Embedding vs. server storage

[Concurssi]

If I embed a video from Youtube, or hotlink to an image on Flickr, instead of storing the files on the server, what resources and how much of each does that use?

 

Say I have a 1,5mB pic on Flickr, and I hotlink to it on my website. If one user then loads the page, does that use 1,5mB of bandwidth+the BW for loading up the rest of the page?

 

Which solution is more effective in terms of CPU usage (hotlink/embed vs. storing the file on the server)?

[Guest xaav]

Hotlinking and embedding videos will place less load on our server.

[Brother Hassan]

Duh ...

It would be embedding & hot linking as the load would be on the original hoster's server. Furthermore it will save your web space

[Concurssi]

But storage space, BW and CPU time are separate resources. I was asking about the amount of each used by the two ways.

I wasn't asking about server load in general.

[Guest xaav]

Say I have a 1,5mB pic on Flickr, and I hotlink to it on my website. If one user then loads the page, does that use 1,5mB of bandwidth+the BW for loading up the rest of the page?

 

No; if it's on flickr, it will not use up your bandwidth, it will use up their bandwidth.

 

 

Which solution is more effective in terms of CPU usage (hotlink/embed vs. storing the file on the server)?

 

Obviously, hotlink/embed; you will not be using up CPU by linking a file from another site.

[Concurssi]

Say I have a 1,5mB pic on Flickr, and I hotlink to it on my website. If one user then loads the page, does that use 1,5mB of bandwidth+the BW for loading up the rest of the page?

 

No; if it's on flickr, it will not use up your bandwidth, it will use up their bandwidth.

So it doesn't somehow get routed through the server or anything? Sweet!

[PenTester]

Server bandwidth depends on how many users downloading files from the same server. It won't care about other server files(like flickr). So it won't be included in your bandwidth.

[i7Grendel]

And what about FTP file managers like net2ftp? Will those files take up your bandwidth?

[Krydos]

By the way, bandwidth is unlimited on heliohost.

 

That said, server load, process count, and storage space are not unlimited. Some services can use a lot of bandwidth but use very little server load. Some services can use barely any bandwidth but bog the servers down with massive amounts of server load.

 

In my experience ftp uses very little server load, but it can use up a lot of your process limit. Sometimes while actively downloading or uploading through ftp your site can experience 500 internal server errors because you hit your process limit.

[i7Grendel]

I don't want to use net2ftp to upload/download to/from HelioHost's servers, I want to install net2ftp on my website so my visitors can use it to access third-party FTP servers. Will such a script put a lot of pressure on the server (in terms of bandwidth, processor load, etc.)?

[PenTester]

If it put lot of pressure on server, then other users may feel inconvenience. i think heliohost won't allow that.

[Krydos]

I don't want to use net2ftp to upload/download to/from HelioHost's servers, I want to install net2ftp on my website so my visitors can use it to access third-party FTP servers. Will such a script put a lot of pressure on the server (in terms of bandwidth, processor load, etc.)?

I've never used net2ftp but glancing at their website it doesn't look like it would cause a lot of server load.