• There are currently leaks out on the internet for FFVII Rebirth; we have received legal notice about these being posted on the forums. Do not post any images, videos, or other media, or links to them from FFVII Rebirth or the artbook. Any leaked media or links to them will be deleted.Repeat offenders will be suspended.
    Please help us out by reporting any leaks, and do not post spoilers outside of the spoiler section.

Opps (bandwidth usage reduction)

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
Got a warning from the host today that our site exceeded the fair use policy in terms of bandwidth usage, at around 4822 MB. I dug a bit deeper, and by far the biggest bandwidth consumer (with over 4 GB) are .JPG images, probably those from the frontpage.

So, I'd like some suggestions for external hoasting of images, to reduce bandwidth usage. Preferably with either a very high or an unlimited amount of storage.

I'm not sure if the frontpage system allows using a gallery with external images, so that feature might have to go overboard.

The alternative is to find a host that offers more bandwidth, right now I'd say 20 GB or more, but that would cost additional moolah. Removing the .JPG images would reduce bandwidth usage with 4/5ths though, so I'd say we go for that one first (since this host is cheap, which is a good thing).
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
I *really* would hate for us to lose our multimedia though. In terms of getting a better host that has more bandwidth, how much would it cost? I could chip in, in terms of paying for it if necessary. What are we looking at?
 
I've always had good experiences with imagecave.com. I recall using them over photobucket a while ago because when I went to use the images on a layout, photobucket was resizing them, and imagecave wasn't.
 

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
[quote author=Makoeyes987 link=topic=158.msg2833#msg2833 date=1229680419]
I *really* would hate for us to lose our multimedia though. In terms of getting a better host that has more bandwidth, how much would it cost? I could chip in, in terms of paying for it if necessary. What are we looking at?
[/quote]

'losing' the multimedia would be The Shit, hence I opt for external hosting instead, :monster:. As for hosts, I'm not too familiar with hosts actually, but there should be plenty of choice for decent prices. I'm just reluctant from moving from this one, since the majorities of my experiences are positive, :monster:.

Anyways, we've got the first warning, if it hasn't improved we'll get a second one next week, followed by the site getting shut down for up to a few weeks until the bandwidth consumption averages out again. In case that happens (which will be recognizable though a single line of Dutch text on an otherwise white screen, at least that's what we got back when FFOF went down - right when I was on vacation so I never got the warnings, olz), go to FFOF fgj.

I'll see if I can at least temporarily disable the images, at least until we find a reliable external image hosting solution.

Edit: The fact we've got some >2 MB files doesn't really help, olz :monster:.

@Schala (cba to PM), are you willing to update your ten days to whatnot posts, all those character images are all 500 KB large (when clicked on) and a good 100 KB in their resized form, would be really nice if you'd be able to convert them to regular JPG's or .GIF's, would take up considerably less space / bandwidth.

The biggest bandwidth consumers are full-sized article scans, so yar @ that.
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
What about getting *more* bandwidth from this current host? Do they allow that? Because if we could expand on it and just leave it all as is, that'd just save us a lot of trouble, and again, I'd be willing to help out and pay for it :monster:

I just would *really* hate to see us have to move everything, downsize everything, or remove it all. Can you look into that? Because usually hosts have ways of lifting the bandwidth cap, right?
 

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
[quote author=Makoeyes987 link=topic=158.msg2871#msg2871 date=1229714523]
What about getting *more* bandwidth from this current host? Do they allow that?[/quote]

Nope, they're cheap because they've got a very rigid webhosting plan. The only thing they offer in terms of upgrades is doubling the storage space, but seeing we've still got plenty of that, that's not an option.

As for the other hosts, as long as they accept payment through bank transfer or (perhaps) PayPal (if that allows bank transfers), I'd take a look at 'em, but the fact I don't have a credit card doesn't bode well, seeing that 99% of Amurcan webthingies only accept credit cards. I'll look into the poasted ones.

