Explanation of Bandwidth

Bandwidth is a term used greatly among web hosting providers, and yet, they never seem to explain what it is. If you are looking for somewhere to store your website, it is important to take many things into account. Space and bandwidth are the main ones to look out for.

What is bandwidth?

Bandwidth is the transmission capacity of a network. In terms of web hosting, it is how much data can go back and forth from the server to the viewer.

Think of it as a pile of thousands of apples. A person comes along and says, "Can I have 1 apple please?". A shop keeper walks to the pile, grabs 1 apple, and brings it back to the persons who wanted it. The apple can be our "data". Now, imagine if there were loads of people, each wanted 1, 2 ,3 or even more apples at once. The shop keeper can only carry, let’s say, 30 apples each go. The shop keeper would be flooded with requests, and wouldn't be able to carry them out. Think of this as the "bandwidth limit". No more apples, or data, would be able to be transferred to any other people.

Why is it important?

With web hosting, if you go over your bandwidth limit, you site will be suspended. This means that no one will be able to view it. Whether your hosting provider requests for you to pay for using to much bandwidth (that's the minority, but they still do), or whether they just suspend your cycle until the limit counter is reset depends on who you're hosted with.

If a company says "30 Gb" bandwidth, than that means 30 Gigabytes of bandwidth per month. Bandwidth is measured acumatively, meaning that it is added up bit by bit. For example, if you use 30Mb of bandwidth on day 1, and 20Mb on day 2, the total bandwidth that you've used is 30Mb + 20 Mb = 50Mb. The bandwidth counter is reset every month. However, some companies do impose daily limits as well.

How do I know how much bandwidth I'm using?

It depends from host to host. Many display a little bar which tells you have much percentage you've used in your on-line control panel. Some hosts do not tell you how much bandwidth you are using, even if there are limits.

Unlimited bandwidth!?

This is something that I see all over the place. It is impossible to have unlimited bandwidth. It takes a bit of logic to work that one out; there will always be a limit otherwise servers would crash. Even the most powerful servers on the world (such as the ones that power Google, etc) have their limits, although those limits bay be extraordinarily high.

However, unmetered bandwidth is possible. This is when bandwidth isn't measured at all; you are free to use as much as you like. But if you were to upload something that would use more bandwidth than the server can handle (which is impossible to do for the average person, trust me), then obviously they would kick you out. That's why it should not be called unlimited. A limit does exist, it's just that you won't ever break it. Therefore, if it says "unlimited bandwidth", one can assume that one may use as much bandwidth as they like. Even on proper hosting companies, unlimited is mentioned all over the place, although that word does not mean "without any limit".

Remember! Unlimited and unmetered are not the same; those words cannot be interchangeable. Learn the difference today and you'll know something more that many others know out there.

What consumes bandwidth?

Here's a quick list of what uses bandwidth:

1. Downloads (files). The bigger the file, the more bandwidth is consumed. Large files consume the most bandwidth.
2. Images. The higher the file size, the more bandwidth is consumed; use GIFs and JPGs instead of PNGs and BMPs
3. Text. The more text there is on a page, the more bandwidth is used.
4. Pop-ups. These tend to consume a small amount of bandwidth.
5. Tables, but only minimally.

How much do I need?

The amount of bandwidth depends on various factors; there is no straightforward answer. The main ones are how much text and the size of the images on your site, and how many hits you receive (how many hits you get).

If you would like an approximation, use my bandwidth calculator, although, this can only produce an approximation.

What is bandwidth measured in?

If you're going to compare hosting plans, it's important that you use the same units, as you would do with the price (e.g. £GBP into $USD, or whatever). Most sites measure bandwidth in Gigabytes (Gb), but I've seen some measure it in Megabytes (Mb) instead.

Here is a nifty calculator for working out equivalent units:

Bytes Kb Mb Gb

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