Managed Servers - Should the host warn you in case of high bandwidth usage???
 

let's say: suddenly you have 10 times the bandwidth than usual and you pay for a fully managed server - should they let you know? You think that would be fair? especially when you pay by used bandwidth??? :disgust

mine icq's me or will email me tellng me of strange things going on

depends on how managed it is. An email notification would be good, but this is the kinda thing that should be setup/determined when you setup the box with the host.

same thing happend to me, with my old hoster. suddenly I was doing 73mbps, and at the end of the month he told me, I generated 18TB traffic, and I paid for 4TB = 14TB overage...and it was all because the hotlink protection was "off", although I never touched it...

Yes, I think that is fair, we let clients know and also where the traffic coming from. It just makes sense to us because why wait and slap someone with a huge bill when you know they are going to be upset. If we know their ICQ we use that and send an email.

Typically if you're concerned about unauthorized bandwidth usage you should be on a capped server, as you slowly start hitting the cap it can be raised to accommodate your new bandwidth needs.

it's happened to me a couple times on managed servers and i was pissed - i had the feeling they let it run up before they alerted me that i had a runaway bandwidth problem.

GFY was responsible for one of them. my fault but still the problem began here with surfers.

that sounds brutal lol

Our servers are not managed, and we will warn you if you are in danger of an overage.

most hosts dont warn you its not thier job to make sure you dont go over.

some will tho its not something that should be expected unless you ask for it and they agree to it.

dont assume

it is not their job to make sure you don't go over, in fact most WANT you to go over so they can charge you more

but IMO it is the professional thing to do, ecspecially since one of the main reason for going over is because of password trading/hacks, so it would be in everyones best interest to keep track of that on all angles

so, yes, i think they should warn you

I have spike monitoring in place on my server, if the bandwidth spikes at a insane rate, i get a automated phone call, an email and an icq

Typical email warning to clients:

parasxxxxx.com (skicom) has reached 80% of their bandwidth limit.

!! Do not respond to this message. Your reply will go nowhere. !!

Im my opinion a quality host will do their best to ensure your happy with the service and watch out for anything suspicious.

it gonna cost me $2200 instead of $300 this month... :mad: :mad: :mad:

mine server sends me when i reach 80% of the bw usage... ;)

Tell your host to setup an MRTG graph page for you to bookmark and monitor.

Problem solved.

IDIOT, I doubt he's talking about shared hosting, there its easy to monitor usage.

Dedicated hosting is a whole differant ball park. You think any host here has the man power to baby sit YOUR fucking mrtg every day to check for "unusual" usage?

THEN, ATTEMPT to get a hold of you to see if the bandwidth is legit or not?

Management = SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION
Bandwidth monitoring = YOUR JOB

$300 a month and you expect them to lick your ass and only check your server?
IDIOT. Maybe if you paid an extra $200 a month JUST for that type of monitoring, SURE, then I can see them being at fault.

BUT you're asking for a $600 MINIMUM in hardware server, BANDWIDTH, POWER, A/C COOLING AND SPACE FOR THAT SERVER, then your "MANAGED SUPPORT", and you think they will have enough $$$ left over to hire someone to baby sit YOUR STUPID ass?


Fucking idiots.

once you grow up you will learn that there are automated solutions for that. and I think, that this is a basic thing for a host to take care of - unless they are interested to make money with that. we're not taking about Rackshack here.

and i would like to know if you still had such a big mouth when we would be talking face to face. i guess not - your mum should spank you once you leave her basement.

You might like this... http://www.bytemark.co.uk/software/bwalarm/index.html

yeah, that would have been nice - and it's free. but still people like this idiot above keep telling me it's not possible. bah :disgust

We monitor bandwidth usage for all of our managed, dedicated server clients. We also do it for our unmanaged clients. We always make our best effort to see abnormalities as soon as they pop up and communicate back with the client about them. The example above of AHL not working is just one of those instances that on a managed server if it stopped working and we didn't catch it there's no way we would have charged for overage.

Any host that looks forward to a client having overage that wasn't "monitized" on by the client is someone you don't want to be doing business with. We provide proactive monitoring on all of our servers. We simply have to - we don't have a single capped server on our entire network. Every one has either a full 100 megabit or 1000 megabit connection. Happy clients are the best clients.

Cheers,

Brad

a full 1000 megabit connection would be nice :winkwink:

That is a major ouch!


When I signed up, my host said they do notifiy over unusual usage spikes, but I've yet to test that.

I don't think a $300 host can be called a managed host.

What are you talking about?

cheap ass webmasters,
wasn't it obvious ?

even half-decent unmanaged host will warn

I think I'll have to give mojohost a test soon. :thumbsup

Agreed. I know as soon as I check it out if there's a problem or not.

i think if they want to treat their cleints right alert them and get their loyalty for good service

i think if they want to treat their clients right, alert them and get their loyalty for good service

ever heard about scripts, wiseguy? :D

No. I might just be dumb though.

