Bandwidth Explained

Bandwidth Explained
by Breal Web Design

What is Bandwidth and Data Transfer?

Simply put, bandwidth and data transfer are synonomous,
referring to the amount of data sent to and from visitors
and your website. It is calculated by the size of your web
page and includes all scripting and images on a page. For
example, if you have a page totalling 20KB in file size,
then when a visitor loads that page on their browser, they
are receiving 20KB of data.

This means to calculate bandwidth, you need to consider
a) the size of your pages (or website)
b) the number of visitors to your website
c) the kind of files you offer your visitors.

Most personal websites have only a small amount of data
transfer, as their websites are small in file size and they
do not have a lot of visitors. Business and professional
sites are larger with more visitors and therefore use more
data transfer. Breal's entire site is under 2 MB in file
size. Some sites may be significantly larger, especially if
they offer many graphics, audio, video or download files.

Using Breal as an example, if 1,000 visitors viewed every
page on the site, the total data transfer would be 2 GB
(1,000 x 2 MB = 2,000 MB) or a single 10 KB file could be
viewed 200,000 times and the data transfer would be 2 GB.
Most professional level websites will use less than 2 GB
bandwidth per month.

Why do some companies charge for bandwidth and data
transfer, while others claim you can have unlimited bandwith
and data transfer?

Strangely enough, free on the Internet often means fee. Look
closely at many of the unlimited offers and you will
discover that there is a limit to bandwidth. You may need to
contact the company and ask them to define what they mean by
'unlimited'.

For information on Breal's hosting plans, visit
http://www.brealweb.com/hosting/hosting.asp