With so many web hosting options available, it is probably not easy for you to choose a provider. An important criterion for web hosting is bandwidth. Before you decide on a tariff with an Internet service provider, you should make sure that a high bandwidth is guaranteed.
What does the term bandwidth mean?
The bandwidth gives you information about the traffic volume at DataThe maximum amount of bandwidth that can be transferred between the Internet and your Internet presence within a certain time. The maximum bandwidth that a provider can offer you is determined by the Internet connection and internal and external connections, for example to the data centres. Providers offer you different choices. The bandwidth is usually specified in bits per second.
Network capabilities and bandwidth
The Internet consists of countless computers that are connected within networks. The amount of bandwidth available depends on the size of the network connection. If you use a DSL connection, you should have at least 1.54 megabits of bandwidth available. Dedicated bandwidth exists between your Internet provider and your computer or mobile device. In a single location, your Internet provider can operate thousands of DSL connections. All connections accumulate at the web hosting company. Your provider has one, usually several, dedicated connections to the Internet. However, these connections are many times more powerful than your DSL connection. A provider must have sufficient bandwidth to serve the needs of its customers. While it provides you with a bandwidth of 1.54 MB, the provider may have a bandwidth of 255 MB for example, to connect to the Internet. With a bandwidth of 255 MB, a web hosting company can meet the needs of 167 customers with 1.54 MB each.
What is bandwidth important for?
In web hosting, bandwidth is particularly relevant when downloading and uploading files. The bandwidth limits the speed when transferring data to your web server using an FTP program. As a rule of thumb you should remember this: The higher the bandwidth, the faster the transfer of data.
How much bandwidth is sufficient for your website?
This question can not be answered in a general way, because your internet presence can be large or small. The size of your internet presence is determined by the size and resolution, the amount of text and other files on your website for sure. For example, the company home page can be 200 kilobytes (KB). This size is already considerable, since for example the homepage from Yahoo is only 70 KB.
Bandwidth influences web hosting prices
The bandwidth that a provider makes available to you also influences the prices that you have to pay for web hosting from a provider. For this reason, you should take your time and think carefully about how much bandwidth you actually need. Most providers specify the amount of bandwidth requested in months. Therefore, you should take the time to estimate how much bandwidth your website needs per month.
Tips for determining the minimum bandwidth
If you do not plan to offer files for download to the visitors of your homepage, you can easily calculate the optimal bandwidth with the following formula: average number of daily visitors x average page views x website size x 31 x evasion factor.
If you want to offer file downloads to the visitors of your website, you have to calculate the required bandwidth using the following formula: average number of daily visitors x average page size x average page views + average daily file downloads x file size (average) x evasion factor x 31. If a visitor downloads an MP3 song from your website, it usually has a size of about 4 MB.As a wave file, the same song has a size of about 40 MB. The download of an MP3 song can be very fast. A 4 MB data exchange takes place between your website and the computer on which the song is downloaded. A complete movie can even be up to 1 GB in size.
The majority of small and private websites consume a maximum of 1 GB bandwidth per month. However, if your website uses more bandwidth than you have contractually agreed with your provider, you must expect your web hosting company to charge you for overuse. Only after you have calculated or estimated how much bandwidth your website needs per month can you compare the offers of different web hosting providers and find the best offer for you
