Hello,

I am wondering how do I calculate the bandwisth required for a server... or for a server that hosts other sites...

say for static sites.. dynamic sites... (relevant no?)
How many average hits, average bytes per objects, etc?
Anyone familiar with this?

thanks

By and large it is guess work until you have some benchmark figures to go with.

If you already have a site developed, or have a spec that says "I want all pages to load within x secs over a modem link" then you have a fair idea on how big your average page size (including all graphics in the page) is. Let's say, for sake of arguement, that it is 10Kbytes.

You also need to estimate the number of visitors you are going to have per day. If you have your site live, you can gain reasonable projections. If not, look at your competition and basically guess. Let's say, for sake of arguement, that it is 1000 page views per day.

You then have a very simple equation to convert this into bandwidth per day = 1000 x 10Kbytes = 10Mbytes per day, or 304Mbytes per month (av. 30.4 days per month).

Now, a 64Kbit line can easily serve this amount of content, but does it give the throughput for your users? A 64K line can deliver approx. 690Mbytes per day at full throttle. However, it would only support 1 user for every 10Kbyte page being loaded per second. In other words, this shows why it is better to lease from a well connected NOC, as you only pay for the bandwidth you use, but get a nice fat pipe to burst across. They allow you to support more concurrent users, even though you might be able to host the site from your own, smaller line. Not really what you asked, but relevant (I think!)

Thanks your information is very relevant!

What I didn't know before was how many views per day on average a site will get..

so to continue.... I will need 304 MB / month per site that I am hosting....

I guess charging $5/mo (5 MB space) won't be very profitable eh? Not to mention if they want IP Address as well... speaking of which... do I really need to give one IP for each site I am hosting?

What is the catch for using name hosting (non IP)?

There is no catch anymore, as 99.99999% of browser in use today support host headers (required for that type of hosting).

The thing to bear in mind is how much traffic. It is fair to assume that the majority of pages are in the 10K - 50K range. If you are hosting a site for $5 per month, the odds are that it is not a popular site, probably only obtaining less than 10 hits per day.

People use the law of averages when reselling space. For example, they offer say 1Gb per month to their customers, but in reality the vast majority of sites they host don't hit a fraction of that number.

Lets take an example:

Say you are leasing a dedicated server for $350 per month, which includes 10Gb per month, and enought space to hold 2000 5Mb accounts (normally you wouldn't go that high, normally 250 is a reasonable max)

To break even, you would need to sell 350/5 = 70 accounts. The total of your accounts should be no higher than 10Gb, or in other words 140Mb/month average per account. This gives each of your users 500 page views a day based on the stuff above. When visiting a home page/hobby site, people will only look at max 5 pages before getting bored and going elsewhere. That means 100 visitors a day per site. For hobby sites, this is quite high (my believe). So 140Mb/month is quite a healthy average to be able to offer people.

As the number of accounts on your server increases, let's say that you manage to put on 250, and lease a bit of extra bandwidth @ $30 for 10Gb. That means total income = 250 * 5 = $1250. Total expense = $350 + $30 = $380.

Also, with the extra little bit of bandwidth, your average per user is not affected that much.

[Edited by inwks on 11-30-2000 at 06:53 AM]

So, it's safe to say, if I had 1000 accounts on 1 server, and 99% of clients are just hobbiest. I would give them 1 gig per month. And if I had 200 gigs per month on my server. That should be ok. I don't think they'll be using more than 200megs per month.

Please don't take my figures as 100% accurate, they are based on my understanding of the current Internet usage levels. But they should give you an idea....

It doesn't matter how much you offer them, but how much they actually use. So, if your average per account is 200Mb per month, you could lease 200Gb per month (in fact you would lease a little more, just to give a little breathing space) as part of your dedicated server package to resell to your 1000 clients.

The limit is usually there is that if they exceed it, they have to upgrade to the next plan, so that they pay you more.

I guess the real question about becoming a web host is that whether we can actually get that 70 accounts to break even?

What does it take, what do I need to do / prepare / offer to get the customers? Advertise?

Thanks so much

No prob. How you get the customers over everyone else offering hosting is unknown to me..... I guess you have to have a differentiator (i.e. what makes you different) and let as many people know about you as financially possible.

good answer!

you have been very helpful and knowledgeable... thanks very much..

(I just want to say that to increase my posting count so I am no longer a "new member" heheheh <g>)

hey.. I do appreciate u :)