What is Bandwidth - All about bandwidth

When you purchase a web hosting service from TOSHOST LTD you may notice that we give you details about disk space and bandwidth. On this post, I am going to share details about bandwidth.

1. What Is Bandwidth?

Bandwidth in computer networking refers to the data rate supported by a network connection or interface. Website hosting bandwidth describes the rate at which data can be transferred between a website and computers connected to it within a specific time. Typically, bandwidth is expressed as a bitrate and measured in bits per second (bps).

2. How Bandwidth Calculated?

There are several different ways to measure bandwidth. Some measurements are used to calculate current data flow, while others measure maximum flow, typical flow, or what is considered to be good flow. Bandwidth can be compared to water flowing through a pipe. Bandwidth would be the rate at which water (data) flows through the pipe (connection) under various circumstances. Instead of bits per second, we might measure gallons per minute. The amount of water that possibly can flow through the pipe represents the maximum bandwidth, while the amount of water that is currently flowing through the pipe represents the current bandwidth.

3. Details about facts on Bandwidth.

How much is 1 meg?

Every time someone views your web page all of the data (html code, text, graphics, etc.) within the page must be transferred from your web server, into the visitor's computer,via the internet where it is viewed by a web browser. As a result, the amount of data transfer a hosting customer uses is related to the number of visitors to their site, multiplied by the size of their web pages. Graphics and other multimedia files account for the vast majority of data transfer used. This becomes apparent when you consider that the average text page consists of only of about 5 Kb of data, while images can be as large as 50-200 Kb in size -- and many images are often incorporated into each web page. Flash files are often very large, along with audio and video files. Live audio and video feeds can also be bandwidth hogs. A 3 minute MP3 file equals apx.3 megs per view! Bandwidth data transfer to a large degree are synonymous. 3 major factors to take into account:

1. The amount of traffic you receive
2. The size of your site
3. The types of files offered on your site.

How is transfer measured?
Formula: page size x page views X 30days=Bandwidth Transfer Page size:You have 10KB of text,60 KB of gifs would equal a per page size of 70K. Page views: you have 60 visitors that look at 4 pages per day equals 240 views a day. 70x240x30(days)=504,000 kb or approximately 504 mb, of bandwidth each month.(10 megs gets 1 gig(1000mb) of transfer per mo.)

One kilobyte (KB) is equal to 1,024 bytes.
One megabyte (MB) is equal to apx. 1,000 kilobytes
One megabyte is equal to 1,048,576 bytes
One gigabyte (GB) is equal to apx. 1,000 megabytes.
One terabyte (TB) is equal to apx. 1,000 gigabytes
So how much is one (1) byte?

1st let's look at a BIT
Bit
A bit is short for BInary digiT. It is the smallest unit of information on a computer. All digital data inside a computer is represented using a binary number system where each number and character is comprised of 0's and 1's.

Byte
Eight bits of information is one byte, which is short for a binary term. A byte is the amount of memory space it takes for the computer to store one character, such as the letter "A." 1 MB is equal to 1,048,576 bytes

Realistically, based on average internet traffic, you could probably take a good bit more visitors as not everyone views every single page on your site. The average personal to professional level site transfers 100 - 1,500MB per month.

Those offering unlimited
Another important key factor to look out for is web hosting companies offering "unlimited bandwidth". At times, this statement may be FAR from what it states. I have come across time after time with web hosting companies stating that they offer "unlimited bandwidth", but when you inquire about the truth or accuracy of the statement you may find "unlimited" to them means "2 GB of transfer" (or similar.) Since when did 2 GB (gigabytes) transfer mean unlimited?

Our web hosting plans state the exact gigabyte transfer allocated to its customer's account. No gimmicks. Whether or not you choose to host your website with us, always check unlimited transfer offer Policy. We do not claim that all web hosting companies engage in these practices, one must take caution when looking for a new WebHost. Our Unlimited Bandwidth Package includes 3TB to 100TB Transfer.

If you go over your quota, you can upgrade to the next size package.