Bandwidth Thieves, Can They Be Stopped?

By Joseph Nyamache

Bandwidth is essentially used to put files up on servers or to take them from servers, so every time that you put a file up on your site, use an audio application or even just surf the web, you are using bandwidth.

At the most basic level, bandwidth is a series of wires or fibers that will connect the servers to a network, and the grade of a wire will determine how much information is getting to the network where your website is actually located. With this in mind, the whole network slows down when more information is being trafficked than can be easily handled.

Your internet service provider will put limitations on your site during some peak hours of usage or you might find that you need to pay a flat fee per month for a specific amount of bandwidth usage, with charges made if you exceed that amount. Sometimes, an ISP will shut down your site until the traffic is more stable.

You can load sound files, videos flash scripts, images and other programs onto your website, while things like banners, pop ups and specific documents and images are meant to come from a central server. When people link to images that are hosted on your site instead of putting them up on their own, they are running up your bandwidth. They may "steal" images or other files, so that every time the site is initialized, they are running up on your bandwidth costs; in many ways, this can be considered theft!

There are things that you can do to stop this. If you can find contact information for them, it is going to be worth contacting them and letting them know that this unacceptable. You can do an IP lookup which will give you information on them and what they do, and it will tell you who the site is registered to; you may also want to involve the company that hosts their site. When you think about how expensive bandwidth can be, don't let anyone get away with stealing yours!

Learn more about ecommerce website hosting deals here Visit my homepage, ecommerce website hosting deals to discover how you can start your own successful affiliate marketing business.