If you have been reading about bandwidth you are surely left with the question, exactly how much bandwidth do I really need? When someone is searching for the right web host they are certainly concerned with how much bandwidth they will have.

Because of this, the web hosting companies are racing to advertise and provide the best bandwidth coverage available. This is a stiff market so they have to bring you a great deal in order to get your business. In order to get your attention they are not only offering larger bandwidth capacity, they are offering “unlimited” bandwidth.

Calculating Bandwidth

The argument over how unlimited bandwidth is possible is very complicated. Let us focus for a moment on how much bandwidth the average user will really need.

This simple calculation can answer this question very quickly:

Bandwidth needed = Average Page Views x Average Page Size x Average Daily Visitors x Number of days in a month (30) x Redundant Factor.

• • The average number of daily visitors – Number of visitors per month divided by 30.
• • The average page size – The average size of your web page.
• • The average page views – The average number of pages viewed per viewer.
• • The redundant factor – A safety factor that ranges from 1.3 to 1.8.

After you have worked through the equations above you will arrive at the average bandwidth that you need to effectively operate your website.

What if your website allows downloads?

You should use the same calculations for a website that allows downloads as one that does not. Be sure to allow for some extra bandwidth if you will be downloading larger files on your site. Just complete the calculations above and add some for the download and you will be at the number.

What about Redundant Bandwidth?

Ok, stay with me now.

Redundant Bandwidth is the unused bandwidth that you have at any given time. This is important because if you have a sudden influx of traffic on your site you will need to have extra available resources so that everyone can visit at the same time. The average redundant bandwidth is fifty to eighty percent.

If you want to guarantee your site is functional no matter how many people are on it at a time, be sure to calculate for a very high amount of redundant space. Making your site available to everyone that wishes to see it is crucial to the success of your business.

If your site rises to the front page of Digg.com and you suddenly have a very large amount of web traffic, wouldn’t it be terrible if your server fails due to a low amount of bandwidth? This could cost you a large amount of sales and very bad publicity.

How Will I Know If I Need More Bandwidth?

Take a look at your site. If it is consistently running very slowly and maybe not even letting everyone view your page then you most certainly are in need of more bandwidth.

There are really good chances that your available redundant bandwidth is lacking and cannot keep up with the demands of your site. If this is the case then you need to ask your web host for a bandwidth capacity upgrade. You may also opt for switching to a dedicated server so that you do not have to share your server with other sites.

Another option is to remove any option to download files directly from your site. There are third party file hosting services that will handle all of your large downloading needs and it may make more economical sense to have them handle this portion of your business. If you want more information about this, read my recommended web host.

Hosting is more than just Bandwidth!

Be sure to investigate all of the areas of concern when you are considering a web hosting service. Bandwidth is important but there are other things that you should defiantly check out. Check for usage of server CPU, RAM, and the availability of database connections. If these areas are failing, then the unlimited bandwidth will be useless.

When you are checking out hosts in the search for the best quality at the best price, do not focus all of your attention on the bandwidth only. Check on the customer feedbacks that may be posted on their site. See how their current customers like the service and how reliable they say it is.

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