A bandwidth throttling system is implemented on a server network connected to a computer network system to serve one or more clients over a network. The network server supports a service that presents multiple virtual services that can be individually requested by the clients. The bandwidth throttling system controls bandwidth on a per virtual service basis. The bandwidth throttling system has a measuring subsystem to measure the amount of bandwidth being used by each virtual service supported by the network server. The bandwidth throttling system also has a control subsystem to selectively throttle requests for a particular virtual service independently of others based upon the bandwidth used by the particular virtual service. The bandwidth throttling system utilizes an adaptive, hierarchical throttling strategy that is applied to each virtual service independently. The bandwidth throttling system compares the bandwidth usage for the virtual service against the administrator-defined thresholds for that virtual service. If the presently used bandwidth exceeds a first threshold, a first set of throttling actions is applied. If the presently used bandwidth exceeds a second threshold greater than the first threshold, a different second set of throttling actions is applied. In this manner, the administrator is given maximum control at setting throttling policies for each individual virtual service independently of other virtual services.