Traffic and throttling

What happens when the monthly volume is used up.

Traffic is the amount of data the server transfers in a month. Every web page response, every file someone downloads and every backup upload counts. The dedicated models include 25 TB per month.

What uses up traffic

• Websites: Every visitor loads pages, images and files. A page with 2 MB of content gives roughly 500,000 page views at 1 TB.
• Games and downloads: A game update or a modpack can be several GB in size, and every download counts.
• Backups: Copying backups to external storage transfers data that quickly reaches hundreds of GB.
• Container images: Downloading Docker images is also counted as traffic.
• Updates: Normal system updates (apt upgrade), on the other hand, hardly count.

Incoming and outgoing traffic

The server receives data (incoming, rx) and sends data (outgoing, tx). Most providers mainly count outgoing traffic. Which direction exactly counts is stated in the terms of service and should be checked there.

Check traffic

The tool vnstat measures usage and shows it per day and per month. It needs a few minutes to get started before the numbers are accurate:

sudo apt install -y vnstat
vnstat -d

vnstat -d shows the daily values, vnstat -m the monthly values. The columns rx and tx show received and sent.

What to do when the volume runs low

1. Use vnstat -d to check on which day usage suddenly rose.
2. Look for the cause: large downloads, a backup run, spam sending or an attack on a service.
3. Stop or limit the cause. If the usage is legitimate, book additional volume.

Throttling

After the quota is used up, the connection is limited to 1 MB/s (8 Mbit/s) until the end of the month. Additional volume can be booked.