Hosting Articles

Web Hosting Data Transfer: How Much Is Too Much?

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 my 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.

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.

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.

Other Article Sites

findabook.com  moneycd.info  a-mortgage.info   about-lemon-laws.info  aboutstudentloans.info
all-about-publishing.info  auctions-articles.info  bestcollege-university.com  bestispconnection.com
biblefolder.com  blogger-website.com  books-used.info  brokers-guide.info  buywindows.info  cable-dsl.info
career-miner.com  carpel-tunnel.info  cashinaflash.info  cashloanreviews.info  casinobell.com  chat-house.info
clearmycredit.info  collegeloantips.info  crones.info  depression-articles.info   dirnic.net  dishguides.info
divers-below.com  expodog.info   financewizz.com  fire-insurance.info  getgood.info  handleit.net   it-idea.info
health-supplies.info  hosting-right.com  insidealert.com  insurance-facts.info  jobs-employment.info
justgood.info  lookgold.net   lowcost-travel.info  money-source.info  myhostzone.info  numisblog.com
peoplesearchfinder.info  pr-articles.info  realeas.com   refinancing-guides.info  spyware-remove.info
telelot.info  the-law.info   toppaid.info  travel-deals.info  travelcorrect.com  wedding-guide-site.com
your-blog.info  your-credit.info

MORE ARTICLES:

What Hosting Companies Dont Tell You, Could Hurt You…
Did you know that hosting companies overcrowd their servers despite all the issues caused by servers running hundreds of accounts? Are you aware of what happens if your website is hosted on a server that's overcrowded? You're probably thinking to yourself, "what do you mean overcrowd their servers?" Overcrowded servers mean big money for your hosting company, but also big problems for your website.Hosting companies are willing to sacrifice the success of your website in order to build their own profit.

Five ways to quadruple a websites revenue.
Many website owners all too often give up on their website, even before their site has had time to shine. It can take months, or even years to reach the optimum for a business so why not expect the same out of a website? It is hard to find a business that finds the desired revenue within the first year. So why should a website be as popular as it should be within the first few months or years?

Few Steps To Consider While Creating Fundraising Websites For Charitable Purpose
To extend your information through out the world in every house then create your own website. Your website will become the informational center for your organization, bringing the world closer delivering your programs and efforts. Your website can function as one of the most powerful fundraising tools bringing numerous opportunities at your door.

Finding The Best Websites To Download Movies
After searching the internet for months, trying out various movie and music download websites and being disappointed with the results I?ve come up with some advice. I don?t want to see anyone else get scammed by false advertising websites claiming to have millions of movies, music and video game downloads. When it comes down to it, you don?t really know what you are getting until you try. I have tried, made mistakes, but have also gained valuable knowledge about the valid websites out there. Below are some findings and tips to help guide you on your own search:

Key points to consider when looking for a web host
This may come as a surprise: Some web site hosting services don't have software to help you build a site! Some that do, don't allow you to input HTML. You may want to add in small scripts that jazz up or protect your site such as 'No Right Click' or upload downloadable .exe files etc.

Basic guide to web hosting terms
The internet has spawned hundreds of new terms downloads, uploads, browsers the list is endless. Web hosting is no different experienced users talk glibly of bandwidth, scripting languages, POP3 accounts, databases and more. But what does it all mean?

A Guide To Web Hosting For The Beginner
What exactly is web hosting? What features will you need from a web host? Questions like these often overwhelm would-be web publishers that are just starting out. But we are here to help. After reading this article you will not know everything there is to know about web hosting, but you will understand enough to get you started.

TV Show Host Teaches Karate Classes at Auburn Karate School
TV show host Roland Osborne will be teaching classes at an Auburn Karate School, Saturday July 24th, 2004. Roland is not only a TV personality on world wide TV, and an accomplished martial artist, but one of the most exciting and energetic instructors I have ever known, says Paul McCoy, the owner of McCoys Action Karate.

6 Keys To Locate Most Suitable Hosting Provider For Your Site
6 Keys to locate most suitable hosting provider...

Ericka Engelman Couture to Host Gallery Opening for Artist Alinda Boyce-Franklin
Local designer unveils collection of exquisite holiday dresses for little girls.

The Future of Dedicated Hosting Delivery
For all the hype, over the last few years an increasing number of businesses have started moving not just distribution but more important business processes online in earnest. The main reason this much anticipated migration has dragged its heels is that change takes time, and businesses going online are faced with hurdles of cost, complexity, resourcing, and marketing at every step of the process.

Norfolk Marriott Waterside Named Host Hotel for NOBLE Conference 2009
After Norfolk, Virginia was named as host city for the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), the Norfolk Marriott Waterside Hotel was designated as the host hotel for the conference, which will be taking place from July 24-30, 2009.

Webplus, Inc. to Offer Free Online Store Trial to Those Looking For Web Store Hosting
Webplus, Inc., the leader in hosted ebusiness solutions, announced today that it has begun offering a free 30 day trial of its award-winning Webplus Shop online store creation software and web hosting. Prospective emerchants may go to Webplus Shop (http://www.webplusshop.com) to begin setting up their very own web store instantly and pay nothing for the first 30 days. There is no obligation to continue beyond the first 30 days and the store is completely functional and able to sell products and accept orders during that period.

eApps Hosting Now Offers the GlassFish Java Application Server in Economical VPS Hosting Plans
eApps Hosting now offers the GlassFish Java application server for Java EE 5 as a one click installable option on economical Virtual Private Server plans. The service is scalable vertically, allowing upgrades to a full dedicated server, and horizontally, by adding VPS servers in high availability clusters.