Bandwidth & Image Hosting

NetHosted Customer Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 287

Okay, this may seem an obvious question/answer but I just want to make sure.

If I display an image on my site that is in effect a hotlink to another then the bandwidth used to the client will be double that if the image is stored on my server? Is that about correct?

Sounds a stupid question, I know, but it is Monday morning

NetHosted Staff Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 5684

I don't quite follow:

If you link to an image hosted else where, your bandwidth is zero and your end user wont notice.

If you host the image, it'll cost you bandwidth but again - your end user wont notice.

Andrew

NetHosted Customer Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 287

ooh, okay, if I link and display it on my web page then there will be no bandwidth overhead for me?

Say I show an image that is hosted elsewhere there will in fact be a passthru scenario then and the user will see the image but I won't get clobbered on bandwidth?

I can see why hotlinking isn't too hot now

NetHosted Staff Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 5684

Yep, that's why some people get rather Ranting!

about hotlinking!

Andrew

NetHosted Customer Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 287

thanks, I can use some free webspace to host the pics and then link to that from my webspace thereby saving bandwidth.

... off to find some decent gallery software.....

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:52 pm Post subject:

Some free webspace shuts down after a certain amount is transferred, there is nothing more annoying than seeing an image seeing a quota has been exceeded.

Unless it's a non-commercial site, I would n't bother.

Interested to see what galery software you select. I'm thinking of changing mine.

Mark

NetHosted Customer Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 287

my ISP (BT) provides free webspace so I'd hope that doesn't shut down. Hmm, *thinks*, would traffic to that site be included in my ISP bandwidth quota.

I was looking at the ones in Fantastico and only one offers off site links, the others you have to load up to. Can't remember their names but the first one seems to be predominantly in German so I can't glean too much. Looks like I will have to load it and play.

What are you using currently? What's wrong with it - may give me some thoughts of what not to look for

NetHosted Staff Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 5684

4images (the German one) isn't so great, Gallery is easily the best choice.

Why do you want to use your ISP? We give a lot of bandwidth in our packages (which you can always check to see if you're going over!)

Andrew

NetHosted Customer Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 287

just thinking out loud and being a tight wad

Gallery does look good. I also want to consider stopping people nicking the pictures so may have to do something in Flash. So much to think about, so little time

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 4:05 pm Post subject:

Stopping people from nicking photos is extremely difficult. You can put a watermark on using Photoshop which will identify the photo in future. You can also disable right mouse clicks( doesn't work in Firefox but puts off most amateurs). If you are selling photos, never put a high quality or large image on a website unless it is after a payment step / password protected. Flash will also put people off (personally I tend to avoid Flash sites). Me, I don't put on photos or images that anyone else might want. Mediocrity rules!

NetHosted Staff Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 5684

It's actually impossible to stop someone from taking a picture if you ever at any point want to display the picture to them before hand. As soon as you display the picture they can screenshot it (any watermarking is then lost).

The big stock image companies therefore only give reduced quality previews with their stamp all over the image.

Andrew

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 4:13 pm Post subject:

Oops, forgot about screenshots as I rarely use them. There are so many other, easier ways to nick photos

NetHosted Customer Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 287

I know, but 99.9% of the internet won't know

NetHosted Customer Joined: 30 Apr 2005 Posts: 10

I've been using photobucket.com for some of the layout images that get loaded loads on my site. You get 1.5gb of bandwidth/month free, its not as reliable as a paid host tho so I wouldn't use it for anything to important. I started using it before I upgraded our hosting and haven't got around to reswitching them.

Tam

NetHosted Customer Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 27

I've been using uploadit.org since started. Images are still on there after a year of course paid account

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