Web Hosting Information

Web Hosting Bandwidth -- How Much Bandwidth Is Enough?


Bandwidth in its simplest terms refers to the amount of data that flows across a network wire in a given time period. For most web hosting providers, that time period is measured in a month. Web hosting providers are charged a certain amount per month or per year for an allocated amount of bandwidth from backbone providers and wholesale data centers. That cost is then passed on to the consumer in the form of web hosting plans.

How much bandwidth will your website use?

With so much variation among web hosting companies, it can sometimes be difficult to know how much bandwidth your website will need. So, how much is a gigabyte of bandwidth anyway? Let's put it in perspective. If an average web page, images and all is 50 kilobytes in size, your website could be viewed 20,000 times! For the average hobby website, that is more than enough. Let's further put that 20,000 in perspective. If each visitor to your website viewed an average of 4 pages per month, it would still represent over 5,000 unique visitors to your website every month. Now if your website has lots of pictures on it though, then one gigabyte of bandwidth will allow for fewer visitors.

Beware of bandwidth usage when offering file downloads

While offering simple web pages doesn't use up much bandwidth, the same can't be said about downloading files. If you plan on allowing people to download music files, pdf files, flash files, or video files, you can eat up bandwidth in a hurry even with a relatively small number of people visiting your website. If your website offers an adobe .pdf file that is 1 megabyte in size, with one gigabyte of bandwidth, you will only be able to serve up one thousand downloads. This does not including the html needed to get people to download the pdf in the first place.

Video files eat up even more space. A one megabyte video file represents only seconds of video. For a half hour presentation, your video file could easily be over two hundred megabytes in size! At that size, one gigabyte would only allow you to offer five downloads to your visitors. What you plan to do with your website most definitely will affect how much monthly bandwidth you anticipate needing.

Overselling bandwidth is common in the web hosting industry

Because more people use only a fraction of their allotted bandwidth per month, most web hosting providers price their plans knowing that most people will only use a fraction of the resources available to them. In fact, with most companies, if you did use the maximum bandwidth available to you each month, you would most likely be shut down. If you go with a shared hosting account, your website can be hosted with hundreds or thousands of other websites. If your website starts to use a significant portion of the server's resources, you may find them pulling the plug on your website. If you know your website is going to need significant resources, you should probably consider getting yourself a dedicated server or at the very least look for assurances in writing that your web hosting provider will honor your bandwidth needs.

Knowing what you plan to do will allow you to know how much you need

By knowing what you plan to do with your hosting account, you can have a pretty good idea of how much bandwidth you're going to need. If you anticipate that you will be needing to serve lots of multimedia including video, music and large amounts of flash powered pages, you may need to consider going with a dedicated server. If your website is just starting out and you have little money and no real idea of how much bandwidth you're going to need, pick a company that gives you more than you think you'll need at a reasonable price. Make sure you also find out how much they will charge you for any bandwidth you use above and beyond what comes in your hosting package. If it is one dollar per megabyte and you've already exceeded a twenty gigabyte bandwidth limit, changes are, you'll get one hefty bill at the end of the month. When shopping around and looking at bandwidth, keep the overage cost in mind as well and you'll do fine.

This article was written by Joe Duchesne, president of http://www.yowling.com/, a web hosting company that strives to make it easy to setup and maintain your website. Copyright 2004 Yowling. Reprint Freely as long as you link back to my website from this resource box.


MORE RESOURCES:

Host Color Announced TextPattern CMS Web Hosting Service
The Open Press (press release) - 9 hours ago
Host Color, a global quality web hosting provider announced the launch of TextPattern Hosting Plan. The new TXP service is priced at $3.99 per month and ...


Web Hosting Provider, NetDepot, Debuts VPS Services
WebSite Host Directory (press release), OR - 21 hours ago
Atlanta, Georgia - (Website Hosting Directory) - October 6, 2008 - Global Net Access, LLC subsidiary and web hosting provider, NetDepot, has debuted the ...


MochaHost Upgrades Reseller Web Hosting Packages
Tophosts, Canada - 19 hours ago
Oct. 6, 2008- MochaHost.com (San Jose, California) is pleased to announce the upgrade of all Reseller hosting plans offered. All packages now come standard ...


Web Hosting Open Source Provider, Etelos, Debuts Marketplace Solution
TheHostingNews.com (press release), OR - 23 hours ago
San Mateo, California - (The Hosting News) - October 6, 2008 - Through the Etelos Marketplace, Exadel has two applications, with Exadel Fiji and Exadel ...


Inside 1&1's Giant Web Hosting Data Center
InformationWeek, NY - Oct 4, 2008
Here, one of the world's largest web hosting companies has built its US data center. At its Kansas data center, 1&1's five server rooms hold 860 racks and ...


PEER 1 Powers Sitemasher, New SaaS Web Site Development Solution
CNW Telbec (Communiqués de presse), Canada - 9 hours ago
PEER 1 is one of the only hosting companies offering all three types of web hosting services under one roof; dedicated, managed and co-location. ...


ResellersPanel Launches a Free PHP Script Installation Website
Linux PR (press release), CT - 14 hours ago
ResellersPanel, the synonym of free reseller web hosting, announces that it has recently launched elefanteinstaller.com - a new website, which offers ...


Web Hosting Provider, Superb, Premieres RankSense SEO Software Suite
TheHostingNews.com (press release), OR - Oct 3, 2008
Vancouver, British Columbia - (The Hosting News) - October 3, 2008 - Global web hosting, managed dedicated server, shared and e-commerce hosting solutions ...


Web Host The Planet Improves Enterprise-class Network
HostSearch.com - 3 hours ago
October 7, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Web host The Planet (http://www.theplanet.com) has improved its enterprise-class network, the company announced ...


The Planet Web Hosting Firm, Chosen for Software Test Bed
TheHostingNews.com (press release), OR - Oct 3, 2008
Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - October 3, 2008 - Privately held dedicated web hosting company, The Planet, has been chosen as the core platform for ...

Web-Hosting - Google News

home | site map
© 2006