Bandwidth and Disk Space are an important part of your hosting. Knowing the difference between the two will help you better understand what Plan you should be on. This will also help you see the growth of your website from the day it was a concept until the day you began taking orders.
Applies to Version(s): All versions
In this article, you will learn:
Why should I know?
Knowledge of the ins and outs of your cart will help you better understand what is going on. This way you don't experience any overages each month which will cost you extra to what you're already paying. Each plan will give you a certain amount of Disk Space and Bandwidth. Check out plans and pricing.
PinnacleCart doesn't monitor your Disk Space and Bandwidth. This is up to the customer to keep track of them and remove anything unnecessary or increase their plan accordingly.
What is Bandwidth?
Bandwidth is the transmission capacity of an electronic communications device or system – the speed of data transfer.
Basically, this means that every time you upload or work on your site, you're using Bandwidth. When customers use or visit your site, they're using Bandwidth from the server (your domain). If you use a Bot or Crawler such as Google Bot, this will use up Bandwidth.
Each plan has certain Bandwidth allowances, and you're not allowed to exceed this each month.
What is Disk Space?
The term "disk space" is an amount of computer storage space on random access memory (RAM) devices such as on a hard drive, floppy disk or USB flash device, and in this case the server.
Disk Space is the allotted amount of space you're allowed on the server before you go over and are required to pay overages. Disk Space will be increased by images, product additions, add-ons (such as sliders, chat mods, etc), backups, in addition to any downloadable products or files you upload.
Where to look in your cart?
Note: This is for hosted customers only (Version 3.8.x and current).
Go to the upper right-hand corner of your Admin and select My Account > Billing. You will then see your Disk Space and Bandwidth.
Where to look on the server?
When you log in you may see a different screen, but if you click on the General tab or Websites and Domains you should see the usage if on a plesk server, or on the right side when you first log into a Cpanel Server.
How do I fix this?
There are a few options you can do to minimize disk space and bandwidth usage.
For Disk Space:
1. Clean up hosted email accounts.
2. Remove old backups that are no longer needed.
3. Remove unused images, files, products.
For Bandwidth - this can be a little more difficult. But if you're using something like Google Webmaster Tools, you can control the Crawl rate. Also, checking your Web Statistics will help you see where all the traffic is coming from.
Remember that when you work on your site through the Admin, FTP, etc., you are also using Bandwidth.
Web Statistics can be located on your server. If you don't have access you will need to request access to the Plesk Server by calling support or submitting a ticket.
Your Web Statistics will look something like this, it's only a small sample but will give a much further break down so you can see where all the traffic is coming from.
You will be able to see trending months, days, and weeks throughout the time you have been hosted with us. This may be different for other hosts that use something like Cpanel. You can use your FTP User Name and Password to access Web Statistics on the server.
*Note: To see what your overages will cost, click here.
If you didn't get your question answered, please contact the PinnacleCart Support Team. To submit a ticket, go to the My Account drop-down menu at the top right of the admin area and select Support.
