Can we stop members downloading multiple videos at once?
 

This is not spam and urgent.

We are becoming victims of our own success.

Some members are downloading lots of videos at the same time, from the content store, and this is slowing down the server. Is there a way to limit the number of videos a member can download at one time?

Yes.

There is software to do that and ALSO speed limit user downloads and manage maximum daily downloads per user

But why wouldn't you load balance over multiple servers if you are that successful ?

Surely you want webmasters to buy more ?

2c

try putting notes on the website, letting users know they should only download 1 video at a time

also, i think the maximum numbers of downloads in IE is 2... i might be wrong. in firefox you can do 10 at the same time.

Sorry cocked up, it's from the paysite not the content store.

Same answer except cut the load balancing until absolutely necessary.

And you are better off capping download speed and per day limits.

Our average member ganks over 1gb per day - even with limiting.

It's a balancing act.

:2 cents: :2 cents:

That is not good idea!

you can set your server to only allow 2 simultaneous downloads from the same ip, ask your host about it

check on hotscripts.com or get a really good php/mysql coder to create a script that allows connection for downloading per ip

lol, get a clue.

Running a paysite is not rocket science


:)

it has nothing to do with IE or firefox... it's server settings.

i think he was trying to point out that most users are limited by their browser settings not the server settings.. very few servers allow less than 2 ( the average limit for the average user in i.e. )

In this case its most likely people scraping the content to sell it on guba or etc..

Well, not necessarily.
As Smokey said, there are other factors.
IE is restricted in the registry to 2 simultaneous downloads from the server.
You CAN increase over this, but it actually breaks RFC's (Doesn't stop you, just a btw)

If you're running apache, you can certainly limit the number of concurrent downloads per user / IP

I've used "limitipconn" before - it's an apache module that you drop onto your box and then load in the httpd.conf... any fairly savvy admin should be able to set this up for you.

Here's a quick article about it:

http://www.webhostgear.com/279.html

Here you go paul :) http://www.trafficwize.com/

You or your host should be able to install this in no time

LOLOL! First thing I thought of!

Why limit your users to what they have paid for??? Upgrade your server. They pay for everything there is in the members' area, not "gee, you can have 2 videos a day or come back tomorrow."

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

funny :thumbsup

if you're talking about the content store (not a pay site):
- set up an ftp server
- when a user buys a set, have the system copy that set to the users ftp dir.
- limit one or 2 FTP logins per IP (or better: per account).

riiiiiiiiiight

Agreed... they already payed to play, now you have to set it up so they can :thumbsup

Totally. No limiting should be in place. It will piss off members.

However, some will sitesuck no matter what, and try and DL absolutely everything. Cut those off at the knees.

I don't really see why you would want them to be on a leash when they join to be honest with you. They paid for full, 100% access to the paysite and they should have just that. Sure WE don't want them to go in and download it all and leave, but you know? That's the price you pay and if they like you, they are going to stay whether they download them all today or over 30 days.

BUT when you go telling them how and what they can have or limit them, then they aren't getting the 100% access you promise them when they signup. Give them what the paid for and what you told them they would get. If you want to limit them, then tell them on the tour that what they are getting is 50% access, or access to one movie a day......... we don't want to do that, right? So give them what you are telling them you are. :)

First, stop the auto-downloaders.,.. they are the real killer.

In yout htaccess file ( maybe some new ones to add ... ):

Check out http://www.snert.com/Software/mod_throttle/

It's able to do *exactly* what you need and more

Thanks bro

Which is all very warm and cuddly, but not very realistic and nothing whatever to do with business.

There are obviously other factors, but in this context the relevant ones are content costs, bandwidth costs and the cost of hardware/connectivity.

The average surfer will visit your site x times a month and download a certain amount of content. He is nothing like those who join sites simply to rip all of their content.

Not only do that latter group up your bandwidth bills (and perhaps force you to consider more sophisticated, more expensive hosting options), but since they download more content than they can possibly watch in a reasonable period, how likely is it they will renew? If you keep uploading fresh content (far more than Mr Average needs, but hoping to keep the rippers renewing) your content costs will go through the roof.

So in the real world, you can either price your memberships to accomodate the site rippers, but doing that would mean a price probably high enough to deter most of them along with the vast majority of regular surfers. Or you can price for the average member and then, if you want to make a profit, you don't have a choice except to restrict those who go beyond the usage you planned for.

All other things being equal, it should be possible to set limits high enough they will never interfere with the majority of members. But why should they, in effect, be forced to pay extra for a site so that it can accomodate people who play silly buggers?

Thanks for the advice, we think it could be the auto downloaders.

Good reply.

Keeping the balance between what is profitable/feasible and giving the surfer a good deal is hard.

The problem could be we are giving them too many movies at too high quality, for the hardware to accommodate, plus the BW bill. We are still running on the one server and this will change next week. It's a good one, but at max, the new one will be dedicated to the paysite.

The last few days we have run at 200% of the normal BW. The problem is not the bill, it's the way it slows down the admin centre. What we have to do is discover what is causing it. We have password protection but I don't think it's good enough, we will improve it.

The main problem is the way this makes the admin centre slow down to a speed that makes the administration of the site cumbersome. The sites run well, until someone tries to order something, then the problem appears. The paysite runs fine, if a bit slow.

As I said we will fix it and look at how to work in the future.

Just had to happen a few days after I said running a paysite is not rocket science. It's a bit harder then I thought.

The point of Jayeff's post is about the amount of content some sites offer and the membership. Does $1 a day allow you to download 200 GIGS in a few days?