your blog's current
Disk and Transfer Usage are shown here.
What happens if I exceed my plan's bandwidth?
Your Transfer Usage is monitored on a continual basis. When your weblog begins to approach the monthly bandwidth allowance, we will send an email alert to the blog administrator.
If your blog exceeds its monthly bandwidth allowance, it will be put on hold and will no longer be accessible. Visitors to your site will see a message saying that the site is temporarily unavailable. You will have limited access to the web control panel; you will not be able to upload files for example. Upon exceeding the monthly bandwidth of your blog hosting plan, you have 3 options:
- Purchase Additional Temporary Bandwidth
Temporary upgrades allow you to increase bandwidth when your site experiences a surge in popularity which you do not expect to be permanent. Additional Temporary Bandwidth is available to your account through the end of the month in which it was purchased, after which your account reverts back to the normal Bandwidth in your current plan. Unused Bandwidth from temporary bandwidth upgrades is not carried forward for use in subsequent months. Additional Temporary Bandwidth is available for as low as $.75/GB. - Permanently Upgrade your Hosting Plan
Move up to the next plan; if you are using the Standard Plan, you can upgrade to the Plus Plan for example, which offers an extra 35 GB monthly bandwidth for an additional $6/month. - Do Nothing
You are not required to upgrade your weblog. You can wait until next month, when the bandwidth counter is reset. On the first day of the next month, your blog will automatically resume normal operations, and open up for access as usual.
You can upgrade your weblog at any time from our Upgrade system; you will need your username and password in order to access the Upgrade pages.
Conserving your bandwidth
This article will illustrate techniques to easily reduce the amount of bandwidth used by your weblog.