Exactly....well said. How can a host be responsible for watching each persons bandwidth on a daily/hourly basis? That would be an impossible task as well as how the heck are they to know if you didn't post some pics or galleries or even buy traffic thus causing your bandwidth to go up?. Of course like sly said above, if you are concerned about this, you should either Cap your bandwidth, or talk to your host about helping you watch your bandwidth. But a host doesnt have the time nor man power to babysit each and every server/customer. :2 cents:

They should at least give you a way of checking your bandwidth graphs easily and accurately up to the 5 min mark. If not, how can you know without them telling you? Common sense.

Yes, they should warn you even if unmanaged. No one likes this type of surprise. Also, it's beneficial for the host to monitor this because someone has to pay for the bandwidth.

If your host gave you a link to your own servers MRTG's then it is your responsibility to watch your own bandwidth, and if you see something looking strange, then you should have the host take a look at it. You really cannot expect the host to be a babysitter for every server they host. But if you talked to them prior to this isolated incident, and they messed up then they should not charge you. But in summary it really is your own responsibility to be watching your own bandwidth bro. :2 cents: :2 cents:

Well, I don't particularly like all your name calling, but all your points are correct and I agree with what you said. :2 cents:

You should always keep an eye on your sites / traffic etc.

I agree with sly :2 cents: It's not the hosts responsibility to watch over your bandwidth, that is if he provided you with a working mrtg graph for your server. All these hosts here saying YES are just trying to earn your business when in fact you should have been watching your own bandwidth. I am afraid you should ask your host to maybe give you a little break this month to help you out, and ask them to maybe to cap your server now, but to blaim them for this??..I think not. :2 cents: :2 cents:

I believe it is the hosting company's responsibility to have some type of alert system or MRTG graphs in place so that the clients are aware of the current bandwidth usage. We have built this feature into our control panel and it allows the client to check his/her bandwidth at any time via graphs similar to MRTG.

Billing surprises are never pleasant for anyone.

Regards,

Anthony

Without trying to sound like a dick, it's not the hosting company's job to be your parents.

You should have the bandwidth capped off if you're concerned about overages.

DH

It may not be the hosts responsibility, but I see many hosting companies responding to this thread that they do it as courtesy to client, not because they are obligated to, but because they feel its the right thing to do by the customer. Many have said its impossible for hosts to monitor everyone's usage and keep them informed. I wouldn't say that we are all just sitting there watching the graphs constantly, but we look at patterns and get notified of unusual usage. Like Brad said, happy clients are the best clients :)

a spike from $300 to $2200 for bandwith alone is an expensive lesson to learn from, though i agree that you should be asking for an MRTG graph that you can check regularly

maybe i'm grasping at straws but if the host wanted to keep your business for the long term, wouldn't they have dropped you a line to see if you'd want to upgrade to a $500+ monthly plan (after you had gone over your monthly usage by 300%+)? i only say that because it's been offered to me by many different companies but maybe that's not the norm

fogot to finish my thought...
so did they smell the massive bill brewing? (~6 more months of your business up front instead of waiting around?)

Bingo.

If one's hosting plan is for uncapped/burstable bandwidth, then it is because one may be expecting huge bandwidth spikes and does not want their server to slow down. Expecting an email from one's hosting just because bandwidth usage increases 10x, should not be expected, even with managed hosting.

I check the graphs of all my children every day :winkwink:

...even the big shooters that don't mind overages!

Seriously, though... the reality for us is that we make our best effort very frequently and in the rare instances where I miss catching it in time enough to not affect their 95th percentile we often end up eating it if the overage is due to some malfeasance of the webmaster like putting videos in an unprotected area or some other type of abnormality or learning curve.

Really, I usually chalk most of these instances up to learning curve. Everyone makes mistakes and small to medium sized webmasters... or those experiencing new growth or trying new marketing really need a safety net in my opinion. Done right, the host can be that for most.

All of our servers now have gigabit connections. The reality is that most would need the server configurationt tweaked to get above 100 megabit or some type of upgraded configuration. But it is nice and we like removing bottlenecks so there are none on our network.

Brad

yes they should tell you and they should give you a detailed way for you to see them as well...our co has an auto notify feature when you hit a certain amount it will alert you...Additionally, their tech staff should have an eye open the monitors to se if you have any out of sync spikes IMHO...

We send out weekly bandwidth MRTG email reports. In addition we have setup scripts that will send out a alert if the customer should want to be notified if the server reaches a certain Mb/s level.

URL's for MRTG are also available, but we find dropping their MRTG graph with a explanation on how it works and what it means is very useful. Automation is the key I think in making sure bandwidth abuse is controlled.

http://reliablehosting.com/aboutmrtg.htm explanation on MRTG

We often time hear from new customers that they really don't understand the graphs.