Doing a little homework has raised a few questions,

I have been looking at three options for webhosting but can't seem to find a middle ground. My site has a lot of photos. Most being between 50-150k, so around 100k average. I only need about 200-250 megs for the photos and maybe another 100 for the rest of the website. So i'm looking for a webhost that offers between 400-500 Megs of storage. The problem isn't finding a host with enough space as most every host offers plenty of space. The problem seems to come to bandwidth.

Here is a breakdown of the hosts i've been looking at Pair.com, Lunarpages.com, and Serverbeach.com.

-> Pair has a $30 plan that offers 700MB/day transfer.

-> LP has a $22 plan that offers 80 gigs or a little over 2,600MB/a day.

-> SB has a plan for $99 which offers 450 gigs or about 150,000MB/a day

I figure a visitor that comes to view the photos (not just a casual visitor) might view about 10 megs of photos in a visit. Some could view more some could view less, I think you get the idea. So I did a quick breakdown of about how many photo viewing visitors I could have a day with the different hosting plans.

Pair: 700MB/10MB = 70 visitors a day

LP: 2,600MB/10MB = 260 visitors a day

SB: 150,000/10MB = 15,000 visitors a day

I like pair and everything I hear about them but 700MB a day just doesn't seem to be nearly enough. LP could work for awhile but if for any reason my site starts surpassing 260 visitors a day I would have to switch hosts. I would prefer to not have to do that. SB is overkill, I seriously doubt I could ever get even close to 15,000 visitors a day and I would never even touch the 40gigs of hard drive space they offer.

So, does anyone know of a host that is between $20-$60 a month that focuses more on bandwidth than HD space?

Well unless you prepay or do a security deposit of some kind, I don't think any web host would let you use more than a few Gb transfer per day on a regular basis unless you make a deal before
signing up or buy a big enough plan.

It is a little difficult to find a reliable plan with the specs you need in your price range but I'm sure many of us would be willing to work with you. I would suggest you to fill the host quote or contact some of the hosts directly. ;)

Ps. WHT IRC is not usually dead. I saw you came and then left seeing it dead..I tried to make a response but you were gone by then. :(

LP has an Enterprize package with 200 GB transfer: http://www.lunarforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9077

About your estimates, not the host.

Have you crushed the icons? A 100K file is pretty heavy. You might want to use something like irfanview. Often one can reduce file size 50-80% with virtually no reduction in viewing quality. If you will be using thumbnail pages, then the thumbnails only need to be 3-5K.

The 10M/viewer seems like a lot to me. If you get anyone on dialup, it would take about half an hour in download time.

Take a look at JVDS, he has some plans that may be just what you are looking for, be sure and let him know what you are doing and he will tell you if it will work out well for your situation.

http://www.jvds.com/35unmetered.php

Jim

>> ... offers 450 gigs or about 150,000MB/a day

You're off by a factor of 10. That 450GB/month is 15,000MB/day, or 1500 visitors at 10MB.

ldcdc - LP has an Enterprize package with 200 GB
Very nice, thanks for pointing that out. I won't need the additional features but 200GB of transfer sounds just about right.

Gordo - Have you crushed the icons?
I currently use fireworks. I use 80% jpeg compression. My image sizes range from 400x300-800x600. My thumbnails do tend to be between 3-5k. I'll look into the program your talking about though.

Gordo - The 10M/viewer seems like a lot to me.
I am only referring to the people that would be specifically coming to the sight to look through the pictures. With 200Megs of photos, a person viewing 10Megs would only be viewing a small portion of them. Some might view 50megs some only 1meg. It is just a rough guestimation on my part.

newpoint - Take a look at JVDS
From what I looked at you share a dedicated line with a limited amount of bandwidth, but your bandwidth is unmetered. This might be exactly what I am looking for. Anyone know of other hosts that offer something similiar to this. Would like to compare options.

daverj - You're off by a factor of 10.
Yeah, it didn't look right to me either, but I was in a hurry. (damn windows crappy calculator). Either way, 1500 visitors is still overkill, for me that is.

P.S. Thanks for all the quick replys everybody.