Bandwidth used but content hosted externally

Hi there. What you’re seeing here is the redirect performed by SSP by default that is a part of the SS Stats collection process. Out of the box SSP routes all your media file requests through a URL structure like mysite.com/podcast-download/post-title.mp3 which then instantly redirects to the actual media file URL that you have in the Podcast Episode Details metabox. In your case this is the Libsyn media file URL.

If you’d like to disable this redirect you can do so by using this code snippet: https://gist.github.com/hlashbrooke/51b5621b90010ccb8e15 in your theme’s functions.php file.

This will eliminate the URL redirect step that is used to collect stats info for the SS Stats add-on module. Just something to keep in mind.

Hope that helps clear things up and if you have any other questions just let us know.

One other option you have here is if you’d rather base your podcast feed from Libsyn instead of from your WP site then you could do that. Doing so again would likely affect your SS Stats data if you’re using it since the feed would no longer go through your WP site and the listens there would only be those of people listening in the browser. But if you’re getting your stats from Libsyn then you’re covered there.

Thanks for the replies. I assumed that some sort of redirect was doing the job and it is useful to understand that this is for the purpose of generating stats. I have not installed the stats extension, so I guess I will not miss the stats – except that now I’ve been reminded they are a possibility I am tempted!

Now this may be a cPanel question: Is it expected that redirects like you describe will add to the site’s reported bandwidth? Surely the data does not pass through the site server, adding to its load, even though there is a site address associated with it?

You should see that there are hits to that URL as the traffic is instantaneously redirected through those URLs but the payload of those requests should be almost zero, so it shouldn’t create much of an impact on bandwidth, etc.

Sorry to be slow!
So here is a fragment of the Webalizer top 10 users of bandwidth list. I have just shown the SSP lines:

# Hits KBytes URL
6 7 35622 1.91% /podcast-download/2488/podcast-38-brahms-requiem.m4a
7 7 35217 1.89% /podcast-download/2279/podcast-11-the-letter-d.m4a
9 7 28412 1.52% /podcast-download/2358/podcast-22-end-of-term.m4a

For example, the first file mentioned is about 7.8 MB. 7 hits suggests that the bandwidth would be about 55 MB. The displayed amount is 35 MB, but I guess not everyone will listen to the end.

To solve the problem for now I will upgrade the hosting to increase bandwidth. My reason to show the tedious detail is a desire to understand (and hopefully for the interest of anyone else with the same issue). It would be good to know if this is generally true for a cPanel shared hosting and SSP with default settings, but files hosted externally.

Hello @sjmullock,

We have not come across this issue before. It could be possible that because of the url redirecting in place in Seriously Simple (which allows for more secure file urls and tracking for stats) the web host thinks that the files are stored locally.

We recommend reaching out to your host to see how best to resolve the issue.

If only life were that simple! I have tried asking the support people at the host provider, but I am not sure English is their first language and they definitely stop reading my questions as soon as they think one of their stock answers can be deployed. They became obsessed with the idea that my bandwidth problems were simply the result of image hotlinking (I searched with Google and could find no site doing this). It is true that the images were responsible for much of the usage, but the SSP files were a significant addition. It just wasn’t worth struggling with them for the sake of the relatively small extra outlay to increase the allowed bandwidth. However, usage of our podcasts is pretty light; it might be more serious for a more heavily visited site. Thanks for providing information.