Bandwidth Or Data Transfer Which is Which

	Bandwidth Or Data Transfer Which is Which

	Cheap web hosting

	Windows web hosting

	Linux web hosting

	Unrestricted hosting

	Ecommerce web hosting

	Virtual server VPS

	Reseller hosting

	by US State

	by US City

	Web Hosting coupons

	VPS coupons

	Articles

	Cheap dedicated servers

	Best dedicated servers

	Windows dedicated servers

	Linux dedicated servers

	Unrestricted server

	dedicated managed server

	dedicated server unmetered

	by US State

	by US City

	Dedicated server coupons

	Articles

	Cheap colocation hosting

	Unrestricted Colocation

	by US State

	by US City

	Coupons Promotion

	Articles

	Domain Registration

	SSL Certificate

	Website Statistics

	Merchant account

	Control panel

	WebSite monitor

	Intel Servers

	AMD servers

	SCSI Servers

	Cheap Servers

	Web hosting company

	Dedicated Hosting

	Colocation hosting

	Web Hosting Services

	Server manufacturer

	Reviews

So you want to know how you decide what web host is best!

What is 1Mbps 95th percentile ?

Top 10 Dedicated servers May 2010

Westmere Dedicated server the best deal

Using CMS to create Websites

Top 10 Dedicated Servers March 2010

Control Panel Benefits

Top 10 Dedicated servers January 2010

More Articles

Ring the Christmas Bells with Infrenion Networks 50% Discount!

WebHost.UK.Net: offering web hosting great deals this Christmas.

Action Web Group Introduces The All New RubberBand Plan To Take The Place Of Unlimited Web Hosting!

Vision Helpdesk Christmas Madness is back! HO-HO-HO Huge Discounts!

Codero Names Jonathan Ewert as President and CEO

Lunarpages Boosts Reseller Plan

More News

Bandwidth Or Data Transfer Which is Which

Bandwidth Or Data Transfer Which is Which

Too often web hosts talk about bandwidth and data transfer in the same breath but truth be known they are different although very closely related. Bandwidth is how much data can be transferred at a time and data transfer is how much data is being transferred. Think of it this way. If bandwidth were a bridge, then the bigger the bridge is the more vehicles can pass through it. While data transfer is the number of vehicles allowed on the bridge in say a month. In essence, data transfer is the consumption of bandwidth.

How It Affects Your Site

The less bandwidth you have, the slower your site takes to load regardless of the visitor�s connection type. If you have more visitors, some of them will have to wait their turn. The least data transfer you have, the more often you�ll find your site unavailable because you�re reached the maximum allowed until a new month rolls by or you upgrade your account.

Determining Your Requirements

Usually when a host talks about bandwidth, they are referring to your transfer. So you need to figure out what is sufficient for your site to function. You�ll need to gather some information; fairly easy if you already have a site. Most of this information is available from your traffic history. If you don�t have an existing site, provide an optimistic estimate if you intend to heavily promote the site. Then get ready for some math. Find out the daily averages of:

Number of visitors / expected number of visitors

Page size including the graphics of the page

Page views / expected pages viewed by each visitor

Then, multiply them as follows: Visitors x Page size x Page views x 30 days = Monthly Website Transfer

You should also throw in a small margin or error there to take into account email traffic and your own uploads to the server. If you offer downloads, then you should add the following:

Average/Expected downloads x File Size x 30 days = Monthly Download Transfer

Unlimited Plans

Bandwidth is very expensive. All hosts are limited by their own allocations. Thinking back to the bridge. What happens is each visitor to your site will be given a smaller lane to transfer the data, creating many tiny lanes therefore �unlimited�. The more visitors you have the smaller each lane will be, which makes each visitor wait for the page to load. More often than not there is little choice over your bandwidth as your host controls this. Some hosts may limit the number of simultaneous connections so in affect slowing down your site and refusing some visitors. This is called throttling. If you�re concerned about this, you should ask the host how they control bandwidth usage or purchase a package with more data transfer.

Reducing Transfers

On the other hand, you can reduce your transfer amount by building simpler, more efficient websites and optimizing your graphics. Refrain from fancy flash presentations or streaming audio. Use CSS, call JavaScript externally instead of embedding in every page. Remove unwanted tags, white space and comments. Limit your META tags to those absolutely necessary. Having too many keywords is not search engine friendly. Besides many search engines will only review the first few and ignore the rest. Another good idea is to cache your website but you might want to set an expiry date in the HTTP headers so the browser will refresh the content after a certain time. Use mod-gzip. It could save you as much as 40% of your bandwidth. Out of control robots can also consume your bandwidth at an enormous rate. So use robots.txt to keep spiders in check.

Written By Boris Mordkovich

Related Articles

Is your site wearing a jacket and tie? The Internet is a virtual environment. Every single thing you see is non-tangible. Your visitors... Written by: Lars J.	Web Hosting

Add-On Domains, Parked Domains and Sub-Domains Add-On Domains, Parked Domains and Sub-Domains Written by: Mario Sanchez	Web Hosting

Bandwidth Or Data Transfer Which is Which Too often web hosts talk about bandwidth and data transfer in the same breath but truth be known... Written by: Boris Mordkovich	Web Hosting

Changing to a New Host? No More Worries Changing to a New Host? No More Worries! John's online business is expanding. His customers... Written by: Priyanka Agarwal	Web Hosting

Changing Web Hosts? Step-By-Step Guide Every webmaster cringes at the thought of moving hosts. Like moving your home it can be messy and... Written by: Boris Mordkovich	Web Hosting

Cloud web hosting what is it? Cloud web hosting, what is it? Cloud Web Hosting is a type of web hosting that operates on multiple... Written by: AskWebHosting	Web Hosting

Do you need Dedicated IP when hosting your site ? Many of us who is still beginner in web hosting industry didn't really know what is Dedicated... Written by: Andrew Smith	Web Hosting

Four Questions To Ask When Shopping For Web Hosting Web hosting is a difficult and confusing business to get yourself into, but sooner or later just... Written by: Mitch Keeler	Web Hosting

Free or paid web hosting? Just finished your first website? So it's the time to look for some hosting and make a choise. Your... Written by: Petr Sejba	Web Hosting

Green Web Hosting What is it? What is Green Web Hosting? The effects of Global Warming are forcing people to take one or the... Written by: AskWebHosting	Web Hosting