Managing Domain Traffic

Domain Traffic Usage Policy

All account plans come with a predetermined traffic quota, for example our smallest Web Hosting package, the Alpha account has a traffic quota of 300 MB per month, while the Zeta account, our biggest Web Hosting package, has a traffic quota of 5000 MB per month.

We monitor all accounts and bill R0.19 for each MB of traffic that exceeds the monthly quota on a South African server and R1.50 for each GB that exceeds the monthly quota on a German server.

What is the breakdown of Domain Traffic?

Your traffic can fall into one of the following categories:

WWW Traffic (also known as 'http' or 'website' traffic): This is traffic generated during the transfer of web pages to the viewers of your website.
SMTP Traffic: Traffic generated during transfer of emails to the server.
POP3 Traffic: Traffic generated during transfer of emails from the server to your email account(s).
FTP Traffic: Traffic generated during the transfer of files to your FTP Account.

What are the common reasons for high traffic usage?

Over-usage caused by WWW (http) traffic:

Traffic generated by Search Engines: While it is well-known that search engines direct Internet users to your site by indexing your website, there are some web spiders (the tool used by search engines to crawl through your site) that incorrectly process the links on your web pages, which could result in the same page being loaded repeatedly. In extreme cases this can lead to unexpectedly high traffic. Nexture does monitor this on all sites and has not yet seen this problem.

Website Downloads: Making use of website downloads and applications i.e. MP3 files, will escalate your traffic usage as this encourages visitors to download the application again and again and again, increasing your traffic usage. Should you wish to control your traffic usage, it is advisable that you remove the download link. However, it is important to note that this could result in fewer hits on your site.
Over-usage caused by POP3 (receiving mail) traffic:

It is advisable to ensure that your mail client (i.e. Outlook & Outlook Express) does not keep a copy of mail on the server when downloading your mail as this could accumulate unnecessary additional traffic. In order to ascertain this, check under your mail client settings and make the appropriate adjustments to the settings.
Over-usage caused by SMTP (sending mail) traffic:

Be aware that if you send large volumes of mail through Hetzner's network, this will generate SMTP traffic.
Anonymous FTP Access:

Traffic can be generated by giving public FTP access to a dedicated directory in your account, where content can be viewed and downloaded.

Why do we not offer "unlimited" data transfer like some other companies do?

We would advise you to be wary of promises with regards to 'unlimited' or 'unmetered' traffic/ data transfer. Firstly, it is technically impossible for a web server to transfer an unlimited (or infinite) amount of data. The limits of how much usage a hosting company will tolerate are typically hidden in the fine print.

Secondly, services that offer unlimited data transfer tend to attract a large percentage of high-usage customers. These can be websites with large file downloads or applications that can slow down a Web server and its network connections. By clearly defining traffic limits, Nexture is able to monitor and control server usage closely to make sure processor loads are low and the client's website operates with optimum performance.

Nexture has created its hosting packages for best possible performance to meet the majority of our clients' requirements. You know exactly what you are getting for your money, and we are able to provide the best possible performance and value for all of our clients.