Maximum volume of AJAX requests allowed

[GentooUser]

I wish to use AJAX post requests to fetch audio/video blobs from the user every N seconds. This site is only for personal testing purposes, so at most only one or two people will be using the site at at the same time.

My question is, what is the maximum alowed value of N that I can use without getting banned? 0.5? 1.0? 5.0?

Kindly clarify. Thanks in advance.

[KangJL]

Questions on how to “game” the system will not be answered.
You have to trial and error on your own

[GentooUser]

This is not a question on how to game the system. I see now how using the phrase “without getting banned” would give someone that impression – I shouldn’t have, and I regret the misunderstanding. But this is a question regarding what is allowed per the rules of this service.

Clearly, using AJAX is allowed: How to use AJAX

However, that same link makes it very clear:
DO NOT USE AJAX CONTINUOUSLY IN THE BACKGROUND
If you’re using InfinityFree, your account will get suspended in no time

I’m afraid I don’t understand your suggestion of “You have to trial and error on your own”
My question was “How many AJAX post requests of audio/video blobs am I allowed to make per second?”
I don’t see how I can test that without increasing the volume until I get banned.

[Herbert]

Hey there!

My best guess is that you should delay it for 2 seconds. If you make Ajax requests every second, you’ll likely make 60 requests per minute for each user, so with that, you said your game will be tested with two people, which will overwhelm the available resources of the server if users are playing continuously, which will lead to suspense. And keep in mind that the allowed number of hits per day is 50K. The method I mentioned was perfectly fine for me. Or you can store the audio in local storage and use them when needed without making any server request.

[KangJL]

@GentooUser

Clearly, using AJAX is allowed: How to use AJAX

Yes, fair usage limit applies

@GentooUser

“How many AJAX post requests of audio/video blobs am I allowed to make per second?”

Sounds like

@KangJL

how to “game” the system

to me

There is no clear cut answer as it depend on how the request was coded.

Please read the link posted on fair usage limit

Fair Usage Limits

[KangJL]

@Herbert

Or you can store the audio in local storage and use them when needed without making any server request.

Take note OP is trying to

@GentooUser

fetch audio/video blobs from the user every N seconds

This may not be an applicable use case for free hosting.
Take note IF is meant for webhosting.
Audio/video blobs may be stretching the limits of free hosting

[Frank419]

@KangJL

Audio/video blobs

In ToS, it is OK if they serve the purpose of building a website. But probably not applicable here.

[GentooUser]

Thanks for the response!

I’m not making a game, just trying out some coding related to live audio/video transfer. And to address @KangJL 's concerns, I will state once again that this is just some personal testing by me, I would not try to stream audio/video to multiple users while on a free account.

[GentooUser]

Yes, fair usage limit applies
Sounds like how to game the system to me

My intention was to ask what exactly that limit is to avoid unintended violations. Although reading through the links you provided seems to indicate that keeping limits confidential to avoid users skirting them is standard policy, so I’ll accept it.

Thank you very much for the links, however, they were very useful: the limit on processes, IO, and RAM will apply to my use case. The link on IO says you can view how close you are to the limit through the graph in the Account Statistics page in your control panel. Can one check their process and RAM usage as well? It would be nice to know the usage level before you hit the limit.

[GentooUser]

I’m just testing stuff out for now, I will decide later whether to share this site with the public. And if I do decide to have this site be for public use, I will obtain the required hosting plan.

But for now, I am only testing stuff out personally. If this is still not permitted, kindly link the relevant section(s) of the ToS.

[KangJL]

@GentooUser

some coding related to live audio/video transfer

Sounds like streaming to me

@GentooUser

ToS.

Terms of Service

[GentooUser]

Sounds like streaming to me

Ah, I was not aware that streaming was disallowed. I don’t really have an exact idea of what I’m building, since like I’ve said, I’m currently just trying to learn and test the technologies and coding underlying audio/video.

If I collect live audio/video blobs from the user’s mic/camera, process them, and return some output to the user (say detecting the dominant frequency or color), I believe that would not be streaming? And would be allowed?

EDIT: I forgot to reply specifically to your message, so I’ll tag you instead @KangJL

Sorry, I’m new to the forum

[KangJL]

@GentooUser

If I collect live audio/video blobs from the user’s mic/camera, process them, and return some output to the user (say detecting the dominant frequency or color), I believe that would not be streaming?

Is this web hosting to you?

@GentooUser

And would be allowed?

What do you think?

[GentooUser]

@KangJL Web hosting need not mean just static pages. Considering the fact that PHP, MySQL, etc. are provided, hosting more advanced websites doesn’t seem unreasonable.

[GentooUser]

This specific example of detecting dominant color/frequency should probably occur client-side, but I was just stating an example.

