07: What is a quota? Why am I at my limit? What is a grace period and why am I in it?

Your hosting account comes with two quotas. One of these is for the amount of files you're allowed to store on your website and in your email folders, called your Disk Quota. Picture a floppy disk or a Zip disk--each of these disks can hold a certain amount of files. If you try to put anything more onto them when they are full, it will not fit.

Likewise, when you fill up your website and email space, you can't put any more files or email there--they won't fit. This can lead to you being unable to receive email, or even check it via webmail. For this reason, we send you a warning when your disk quota is almost full. (You can customize how much of a warning you wish to receive with the Account Settings icon on your website's Control Panel.) You can then use the File Manager to look in your email and web directories to see what is taking up the most space.

The most common causes of disk quota filling are spam accumulating in unused mailboxes such as the Default Mailbox (see the entry on spam, below), space taken up by mailboxes for defunct users that were not deleted when the users'
email accounts were (when an email account is deleted, the user's mailbox and webmail directories must be removed manually using the File Manager), and large Trash or Saved Messages folders building up in users' webmail directories. If you do not see any of these, give us a call at 866-620-8650 and we will find what the cause is for you.

The other quota is your Transfer Quota, and this refers to the amount of bandwith used by your site in one month. Bandwidth = file size x number of transfers. If you have a one megabyte file and it is viewed (downloaded) ten times, that is ten megabytes of bandwidth.

When you exceed your bandwidth quota, you must either add more or pay for additional transfer used. If you received an email stating you were in a "grace period," this means that you have this period make your selection:
either upgrade to a new plan or bandwidth package, or incur additional bandwidth charges. If you have not done so by the end of this period, your site will be suspended until you do. Note that since the bandwidth counter resets on the 1st of each month, if the month ends before your grace period runs out there will be no suspension but you will still be responsible for excess bandwidth charges.

Excess bandwidth is charged at a minimum of $3 per gigabyte as outlined in our policies. Unused bandwidth does not carry forward.

In most cases users who exceed their bandwidth in the middle of the month will need to purchase at least one gigabyte in 3 month increments, or to upgrade to a plan that offers more monthly bandwidth. Upgrading the plan is usually the more economical option.

Note that you can monitor your bandwidth usage from day to day by visiting your website's Control Panel; there is a bandwidth counter in the upper left-hand side. You can also click on "Site Statistics" for more detailed reports about what is taking up the most bandwidth and where visitors to your site are coming from.

If your bandwidth use is unexpectedly high, viewing Site Statistics can help you track what files make up the greatest percentage of your bandwidth use.

The most common causes of excessive bandwidth use are large files (such as audio or video files, or even large image files), or "bandwidth theft" (aka "hotlinking"). Bandwidth theft is when someone links an image file from your site on their own--as a message board signature, for instance. For information on how to prevent bandwidth theft, see this article.

If you are unable to determine where your bandwidth is going, give us a call at 866-620-8650 and we will help you figure it out.

  • 0 Users Found This Useful
Was this answer helpful?

Related Articles

01: I signed up with you a day or so ago and still can't see my website using my domain name. When will my domain work?

In most cases you either purchased your domain through us or you are moving your domain from...

02: I published my website to the server but can't see it. I still see a directory of files.

This can be one of two things. The files were uploaded to the wrong directory or the main file to...

03: I changed my password and can't get to my Control Panel?

First, you will need to wait at least 10 minutes for the change to take effect. Then, shut down...

04: I am having problems sending email.

There are two most probable reasons you may be having trouble with your outgoing mail. The most...

05: How do I renew my account?

When your initial billing period is up, we automatically renew it unless you...