Atjeu
02-20-2003, 05:15 PM
Hello Everyone:
Since our bandwidth and billing program was released on Jan 1 there have been many customers questioning the bandwidth amounts that our system reports vs the bandwidth that their control panels report. We have spent far too much time researching, answering the same emails, checking, rechecking and re-rechecking the system and it is accurate and working fine. There are other posts in this forum pertaining to this but we will just sum it up in one post so if you were referred here because you sent us an email about bandwidth usage you will know why smile.gif
1. We poll your switch port. Your switch port increments for both in and out separately every time 1 byte of information passes through. This is recorded in a database at 1 minute intervals and this is what is used to make your bandwidth graph and calculate your monthly usage.
2. We bill by the total GB transferred method. The industry standard is to add your incoming + your outgoing bandwidth together to make the total GB transffered for your billing period.
3. No control panel calculates total bandwidth. They only calculate certain services like http, ftp, smtp and usually only in one direction (outgoing). They also usually do this by the "user" that the control panel understands. (some people have users on their machines that are not done through the control panels). Some control panels are good and put a big red warning on the bandwidth page (cpanel) that say this is not a representation of total traffic, but most lead you to believe its total traffic when it is not.
4. Most control panels calculate from 12:01am on the 1st of the month to midnight on the last day of the month. Very few people have that same billing period at Atjeu. Therefore the amounts you see when you login to the billing period are using your billing period at Atjeu and will be most likely way off your control panel's. We calculate from 12:01 on your billing date to midnight the next month on your billing date.
Therefore one cannot compare our total bandwidth calculations from your switch port to your control panels bandwidth estimate. They are not and probably will never be the same. The control panels provide you that information so you can see your users outgoing http etc... not to calculate your total bandwidth usage for your server.
Most of our customers at least now have a good understanding of this which we do appreciate smile.gif Our switch port counters dont lie and do account for all the traffic. Atjeu cannot tell you what that traffic was or where it was used except that it came from your server. Our billing program provides you with daily, monthly and yearly graphs so you can see it visually.
If anyone still has an issue with the discrepancy between their control panels bandwidth amount and our billing program, here is what we suggest you do.
Get the latest version BWBAR http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/web/bwbar/ and install it.
Get the latest version of HotSaNIC and install it. (or you can get bandmin) http://sourceforge.net/projects/hotsanic/
These programs dont care about your control panel or your users, they poll your network card for in and outgoing traffic and increment just like the switch port counter does. Therefore they will give you an accurate total traffic for incoming and outgoing which you can then add together for the total.
Next, login to our billing program and check your billing date. At midnight (Arizona time) on your billing date, start BWBAR and HotSaNIC and let them run and accumulate data for the whole month. Throughout the month and at the end of the month, compare the results from the two programs you installed and our billing software. If you see any large discrepency, email us and let us know. If not, you can then know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our bandwidth program is accurate.
Thank you!
Since our bandwidth and billing program was released on Jan 1 there have been many customers questioning the bandwidth amounts that our system reports vs the bandwidth that their control panels report. We have spent far too much time researching, answering the same emails, checking, rechecking and re-rechecking the system and it is accurate and working fine. There are other posts in this forum pertaining to this but we will just sum it up in one post so if you were referred here because you sent us an email about bandwidth usage you will know why smile.gif
1. We poll your switch port. Your switch port increments for both in and out separately every time 1 byte of information passes through. This is recorded in a database at 1 minute intervals and this is what is used to make your bandwidth graph and calculate your monthly usage.
2. We bill by the total GB transferred method. The industry standard is to add your incoming + your outgoing bandwidth together to make the total GB transffered for your billing period.
3. No control panel calculates total bandwidth. They only calculate certain services like http, ftp, smtp and usually only in one direction (outgoing). They also usually do this by the "user" that the control panel understands. (some people have users on their machines that are not done through the control panels). Some control panels are good and put a big red warning on the bandwidth page (cpanel) that say this is not a representation of total traffic, but most lead you to believe its total traffic when it is not.
4. Most control panels calculate from 12:01am on the 1st of the month to midnight on the last day of the month. Very few people have that same billing period at Atjeu. Therefore the amounts you see when you login to the billing period are using your billing period at Atjeu and will be most likely way off your control panel's. We calculate from 12:01 on your billing date to midnight the next month on your billing date.
Therefore one cannot compare our total bandwidth calculations from your switch port to your control panels bandwidth estimate. They are not and probably will never be the same. The control panels provide you that information so you can see your users outgoing http etc... not to calculate your total bandwidth usage for your server.
Most of our customers at least now have a good understanding of this which we do appreciate smile.gif Our switch port counters dont lie and do account for all the traffic. Atjeu cannot tell you what that traffic was or where it was used except that it came from your server. Our billing program provides you with daily, monthly and yearly graphs so you can see it visually.
If anyone still has an issue with the discrepancy between their control panels bandwidth amount and our billing program, here is what we suggest you do.
Get the latest version BWBAR http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/web/bwbar/ and install it.
Get the latest version of HotSaNIC and install it. (or you can get bandmin) http://sourceforge.net/projects/hotsanic/
These programs dont care about your control panel or your users, they poll your network card for in and outgoing traffic and increment just like the switch port counter does. Therefore they will give you an accurate total traffic for incoming and outgoing which you can then add together for the total.
Next, login to our billing program and check your billing date. At midnight (Arizona time) on your billing date, start BWBAR and HotSaNIC and let them run and accumulate data for the whole month. Throughout the month and at the end of the month, compare the results from the two programs you installed and our billing software. If you see any large discrepency, email us and let us know. If not, you can then know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our bandwidth program is accurate.
Thank you!