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.

In The News:

Powered by Feedzilla

Confessions and Tips from a Top Web Hosting Salesman

Have you ever gone car shopping with a former car... Read More

The Top 15 Essential Ingredients of Every WINDOWS HOSTING Plan (Package)

First things First. Why would you like to have Windows... Read More

How Multiple Server Hosting impacts your websites uptime

This article describes the technology behind multiple server hosting and... Read More

Hosting Options for an Ecommerce Web Site

Deciding how to host your ecommerce Web site and what... Read More

The Web Hosting Industry 2005

For the "big things" to be build it was certainly... Read More

The 14 Point Web Hosting Checklist

How To Select A Web Hosting CompanyWhen starting out, it... Read More

Nine Things To Know Before Selecting The Web Host For Your Business

It may seem simple yet it is often times overlooked.... Read More

4 Tips to Find the Web Host That?s Right For You

Choosing to make a web site is a very big... Read More

How Can I Get The Web Host Services And Support I Need, Hassle-free?

Choosing a host or switching hosts can be an agonizing... Read More

CHMOD - Undertanding File Permissions on a Unix-Based Server

The basic command for changing file permissions in unix based... Read More

How to Transfer Your Web Site to a New Web Hosting Service?

There are various reasons why an online business owner like... Read More

Web Hosting Services Absolutely Necessary for Your Websites Success

Web hosting services play a vital part in your website's... Read More

Budget Web Hosting - Dirty Secrets That Can Squash Your Websites Chance of Success

When it comes to budget web hosting, there are a... Read More

7 Key Ingredients for Rock Solid Website Hosting

Every website needs a great web host, however when you... Read More

Does Your Host Fight Spam?

Virtually anyone with an email address knows what Spam is,... Read More

Elements of Web Hosting

When you first start out trying to get a site... Read More

Internet Domain Registration - Establishing and Transferring Your Domain Name

If you're in business, one of the most important things... Read More

Sell Web Hosting for Fun and Profit

The market is good for new Web hosting companies. According... Read More

How to Move Your Domain Without Any Downtime

With a little advanced planning, moving your domain to a... Read More

How Much Bandwidth Does Your Web Site Need?

One of the most common concerns people have when deciding... Read More

Effectiveness of Web Hosting Directories (WHDs)

John is very happy today, for the first time in... Read More

The Problem with Free Web Hosting Plans

In my opinion, free web hosting is one of the... Read More

Fun with DNS: Three Useful Commands

The DNS is a distributed, hierarchical database where authority flows... Read More

How VOIP Has Helped Change Web Hosting

There is really no stopping VOIP (voice over internet protocol)... Read More

Linux vs. Windows Web Hosting, Does It Make A Difference?

One of the most confusing decisions someone new to web... Read More