user bandwidth

[atcspaul]

this is from my cpanel. i checked the ip and it is a member of the forum with no post however the usage of bandwidth by this person does not seem posible. here is a copy paste and maybe you can tell me what you think

ip
72.209.55.
pages
149120
hits
155944
bandwidth usage
3.97 GB
date
11 Nov 2008 - 16:03

[Matt]

Member as in registered user? Did you look at their profile and did any of it seem suspicious?

Did you check to see if the IP was a known IP from a robot like yahoo or google perhaps? Hard to tell where your IP ends and the other numbers begin from the post above.

[atcspaul]

ya it is in conn, no posts. i do not allow links untill a regestered member with a certain number of posts or links or anything else. my bandwidth ussage is really high and trying to figure out why

[Matt]

Well, you either have a robot or someone who really likes to read on your site. FYI that IP comes from Cox in Rhode Island not Connecticut as far as I can tell. I see there is Captcha on your site for new user registrations but I question if it is 100% foolproof in screening of all bots from registering. I suppose you could send a PM to the person and see if you get anything back from them or of course ban their IP if you suspect them as non-human or simply want to restrict them from your site because they are consuming too much.

[atcspaul]

they were only on the site the one time when they joined. no other member has used more then a few hundred mb's so 3.9gb sounds next to imposible to me. i am still doing some searching. i new it was new england lol. must have had conn on my mind

[sergey]

Try to check AWStats statistic for your account and see what these guys accessed from this IP.

[atcspaul]

that is where i got that info let me see if i can figure out what they accessed. thanks matt. as always you thier when we need you

[atcspaul]

where do i search what it accesed. even the google bots and search engines do not use anywhere near this type of bandwidth. as i said the largest ussage i have seen with anyone including the bots is around 200mb so 3.9gig just dosnt seem posible. has me baffled

[Matt]

where do i search what it accesed.

AwStats isnt very good for looking up who did what IMO but then maybe I am just used to webalizer. Look in webalizer it should show you who is doing what more clearly.

[atcspaul]

ya i been looking and the crazy thing is i havnt been able to find anything really out of the ordinary. i made some changes on bandwidth ussage on the forum yesturday and today is way down however the day is not over yet. what time zone do you all use so i can see if the changes i made helped? i am redlining now on ussage and just got a dedicated server from you all recently and the forum really is not that big to be using this kind of bandwidth. hopefully the changes i made will help