Bandwidth question

I think this is best explained by the following Wikipedia definition:

''Inline linking, also known as hotlinking, is the placing of a linked object, often an image, from one site in a page belonging to a second site. The second site is said to have an inline link to the one where the object is located. It is used for such activities as linking images from personal home page storage into the online diary of the person controlling the personal home page.

This has sometimes been controversial because it is possible that the site where the object is stored and from which it is retrieved will not like the new placement or will consider it to be bandwidth theft. This term refers to the unauthorized use of someone else's bandwidth. Inline linking to an image stored on another site increases the bandwidth use of that site, even though their site is not being viewed in its intended form. Since bandwidth is a commodity, unauthorized use can increase the maintenance costs of the website hosting the image, hence the term bandwidth theft.''

A quick example: You create a website, loaded with pictures and downloads. However, the location of those files is on my server. People visit your site but my server is the one accomidating everyone's downloads. Thus, you receive the credit/advertising revenue/popularity/etc, but I'm the one providing the content. In addition, I'm the one paying for the content to be available (server maintenance, internet costs, etc), and listening to the complaints from the visitors of my site that it loads slowly and the downloads take forever.

Thus, when linking to content, always observe copyrights/trademarks/etc, give credit where credit is due, and if the files are not on your computer/server, link to the author's website whenever possible, not the file directly. Basically, remember to ''play nice.''

Hope this helps,
John

...has a slightly different meaning depending on the context it's used in..Correctly, Bandwidth for a radio channel, for example, is the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies and is measured in Hertz. It's a frequency term.

On the other hand, in the context you are referring to, it means the transmission capacity of an electronic pathway such as a communications line, computer bus or computer channel. In a digital line, it is measured in bits per second or bytes per second (see Mb/sec).

When it comes to transmission capacity, any time you continue to use a site, it requires bandwidth for their server to send you the signal.. Downloading files from that site does the same thing and although most sites that provide downloads are ready to provide a set amount of bandwidth, too many downloads can use up their capacity so other users can't visit it. Too many visitors can do the same thing or linking to other outside sites can also hog bandwidth that could be used for other things...

Basically, that is what a Denial of Service attack does by viruses and hackers...Millions of attempts to visit the site clog the capacity of the server to handle the visits.

Links below:

Bandwidth Definition
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/b/bandwidth.html

Bandwidth:
http://www.intoweb.co.za/it-terms.php?term=Bandwidth

Hope this helps.

Grif