[KangJL]

I have already said my piece.
You can do it at your own risk.
Take note suspension is not handled through the forum

[GentooUser]

@KangJL

I have already said my piece.
You can do it at your own risk.

Please don’t think I’m being obstinate. Recall that I immediately accepted the restriction on streaming, since you backed it up with an excerpt from the ToS.

I quickly read through the ToS just now, and the relevant section seems to be the

Script Usage Terms
Scripts on the site must be designed to produce web-based content, and not to use the server as an application server.

But due to server-side scripting languages like PHP, the distinction between a web server and application server is fuzzy. The examples of prohibited uses in this section are:

Using the server to generate large volumes of email from a database is an example of activity that is not allowed.
Scripts that are designed to provide proxy services, anonymous or otherwise, are not allowed.
Scripts that send bulk email or perform processor intensive database processes are not allowed.

Certainly processing user input in amounts that do not violate the resource usage limits, and returning the output as web-based content is not disallowed?

It would be nice to get an official clarification.

[Frank419]

@GentooUser

Certainly processing user input in amounts that do not violate the resource usage limits

That’s the issue. It does, usually this (if in similar case):

What does the hits limit mean

One of the limits InfinityFree enforces is the “hits” limit. This article explains what a hit is, how you can control your hits usage and what happens if you exceed the limit. What is a hit? A hit is a simply request to a file on your website, which can be a HTML or PHP page, an image, a CSS file or something else. A hit is not the same as a page view, visit or visitor. Visitor can visit your website multiple times, a visit can include multiple page views, and a single page view can include mu…

[GentooUser]

@Frank419 Thank you for replying.

I previously mentioned that this site is for personal testing only and will not be shared with the public unless I obtain a hosting plan that supports multiple users. Even if ajax post requests are being made every few seconds, as long as only one or two users are using the site, the 50000 hit limit (and other resource usage limits) will not be exceeded.

[Oxy]

@GentooUser

Script Usage Terms
Scripts on the site must be designed to produce web-based content, and not to use the server as an application server.

But due to server-side scripting languages like PHP, the distinction between a web server and application server is fuzzy.

Yes - it is debatable (if you are looking at only one item from TOS and not as a whole)

Because you can make your website use a microphone
and depending on the decibel level, your PHP script in the background generates 3D images as a background image for your web page and this is refreshed quite often

what I mentioned is web-based content

But that simply exceeds the possibilities of the free hosting service because it simply consumes too many resources and can be interpreted as abuse

you will probably see 508 errors in the console log first

What is an Entry Process and what does the limit mean

One of the limits InfinityFree enforces is the Entry Process Failures limit, also abbreviated to Entry Process limit or EP limit. This article explains what an entry process is, what the limit means and how you can control it. What is an entry process? Every time a request to a URL on your website is made, a new program is started to retrieve the content of that URL. This process then executes your code, sends the response to the visitor, and finally quits. Note that one entry process is creat…

@Admin

In general, every request made from a visitor’s browser that hits a PHP script on the server uses some server power. Server power is a finite resource, so we limit how much you can use. And since we provide a free service, the limits are not very high.

The question “how much AJAX is too much AJAX” is impossible to answer for all sites. It really depends on how your website was built, how many people use it, and how often you query the server.

You’re free to use AJAX on your website. Just don’t try to host an application that rapidly polls the server for updates, like a chat script, with us, because you’ll quickly hit limits.

@Admin

It may sound unfair, but this is how it works on all types of hosting. Every request made against a website requires processing power to run. That processing power is taken from your hosting account quota, or the total capacity of the server(s) you own. Of course it would be nice to not have to spend your server power on such requests, but it’s hard to tell such traffic apart.

@Admin

Long story short, your website takes too much processor power. When you hit the processing power limits, your account will be suspended for 24 hours. However, if this happens very often, it simply means that your website consumes too much processing power. If that’s the case, the best choice would be to upgrade your account, because you’ll get far more processor power there.

We use two different metrics to measure CPU usage. We track the number of CPU seconds you use, displayed as CPU limit, and the number of entry processes, abbreviated as EP.

The number of CPU seconds is the number of seconds you are consuming one full processor core to calculate the pages on your website. This is scaled to how much of the processor you use, so 1 second of 20% core usage is 0.2 CPU seconds. This mostly has to do with how much work needs to be done to render a specific page.

Entry processes are the number of PHP processes which are created to render your website. Simply put: every time a request is received for a PHP page, a new process is created for your user. This is what’s known as an Entry Process. The number of entry processes has to do with the number of page views your website receives.

In your plugins list, I see you’re using an Ajax Shoutbox. Does that plugin updates posts in real time? If so, that’s considered a chat script, which are prohibited because they consume so much server power.