The definition for bandwidth found at
Webopedia.com is:

(1) A range within a band of frequencies or wavelengths.

(2) The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. For digital devices, the bandwidth is usually expressed in bits per second(bps) or bytes per second. For analog devices, the bandwidth is expressed in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz).

This means that every time someone visits a web page bandwidth is being used on the web host that is serving that particular page.

Bandwidth usage ALWAYS costs MONEY. That is true of even FREE web hosts such as Geocities. The only difference is that they pay for bandwidth use by selling ad space to those who want to advertise a product or service. Which is why, if you want the ads removed from your pages, you need to pay that FREE server to remove those ads or they would not be able to keep the service FREE nor stay in business.
Therefore BANDWIDTH THEFT involves using someone's service to support whatever is copied onto ANOTHER website or YOUR e-mail.

Let's say that you find a "doggy" image you like on a web page called "www.guesswho.com" on their "gifs" page. You copy their web address for the "doggy" gif. Copying it would mean you use their web address (URL) such as: http://www.gueswho.com/gifs/doggy.gif

Now you take that above web address for that image and place it on your email or on your web page. That means the whole time that image is on your email, or web page, you are using bandwidth from "www.guesswho.com". Since you are not paying for using their bandwidth it means you are robbing that web host of the money they would earn, for that bandwidth, and keeping their site busy with such.

Some web hosts ALLOW you to use their bandwidth freely while others do not. It is IMPORTANT that you find out which does. Chances are you might find the doggy.gif disappearing if the web host does NOT allow you to use their bandwidth.

The only way to avoid Bandwidth theft, Hot Linking or direct linking (all the same thing) is to secure your own web host. Web hosts are those that offer you space to build web pages.

ALL web hosts provide an area wherein you can upload images. These are sometimes referred to as File Managers. Within the File Managers you are able to build directories. Example: you put the doggy.gif into something you named Animals. "Animals" would be a directory within your file manager. You could also add more animal images within that directory.

So you take out web space with a server called: http://www.weknowwho.com and the name you used to sign up for the service is "browneyes".
When you go to put the doggy.gif, that you uploaded into your directory "Animals", into your email signature, the web address would then be: http://www.weknowwho.com/browneyes/Animals/doggy.gif. AND NOT THE ORIGINAL ONE: http://www.gueswho.com/gifs/doggy.gif

In this manner you would be using the bandwidth from YOUR OWN web host and NOT the web host where you first saw the image (example www.guesswho.com)

BY ALL MEANS if you have a web page you SHOULD be using your OWN directories for images! There IS NO reason to use someone's URL other than your own.

DO be kind to your fellow webber and do NOT LINK ("direct" link or "hot" link) to their images. Be mindful of copyrights since artists deserve the credit owed them.


Written and copyrighted
by frecs 8/2005



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