Administering an ISP Installation

Controlling Bandwidth

One of the administrator’s tasks is setting and monitoring bandwidth for various sites. As the bandwidth utilization of a Web site approaches the limit set by the administrator, response times slow down. If requests are received faster than the site can respond (meaning that the queue is full), the server will return an error message (500: Server Too Busy) to the client.

IIS 5.0 allows you to control the bandwidth of each Web site on a server, distributing it where needed most.

To throttle bandwidth on a server

In the IIS snap-in under Internet Information Services, right-click the Web site on which you want to throttle bandwidth.
Click Properties.
On the Internet Information Services property sheet, select Enable Bandwidth Throttling, and click OK.

By throttling (adjusting) bandwidth, an ISP can offer Web hosting solutions that are tailored to the bandwidth needs of individual customers. In IIS 5.0, you can throttle bandwidth for static content, including .htm, .jpg, and .gif files. However, you can distribute bandwidth on your server by throttling only the static HTML (files with .htm or .html extensions).

The metabase stores the configuration options for the bandwidth throttler, and IIS 5.0 is notified as soon as changes are made. You can manipulate the threshold values (bandwidth limits), and turn on or turn off bandwidth throttling, without stopping and restarting IIS 5.0.

See the following:

Disabling Socket Pooling