'l Edit: I'm making a backup of the imagery and am removing the largest handful of images (>100 KB), which will (if I'm doing this right) result in some full-sized images to no longer be available. The thumbnails will probably remain though, compared to the full-sized ones they don't take up that much space.

Edit 2: Done, and the first few pages of the news don't seem fuck'd up, so it's all good. I'll reinstate the images properly once this is over and/or we've got a new image hosting solution and/or a new host, so don't go changing no older posts' images, else that won't work.

Also, may I note that holy shit we've got a load of uploaded imagery, :o. Over 1500~ish images, although that includes resized images / thumbnails so at the very least halve that. I'm making a full backup of the images right now (and the database as well while I'm at it), so if anyone would like a copy of that, contact me on MSN or something.
 

Tennyo

Higher Further Faster
[quote author=Balthea link=topic=158.msg2958#msg2958 date=1229745491]
[quote author=Tennyo link=topic=158.msg2929#msg2929 date=1229728785]
If all else fails try bluehost :monster:

http://www.bluehost.com
[/quote]


I use bluehost. :monster:

And I have a friend who personally works on/fixes the http://hostpapa.ca/ servers... I just met him after I had already paid for two years with bluehost.
[/quote]

Bluehost is the best IMHO.

And Yop do you have something like a check card or whatever? *doesn't know how it works in other countries*
 

Ⓐaron

Factiō Rēpūblicāna dēlenda est.
AKA
The Man, V
I'll take the images if no one else has them.

also, you should probably add an option for 30 posts per page. I'm using 50 right now, but that's really overkill. 25 isn't large enough though >;c
 

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
Haven't seen anything that allows that yet, but I'll take a look. Also, don't be so picky, 25's enough, :monster:.

@Tennyo, over here, everything is done through the bank, i.e. if you want to send me money, you transfer it to my account. If I want to pay something, I use a debit card (at least I think that's what the US variant is - basically it allows you to transfer money directly to the shop you're paying at from your bank account).
 

Ⓐaron

Factiō Rēpūblicāna dēlenda est.
AKA
The Man, V
I like 30 because it's a nice multiple of the default.
 

Tennyo

Higher Further Faster
[quote author=Cthulhu link=topic=158.msg3361#msg3361 date=1229939668]@Tennyo, over here, everything is done through the bank, i.e. if you want to send me money, you transfer it to my account. If I want to pay something, I use a debit card (at least I think that's what the US variant is - basically it allows you to transfer money directly to the shop you're paying at from your bank account).
[/quote]

Okay. Well here we have check cards that act like a credit card but the money comes straight out of your checking account at your bank. We also have debit cards but they are more of a prepaid thing (I think, I've never used one lol). But check cards can be used online. Like mine check card says Visa on it, so when I shop online I can use it like a regular Visa card. Can debit cards be used the same way?
 

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
Only in Dutchyland, :monster:. There's either direct transfer, where we have to transfer money from our account to the shop (usually with some code), but more recently they've introduced a system that allows payment by just validating the payment at your own bank (where each bank has its own security system btw).

I'm fairly sure our system is much more secure, seeing that if you want to pay, you need access to the account holder's bank account number, bank card, PIN code (4 letter code, muh) and a little card reader device. When you want to approve a payment, you have to insert your card into the device, enter your PIN, enter a code displayed on screen (one part of an encryption) and fill in the number that appears on the device onto the bank's website.

Which is just btw, I still have the impression that in order to pay with a credit card, you just have to fill in the card's number.

Edit: Just took a look around, seems Bluehost was earlier a non-unlimited bandwidth host, but then increased its bandwidth to 999 GB and whatnot. I'm fairly sure that in terms of bandwidth, it'll be good enough :monster:.

Dunno about speed, but eh, I'm sure we'll manage.
 

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
I just hope that other factors but bandwidth (such as visitor amount) won't come bother us for at least another year or so, else we'd have to go to a dedicated or just a more expensive host, :monster:.

Not that that would be a problem if we had a proper financial plan btw, but seeing that we don't, :monster:.
 
Top Bottom