What are Network Limits?

Network Limits are a set of network limits that can be applied to a Pull Zone. The network limits can be used for security or controlling the performance of your pull zone. This article explains each setting in detail and how it behaves.

Network Limits Explained

• Connection Speed
• Limit After
• Requests Per Second
• Allowed Burst
• Maximum Connections Per IP
• Monthly Bandwidth Limit (GB)

Connection Speed

The connection speed setting limits the download speed for any file served by the pull zone in kilobytes per second. If set to 0, the connection speed will not be limited and the full download speed will be allowed.

This setting is also tied to the Limit After setting described below.

Limit After

The limit after setting allows you to set the amount of data that needs to be transferred in a request before the connection speed applies in kilobytes. If set to 0, the connection speed limit will be applied immediately.

For example, if the limit after is set to 2000 kb, the first 2 megabytes of a request will be transferred at full speed after which the connection speed limit will be applied. This is useful when delivering video as it allows fast video skipping, but prevents the browser from downloading too much unnecessary data.

Requests Per Second

The requests per second setting limits sets the maximum number of requests per second a single IP can send to our servers. If we receive more than the set requests per second from an IP, the excess requests are rejected with a 503 status code. The limit is applied per server, so if one of our locations has multiple IPs or if the IP is connecting to multiple locations, the limit will apply for each server separately.

This setting is also tied to the Allowed Burst setting described below.

Allowed Burst

The allowed burst setting allows you to set a number of extra burst requests per second that are allowed by the Requests Per Second setting. This allows the user to go over the default amount of requests per second for a short time. It is useful to allow a website to load quickly or when the user opens multiple tabs. Additional requests will get slow down to match the requests per second setting, however.

Maximum Connections Per IP

The maximum connections per IP setting allows you to limit the number of simultaneous connections each IP can have to our servers. This is useful to prevent users from downloading a large number of files at the same time or to stop DDoS attacks.  The limit is applied per server, so if one of our locations has multiple IPs or if the IP is connecting to multiple locations, the limit will apply for each server separately.

Monthly Bandwidth Limit (GB)

The monthly bandwidth limit allows you to set the total amount of bandwidth the zone can serve in a month. If this limit is reached, the zone will be disabled and stop serving data. You will also no longer be charged for any requests coming to this zone.