How to calculate how much bandwidth you need….

Welcome back. In the last article I talked about web space. Now we know, that it is the amount of space you are allocated on the web server and you should be able to calculate it on your own. I want to make sure you also remember, that you can simulate your own server at home on a WINDOWS  operating system by installing WAMPSERVER. It can help you not only to find the amount of data you will need, but can help you to have a HOT BACKUP COPY of your website in case anything goes wrong with your hosting account! I will discuss these topics in a separate sub-section of this series named TROUBLESHOOTING AND SECURITY.

Now, let’s continue on our way to explain basic terms you can find while starting your search for the ideal web hosting company. In the last article I told you, that the amount of space is very important, but there is one thing even more important, that the amount of space. You can ask on a forum, and you will get the same answer. Operating system used, web space available and bandwidth are those ingredients without which you can not make a good “Hosting meal”!

In this part of the Series I would like o talk about Bandwidth. For many people this is the most important feature you should look for as it can mean the difference between a good life with your host and a nightmare!

I will not go into too much detail about why it’s such a crucial part of your evaluation, because it’s not the scope of this article, but I will explain it in the “REAL LIFE HOSTING” sub-section.

Bandwidth???

Huh, what is it Icethunder? Well, bandwidth can be explained in many ways [throughput, good-put etc.], but for hosting purposes the term BANDWIDTH refers to the amount of data you can transfer per month. Still not clear?

Well, every visitor of your website uses it when he browses your web site and that’s good, because without visitors you and your project would fail.  When you typed icethunder.net or clicked on the icethunder.net link and got here you immediately ate some 250KB of my bandwidth! But I am happy you did! It means this site has a purpose.

Bandwidth is the amount of data transferred and it’s  limited by every hosting company. It’s limited because the links are limited. Imagine you have a 4 line road full of cars. You will get a traffic jam. And the Internet is a big road. And your host has such a road going to his DATACENTER. He can offer you only a fraction of his “road”, because else he would not be able to sell any more packages. So when you buy a hosting package you also buy a fraction of his bandwidth you are allowed to use per month.

I will go deeper on bandwidth when the time arrives, but the aim of this article is to explain to you how to calculate it and tell you what it is. Hopefully you know by now what it is, let’s go to the next step – how to calculate it.

Do you remember when we tried to figure out how to calculate the amount of size you will need for your website? Well, now it’s time to make use of our knowledge. Now you have e.g. a web site that uses 300MB of server space, but this has nothing to do with bandwidth! It’s only the space you use to store the actual information/data you want to make accessible to your visitors. This data – it’s transfer from your server to the visitor is what defines the amount of data transferred.

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Imagine you have a news web site and it’s home page consists of three images [each 150kB], some text news [e.g. 120kB] and some other content [e.g. 100kB]. What will be the bandwidth for one visitor trying to access your home page be?

It’s easy: 3*150+120+100 = 670kB == 0.67 MB [actually it's less because 1MB =1024 KB, but I assumed it 1000kB to make it simple]

Now lets continue. You have a hosting package and it allows you to use 1GB of bandwidth per month. How many people will be able to see your home page?

Let’s count them:  1 000/ 0.67 == 1 492.5 visitors. Not a big number for a top NEWS agency, but it’s a lot more than a simple HTML web site will actually use and need, because our site in the example was a bigger one. Icethunder could accommodate 2.5 times more visitors with the same bandwidth amount [estimated].

A BASIC FORMULA: amount of visitors * the size of one page = total bandwidth needed

e.g.                                  100 000              *  0.25MB                   = 25 000 MB [25GB]/per month

Well, I think that now you should understand the basics of how to calculate how much bandwidth you will need for your web site. Have a nice day and I am looking forward to your comments in the comments area.

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