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Bandwidth, data transfer, water and pipes - how not to be confused!
When selecting a web hosting company for the first time. the terminolgy can be confusing. This article explains about bandwidth, and data transfer, and clarifies what is needed for your website.

Bandwidth, data transfer, water and pipes - how not to be confused

A popular misconception among many people, as well as web hosting providers, is that bandwidth and data transfer are the same. This is probably due to the fact that they are very closely linked, but for anyone who is subscribed to a web hosting service, knowing the difference can save both time and money.
Put simply, bandwidth is the quantity of data that can be transferred from a website at any one time, while data transfer is the amount transferred over a period of time. This is where the water and pipes come in. A pipe would be bandwidth - the bigger the pipe, the more water could pass through. However, data transfer would be the amount of water in the pipe in a month, for example. Essentially, data transfer is the use of bandwidth.

Why should you care?

The lower your bandwidth provided by your web hosting provider, the slower your site will download to users’ computers, irrespective of how fast their Internet connections are. If multiple users are accessing your site at once, they may find that they experience extremely slow, or no, connectivity.
Data transfer allowances control how much data can be transferred from your site over a certain time. For example, a web hosting provider may impose a limit of 2 gigabytes of data per month. If your website exceeds this, it may be taken offline until the next month.
You will often be given an option to upgrade your bandwidth or data transfer allowance, and even the more affordable web site hosting plans can give you flexibility in this department.

So what do you need?

Unfortunately, the confusion between bandwidth and data transfer is now widespread, and the two terms have become interchangeable.
Normally, web hosts will refer to data transfer as bandwidth. If you’ve already got a site online, it’s very easy to estimate how much data transfer allowance you’ll need. Statistics such as number of visitors per day enable you to calculate roughly how much will be downloaded from your site per month.
If you haven’t got the site up and running, you should estimate using quite an optimistic guess, particularly if you plan on investing in advertising campaigns.
In either case, use the equation below to get an estimated monthly data transfer figure:
Number of expected visitor x Average size of pages (including graphics) x Expected number of pages viewed per visit x 30 = Monthly Data Transfer

Bandwidth is rarely under your control

Bandwidth, unlike data transfer, cannot normally be increased. It is an extremely expensive commodity. The more visitors looking at a website, the less bandwidth there is available, and the slower the site will download. Getting a web hosting solution with good bandwidth is really important.
Throttling, the limiting of the number of users able to view your website at the same time, is sometimes a method employed by web hosting companies (particularly on the more affordable web site hosting plans) to keep websites within their bandwidth restrictions. If you think this may negatively affect your website, get in contact with the web hosting company for more information.

What you can do

A large part of all computer-based work is to do with efficiency, and this is especially true of web design, particularly when working within the confines of a web site hosting plan. By making simpler, efficient websites, you can reduce both the amount of bandwidth and data transfer your site uses.
Simple things like using more space-efficient graphic formats (such as highly compressed JPEGs), separating JavaScript into a separate file from the HTML, using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and trimming down unnecessary white space in HTML files can all help reduce the amount of data flowing out of your site, and allow you to stick with affordable web hosting plan.
Allowing your website to be cached by web browsers is also a great way to keep data transfer down, although using an “Expires” META tag might be a good idea so that users don’t end up accidentally seeing old versions of your site.
By Danny Vong

Danny Vong is a writer for Website-hosting-plans.net, which is a top web hosting comparison portal! With all the major web hosting companies reviewed and rated and listed in the top 10 hosting companies list.
For more web hosting help please visit www.website-hosting-plans.net

How to use RSS Feeds for Internet Marketing
RSS feeds can be used very effective for internet marketing. Internet marketers can gain more exposure in search engines, and dominate niche markets by using the tool of RSS as part of their marketing strategy

How RSS Feeds Can Help Your Online Business?

So how should I use RSS Feeds? How can it help with my online business?

Read the rest of this entry »

Guide to Select A Web Hosting Provider
There are many options to choose from when selecting your web hosting company. This article will guide you by giving you important criteria to consider before you make your selection.

