Bandwidth speed question

20 Mbit/sec, 50 Mbit/sec or 100 Mbit/sec?

[Raymond]

I will be switching to a new server which offers the following dedicated bandwidth (20 Mbit/sec, 50 Mbit/sec). I was wondering if I'll notice a significant downgrade in terms of speed if I switch to a 20 mbit connection (from a 100 mbit port)?

Does a 20mbit/sec connection mean theoretically it can handle 86400 secs X 2.5 mbytes = 216Gig per day?

I know this equation is non sense because traffic doesn't spread evenly over a 24 hours period. But I just need to know if it can handle my traffic, which is roughly 40 to 80 Gigs a day.

Thanks.

[edited by: Raymond at 6:42 am (utc) on Nov. 24, 2006]

[trillianjedi]

Hi Raymond,

The important metric is your burst traffic - what you need is a server that will handle your busiest load times.

The network itself is of course only one piece of the puzzle. During your sites' busiest periods, what are the following values:-

1. Bandwidth used
2. CPU utilisation
3. I/O wait state
4. RAM usage

Really, all of those 4 metrics need to be looked at.

If you're absolutely happy with the other 3 and you really are only concerned with bandwidth, check what your peak time usage is. That's the figure that's important.

TJ