question re avatars and bandwidth

[COElizabeth]

I've been trying to figure out why an ugly x has replaced James' face on my posts. :( I went to the Earthlink site where I had posted the photo, and it said that the page had exceeded the bandwidth for the month. I just have the basic amount of web space you get with an ordinary dial-up email account, but the only thing I have on the site is James' name and the one photo I have for my avatar image, and it is a relatively small file. I haven't accessed the site more than a few times, and no one else knows the address, so I doubt many other people have either. Does the avatar image link use up bandwidth when I post messages or people look at them? Obviously I do not have a clear understanding of how this works!

Elizabeth
Mom to James
9-20-02

[August Mom]

I know nothing about bandwidth, etc. I leave that to DH. :) However, I can now see adorable James next to your post, so perhaps the issue resolved itself. I hope it stays resolved.

[flagger]

This is something I can answer.

Everytime I click on a thread where you have posted, some of your bandwidth is used to display the image of that cute boy. So imagine everyone else who posts here, or lurks or whatever. Those are cute a few draws on your bandwidth over time. It is not just you accessing the site or the image.

In layman's terms, I tell the website to display the thread (to which you have posted) that I want to read. When it goes to display it also looks at the referring URL or link that you put in your profile for your avatar. The language then goes out to that site to request the image and the image then links back here and some of that request takes up your bandwidth.

Hope that makes sense.

[COElizabeth]

Hmm, I thought that might be the case, so I guess my primitive understanding of the internet is not that far off base. But what I still don't understand is why some people can see it and not others. I'm also wondering how much bandwidth I need to avoid the problem. Mamahill, for example, who is hosting so many babies' photos, must have quite a draw on her site! I wonder how much she needs!

Elizabeth
Mom to James
9-20-02

[juliasdad]

Not all website hosting packages have the same bandwidth limitations. If you're using the free 10MB web space that comes with your earthlink account, they limit you to (I think) 1 GB (that's one billion bytes) of bandwidth per month.

The photo on your site is 46,703 bytes. So downloading it 20 times would bring you to a million bytes. Another factor of a thousand brings us to a billion bytes; and so, your picture may be downloaded 20,000 times per month, or a bit less than 700 times per day. Every time someone accesses a thread that you've posted to, the picture gets downloaded. Some people may have their browsers set to "cache" these things, meaning they would download it once and not have to repeatedly download it each time a post from you is encountered, so that is how some people will still be able to see the photo even when earthlink has shut off access.

One thing that you can do is to put up a smaller version of this photo, and point to the small version with your Avatar link. After all, the picture is going to be shrunk anyway to display it, so if you store it "preshrunk", as it were, you'd save bandwidth. Cropping a bit would also keep James' head from being squished the way it is currently! I'd first resize the photo using some editing software so that it is 48 pixels high, then crop the sides off so that it's 48 pixels wide.

In fact, I just did it for you and emailed it to you if you want to use it. :-)

-dan

[COElizabeth]

You're so nice, Dan! Thanks very much! My bandwidth month must have restarted, because I can see him now, but I have been trying to change the image to the smaller file you made for me so I don't have that happen again and so his face isn't squished, as you noted! I had some difficulties and finally switched to a different browser because I read on the earthlink site that Explorer for the Mac has difficulties uploading images. Anyway, I have the file up on my site now (I think!), but the image hasn't changed on my post yet, as far as I can tell. Maybe my browser suddenly started caching and is showing the old image? Who knows. I will see if it changes with this post!

Elizabeth
Mom to James
9-20-02

[juliasdad]

Elizabeth...

Check your email.

-dan

[COElizabeth]

Dan,

I figured out that I needed to change the name of the file on my user profile just before I read your email! Now I will see if it works. Thanks again!

Elizabeth
Mom to James
9-20-02

[COElizabeth]

Hee, hee! Unsquished! Thanks again, Dan! And thanks to Flagger, too. I clearly need all the web site/internet help I can get!

Elizabeth
Mom to James
9-20-02

[suzska]

Just an FYI for everyone else. I've stored Evan's photo at a free site http://www.picturetrail.com. I can't remember exactly how I did it right now, but you have to set your account for "auction" photos. Now, we're not auctioning our babies off, obviously, but it's what allows sites like this to access the photo for display. You can store up to 36 photos for free. After that, there's a fee. I just use it for Evan's pic here, and to post quilt ideas for my discussions on the Joann Fabrics bboard, so 36 photos is plenty.

Just thought I'd tell everyone about another option that seems to finally be working for me.