Are you confused, perplexed and undecided? These are the major “symptoms” for those who have already designed their website but don’t know which web hosting provider to choose from. Clearly, with all the attractive packages offered by the hosting company, no one would blame you for having such headaches if you were not an IT-savvy person. Even if you are an IT-savvy person, I’m sure you might face with some difficulties choosing the ideal hosting provider since there are so many different type of prices in set by different web hosting provider. Well, talking about IDEAL, do you believe there is IDEAL web hosting provider for everyone? Of course, there is no such thing as ideal web hosting provider for everyone. Please bear in mind that different people see things differently. One may say company A is very very good and realiable, then the next person may think that company B is better. So, in terms of viewing an ideal provider, it differs from person to person. Therefore, when a question such as “list the top 5 web hosting company” is asked, everyone will have different answer.

Briefly, web hosting provider will host your website and make sure it can be accessed by everyone 24 hours a day. So, it is vital to select a reliable one to make sure your website is always accessible particularly if your website is an important means of communication for you to reach your end users. Hence, I have decided to write some tips for those who need to choose a web hosting provider. There are as follows:

Types of Web Hosting Provider and What Do You Expect from Them

Freebies

Never expect too much from freebies. If you need a professional looking website to get running on the Internet, I don’t think you should rely on freebies. They may not be able to provide you the features and support you need.

Paid Ones

I would personally opt for this if I were to set up an online business or start any professional looking website. As the term implies, paid hosting provider will definitely serve you better and you can select those who offer the features that you want.

The Criteria to Select Web Hosting Provider

Support

Yes, support is undoubtedly the most important thing. Not only support that you need, but make sure it’s a Professional Technical support and it’s advisable to choose those company that provide 24×7x365 support. Who knows if your website suddenly has problem in the middle of the night. Without round the clock support, who will be able to help you? A simple advice here, before you choose a web hosting provider, try emailing them and see how fast is their response. Whether it’s a technical question or question to their customer service department, it doesn’t matter. But, since you are interested in their plans, I would suggest you email their customer service department first. If they have prompt reply, give them a tick in your criteria list. So, remember this essential point.

Price

When it comes to money, people will think twice. Yup, so do I. People will compare the price from one company to another. In order to make a wise decision, make sure the pricing you choose is unbeatable and reasonable. However, do take note that cheaper provider does not necessarily mean better service. I’m sure you will have doubt when you see that Company A offers so cheap plan compared to Company B. Have no fear. Just do some other surveys or join forums to ask for other people’s opinion on the particular company’s review. Of course, until the end of the day, you will also have to decide and take some risks to trust the company that you will choose. Hence, the next criterion is also equally important when you take your risk to trust a company.

Money Back Guarantee

Make sure you find a web hosting company who has money back guarantee policy. The most common one is 30-days money back guarantee. Only a handful will offer 60-days money back guarantee. So, with this guarantee, you do not have to worry when you start venturing into the cyberworld and letting the whole world view your proudly developed website.

Platforms and Applications Available

In a more technical sense, it means the different type of platforms available. Nowadays, web hosting company will offer mostly Linux or Windows platform in their server. So, if your website is based on .ASP technology, no doubt you will have to go for Windows platform. Check also on the features offered for you, whether the features is supported by your website back-end technology or not. If you are unsure, don’t be hesitate to ask them. That’s why as mentioned earlier, support is very important. You can email them to ask or even call them if they are your local hosting providers.

Scalability, Reliability and Security

How good a web hosting provider is also depends on how scalable; reliable in terms of backbone connnection and website uptime; and secured in terms of virus and SPAM filtering. Remember that all these criteria are needed to make sure your website is running well. It will be great if the provider allows simple and easy upgrade for any hosting plans. Some also provide customisation for you. So, this depends on your decision ultimately. Please remember to choose provider that allows you to easily add bandwidth, web space or email accounts as your traffic grows.

Do also check on the reliability of the web hosting company on their uptime guarantee as well as asking them on where is their server located and their backbone connection. You can always email to ask them this. And I suppose a reliable web hosting company will provide this content on their website for you to see. So, in case if they do provide livechat, ask them instantly. A proven uptime guarantee will at least ensure that your website can be safely viewed by your intended users from anywhere and at anytime of the day.

Security is what everyone needs. Therefore, it’s best to choose provider that has stated clearly on their policy that they have SPAM and virus filtering feature already installed. As there is one saying that goes like this, “prevention is better than cure”. So, be prepared before you are attacked by virus or malicious email attachments.

All in all, I hope this guide can more or less help you in selecting a web hosting company. At least it gives you a rough idea of what to look for.

By SY Ho

SY Ho is an Online Marketing Executive for http://www.exabytes.com