title: Database bandwidth much higher compared to server bandwidth. Normal?
body: <p>A while back we were transferring our reasonably popular forum to a new dedicated server (with the same host), and we noticed something weird. At first we used the new server to host just the database as this was the biggest issue. Then later we transferred the forum files and changed the dns for the domain.</p>
  
  <p>When we look back at the bandwidth used we see this for the bytes sent by the server:</p>
  
  <pre><code>database use: 100k/sec  
  whole forum use: 25k/sec  
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Note: bytes received by the server stayed very low throughout.</p>
  
  <p>So is it normal for a forum database to use 4 times more network traffic then the server actually sends back to the user? It sounds very inefficient to me, like requesting much more than what is needed from the database, but this is the latest version of vBulletin we're talking about here.</p>