Forum Moderators: mack
I'm new to these forums. I code websites for a living but I don't know much about networking/hosting. I recently bought a domain from godaddy and I'm wondering how the bandwidth works.
First off, they have normal hosting plans, which are really cheap, then hosting plans on dedicated servers, which are not really cheap. They both seem to have the same bandwidth rate, only the dedicated servers are much more expensive. Does anyone know what the difference is?
Also, lets say I buy a 2000GB/month bandwidth plan from them and then use it all up in 10 days. How do I get more bandwidth? Do I call them up and order some more?
Thanks
Welcome to WebmasterWorld
The hosting is of various types , and you are reffering to shared and dedicated hosting
in shared hosting you share a computer with lot of other people , you are assigned some space on the computer , lets say 10GB and in that space you make your websites
in dedicated hosting you are only user of computer and thats why its costly , for improved performance you should use dedicated hosting , but for those who are new to web , should be using shared hosting then can shift to dedicated one
Bandwidth is like how much data transfer you are eligible to carry out per month , you can always buy additional bandwodth if you finish you assigned quota but consuming 2000Gb bandwidh is lot much , you should think in terms of hard disk space you are getting from your host , databases , domians , scripts , and support , and bandwidth wont be issue i guess for you at initial stage
Being that evey page I have makes calls to the database the SQL is up around 80 to 90%.
As far as going over the limits I would check with your host to see what there policies are.
That would be a LOT of bandwidth... unless you are going to be serving videos or have an extremely busy site, bandwidth use may not be a huge consideration in selecting a host.
Mack.
[edited by: mack at 11:05 pm (utc) on April 6, 2007]
It's common for low-end hosts to quote bandwidth as, say "1000GB/month". In most cases, this doesn't actually mean 1000/GB/month.
In most cases, your limit is not, in fact, n GB/month, but some kbit/sec figure, with the ability to "burst" above that rate (in most cases, FAR above that rate) for brief periods.
The 1000GB is how much data would be transfered, IF your site was accessed at the kbit/sec figure continuously, 24/7 for the whole month.
Of course, this is an unrealistic scenario. Web sites aren't accessed at a steady, predictable, constant rate.
Use 1000GB in a short period of time, and you may be in for a rude surprise: surcharges - even if you don't transfer another byte beyond the 1000GB.
The "1000GB/month" is really just a marketing term, and ther real bandwidth terms will be found burried in contract language. "95'th percentile billing" is a more typical "real" billing term:
[en.wikipedia.org...]
Basically, the way 95'th percentile billing works is that use is summarized over some time period (typically 5 minutes). The bandwiths for each time slot are sorted, and the top 5% of time slots are thrown out - this is your "burstable bandwidth". Billing is then done on the basis of the bandwidth (in bits/sec) of the top remaining time slot.
In the case of simple plans that give you "n GB/month", the billable bandwidth then is either below or above the threshold for your account plan. If below, you pay your regular monthly fee and everybody is happy. If above, refer to the fine print. You might be subject to additional fees which can be quite stiff, and/or you might find yourself in violation of the Terms of Service and looking for a new host.
