Hello everyone!

I'm seeking a host for my site, but am not sure how much bandwidth to contract for.

My site, www.EyeOnBooks.com, is currently hosted, free, on NBCi -- and I'm getting exactly what I pay for.

The site is built around streaming audio -- that's the purpose of the site, in fact, to let people hear 4-6-minute interviews -- but up till now, thanks to very weak promotion on my part (and poor performance by NBCi), it's attracted only a tiny handful of visitors. I mean very tiny -- often fewer than a dozen a day.

However, once I've found -- and paid for -- a new host, I'm planning a major marketing effort that I hope will result in hundreds, and eventually thousands, of page views per day.

That will, of course, also mean hundreds, and eventually thousands, of visitors accessing those RealAudio and Windows Media files. (The .ra files tend to be just under 2 megs, while the .wma files are about 700k each.)

Most "unlimited bandwidth" virtual hosts put an asterisk next to the word "unlimited," to explain how it doesn't REALLY mean "unlimited."

Is there a way to make a realistic estimate of what my daily/monthly bandwidth usage would be? And would you suggest virtual hosting or dedicated? (Keeping in mind that, so far, this site is more a hobby than a business.)

This is a great forum -- thanks in advance for your help!

Bill Thompson

Originally posted by WebGuyBill
Is there a way to make a realistic estimate of what my daily/monthly bandwidth usage would be? And would you suggest virtual hosting or dedicated? (Keeping in mind that, so far, this site is more a hobby than a business.)
I would recommend you do what I would do in your position. Find a test host that has reliable uptimes, high bandwidth for low costs and where you pay by-the-month. Sign up for a month or two and market the wazoo out of your site, see what the results are. If your host can handle it, great! Stay! If it can't, start your search for a better host (virtual or dedicated, depending on your situation) and this time you'll be armed with better numbers than you are now.

If you end up switching hosts, get your account set up with the new host first, change your domain's nameservers to your new host, and move your files over to the new host. In 24-48 hours your new host will start serving up your site and you can cancel your old host. Zero downtime.

That's just what I would probably do. I'm sure others here can give you other solutions to consider. :)

Thanks, Allera -- I knew I would find a sensible, logical answer in this forum. :)

Bill: I have sent you an eMail. Let me know if you didn't receive it :)