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.
|
|
|
Created & Maintained by Empower! CMS Web Sites
Host2Sell Web Hosting | Emarketing Workshops | Site SEO Review | FREE NewsletterWho Should Become A Web Host Reseller?
You're the webmaster of more than one website. You design websites for clients. Your business needs more than one site. Is a web host reseller account for you?1. Individuals or businesses with more than one websiteIf you have more than one website and the total disk space you need is 500 MB or more, you can benefit from having a reseller ac...(related: Web Hosting)
Top 6 Ways To Promote Your Web Hosting Business Part 1
Promoting a new company in the crowded industry of web hosting today is really hard. There are many tactics that work well and are legitimate, and you can use them to promote your company using them.I will write these 6 ways to promote your web hosting business in two parts, three methods in this article and the following three in the second part. All 6 methods can be used for any kind of business, not only for a web hosting company. Here there are:1. Referral ProgramThe referral program system is one of the best ways to get new customers. You can setup the syste...(related: Web Hosting)
The ?website? Checklist : Domains, Hosting, Web Design
This article is meant to all who already have a website or who propose to buy it. Website ? the term comprises three things : Domain, Hosting (Web space) & Web DesignThere are numerous company offering these services. I am here to discuss few points with regards to top and essential things you need to have a thorough check when you get a WEBSITE thru one of these companies.Now to the article,Every day, I get few phone calls of this sort :
- Sir, My domain expires in next few days, but the company which registered it is out of business, Please RENEW it"
- Sir, I want to transfer the domain to your server but I don't have the domain control panel"...(related: Web Hosting)
Avoid Getting Ripped Off By A Hosting Company
Chances are if you host multiple domains or websites you are spending too much money at your current hosting provider. Other hosting companies increase their profits by forcing you to create an additional hosting account every time you want to host a new domain or website. Let's say you have five (5) websites and they each cost you $10.00 a month. It is obvious you are spending $50 a month to host those five (5) websites, but did you know that you are getting ripped off?Hosting companies are smart and they take full advantage of you. If you're an exist...(related: Web Hosting)
Top 5 Mistakes That May Drive Your Visitors Away In Less Than 2 Minutes
You took the leap. You set up a website to display your importantmessage. Congratulations! As in life, first impressions are importanton the web. Web researchers found that you have about 2 minutes tomake that first impression a good one. Visitors will judge your sitein those few seconds on its professionalism and appropriateness towhat they are looking for.In fact, a website can lose about one-third of it...(related: Web Hosting)
Five Quick Ways To Determine One Hosting Company From Another
These days, web hosting companies are popping up faster than dandelions. And just like those pesky weeds, they usually aren't going to benefit your business at all. ...(related: Web Hosting)
Managed Hosting
Managed hosting is a dedicated server that is accompanied by a full suite of technical support, maintenance and monitoring services. This differs from dedicated Web hosting, where customers are provided with their own servers but are still responsible for virtually all administrative and maintenance duties.Managed hosting are meant for those websites that are designed to host busy e-commerce sites and dynamic, database driven Web pages. Perfect for organizations that dont have the ti...(related: Web Hosting)
Web Hosts: Helping Us Navigate Through This Future Techno-world
Computers, Internet, Web sites?what do they all mean? Hey, you're probably not a technophobe, I mean you own a microwave right? Just push a few buttons and the food cooks itself-easy. Now, they tell you the best way to share information, have a business, and generally communicate in life, are on the Web. I don't know about you but for me the Web conjures up visions of a giant spider whose sole intention is to turn me into a tasty appetizer. Computers scare me. People say they're the tool of the future, but I find them to be quite alien, especially compared to my lawnmower! All the technical jargon associated with these machines, it's like you have to have a university degree in Information Technology just to turn one on.The key to solving the riddle is just to go back in time. Not easy?! Think about our ancestors, the prehistoric cave-dwell...(related: Web Hosting)
How Multiple Server Hosting Impacts Your Websites Uptime
This article describes the technology behind multiple server hosting and how you may utilize it to maximize your site's security and ...(related: Web Hosting)
site-map - Copyright © 2006 Empower! Web Design | All Rights Reserved. | Web Hosting