Bandwidth Overview
This report tells you the total bandwidth used by all users of the domain, per protocol, for whatever time period you specify. There is also a handy chart that displays the trend line for the time period for both incoming and outgoing bandwidth.
A domain admin can change the dates of the report as well as the "Step", which means whether you want to see the report by hour, day, week, month or quarter. (Based on the start and end dates -- so a quarterly report would need a full 3 months selected.) Domain admins can change the chart type by clicking the chart icon next to the date, or even export the report as needed. Each column in the report is sortable, either ascending or descending, and the sort can change simply by clicking the column header.
Domain admins can also switch the report from a "Trend" report, which shows the data for the domain as a whole, to display information by User. This is called the report's "Mode".
The following report items are available:
- Day - The date the messages were sent.
- SMTP In - The total bandwidth used for incoming messages.
- SMTP Out - The total bandwidth used for outgoing messages.
- IMAP - The total bandwidth used for IMAP traffic. This is generally bandwidth used by email clients connected to the mailbox using IMAP as the connection method.
- POP - The total bandwidth used for POP traffic. This is generally bandwidth used by email clients connected to the mailbox using POP as the connection method.
The primary benefit of this report is when tracking down email abuses. If a particular day shows a significant amount of bandwidth used for sending or receiving messages, there's a good possibility that either a user is spamming the server or that a user was compromised. If a day shows a significant amount of bandwidth used, the domain admin can change the report's Mode and pull up the list of mailboxes to further troubleshoot which user is causing the increased load. Understanding "how" the bandwidth is being used -- for example, if IMAP shows a significant increase for a particular user -- makes it easier for an admin to track down what exactly is happening and where.
It's also possible to export this data in CSV format for use in other applications, such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, etc. To do this, simply click the page icon in the upper right hand corner of the reports page. Once clicked, you'll be able to save the data and name the file to whatever you want.