I see many people asking for 10-20 GB of bandwidth just for their own personal site. Do they realize how much bandwidth that really is? You could easily run a small forum with just one gigabyte of bandwidth. If the average visitor used up 100 KB of bandwidth, you could have over 300 visitors per day with just ONE gigabyte of bandwidth. If you have that many visitors to your personal site, then you must have many friends. :D I know some people actually use that much bandwidth, but it seems the majority that ask for that much don't really need it. Are my observations correct?

Yes.

Originally posted by ToastyX
I see many people asking for 10-20 GB of bandwidth just for their own personal site. Do they realize how much bandwidth that really is?

If your site/forum has special needs, a site owner might need every bit. Graphic artists, who wish to share work, will definitely need every gig they can get!

Chris

I'm not a host but it seems like the entire hosting industry is built around that gamble.

"I'll offer them all 20 gigs, but only 1 or 2 of my customers will really use all of it... and I get to charge those fools for overages! bwuahahaha aaahahahaha" - average host

Originally posted by ToastyX
I see many people asking for 10-20 GB of bandwidth just for their own personal site. Do they realize how much bandwidth that really is? You could easily run a small forum with just one gigabyte of bandwidth. If the average visitor used up 100 KB of bandwidth, you could have over 300 visitors per day with just ONE gigabyte of bandwidth. If you have that many visitors to your personal site, then you must have many friends. :D I know some people actually use that much bandwidth, but it seems the majority that ask for that much don't really need it. Are my observations correct?

I have a customer sending 20 Mb emails (video mails). Now here is how people use there bandwidth. ;)

My personal (hobby) site consumes 40GB per month (the URL is in my signature). That is when I closed download section down.

I am currently not using cogent bandwidth, so I am paying a lot for 40GB bandwidth. But I need around 15GB more to re-open download section. :blush:

Originally posted by ToastyX
I see many people asking for 10-20 GB of bandwidth just for their own personal site. Do they realize how much bandwidth that really is? You could easily run a small forum with just one gigabyte of bandwidth. If the average visitor used up 100 KB of bandwidth, you could have over 300 visitors per day with just ONE gigabyte of bandwidth. If you have that many visitors to your personal site, then you must have many friends. :D I know some people actually use that much bandwidth, but it seems the majority that ask for that much don't really need it. Are my observations correct?

I think loading *one* page of discussion forum (such as vB, phpBB, etc.) takes from 30KB to 80KB, so an average visitor to a forum probably uses at least 200KB or more (well, depends on her/his addiction...) in one visit? Is that right?

BTW, I read people in other forums asking if anybody knows what bandwidth (actual transfer) webhostingtalk.com uses per month, but did not get an answer. I am interested in getting to know that, too...

Originally posted by ToastyX
I see many people asking for 10-20 GB of bandwidth just for their own personal site. Do they realize how much bandwidth that really is? You could easily run a small forum with just one gigabyte of bandwidth. If the average visitor used up 100 KB of bandwidth, you could have over 300 visitors per day with just ONE gigabyte of bandwidth. If you have that many visitors to your personal site, then you must have many friends. :D I know some people actually use that much bandwidth, but it seems the majority that ask for that much don't really need it. Are my observations correct?

You mean not everyone uses their 20GB of transfer every month?!?! Wow - I had NO IDEA. Thank you for sharing! :rolleyes:

Maybe they buy it because they hope, someday, that they'll REALLY need it. Because they will have created a site so good that it actually uses all their bandwidth. It gives them a goal in life: use all my bandwidth.

Originally posted by ToastyX

Re: Are people overbuying bandwidth?


does the pope sh** int he woods ;) as the saying goes

sold 200 gb \ month on one server, only pushing 15. go figure. mix of sites. i dont oversell. just nags me heheh get the urge to ask for one months roll over so i can donate the excess somewhere or something. ah well. i guess people just figure out how much they can afford \ want to pay and buy what they can get. figure they can up or down as needed.

My brother's independent film group site with rather large .mov files and that also has freeware software that has been downloaded over 200,000 times uses less than 10GB a month.

Our busiest site is serving around 15GB a month of traffic. Of course, our free limit is only 20GB. They have all static content but they sell powerpoint images (a lot of browsing of large image libraries going on). I had to give them their own resource limited apache server, because of resource problems.

It's true that it's very hard to use more than that, especially on a shared server where you also have to share the resources.

In my opinion, if you need more than 20GB, you should consider a dedicated server. Especially if you have any CGI. The only way that a web site would normally require more than that is if they were serving files for download. A typical web site would not use that much transfer.

I think it's all related to everyone saying. "We're only getting 100 visitors a day, but we expect it to become amazingly popular and get 100,000 visitors a day." High hopes.

Originally posted by mightyclips


I think loading *one* page of discussion forum (such as vB, phpBB, etc.) takes from 30KB to 80KB, so an average visitor to a forum probably uses at least 200KB or more (well, depends on her/his addiction...) in one visit? Is that right?

BTW, I read people in other forums asking if anybody knows what bandwidth (actual transfer) webhostingtalk.com uses per month, but did not get an answer. I am interested in getting to know that, too...

I meant for the forum statement to be independent from the 100 KB per visitor example. I was just saying that 1 gigabyte of bandwidth is still enough to run a small forum of maybe 30 people.

Originally posted by appletreats


You mean not everyone uses their 20GB of transfer every month?!?! Wow - I had NO IDEA. Thank you for sharing! :rolleyes:

Maybe they buy it because they hope, someday, that they'll REALLY need it. Because they will have created a site so good that it actually uses all their bandwidth. It gives them a goal in life: use all my bandwidth.

No, I never said that. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I'm talking about the people that request 10-20 GB of bandwidth but only ever use 1-2 GB.

yeah Toasty,
your observations are correct......probably about 85% of customers will never use their alloted bandwidth.........

Right on the money.

I would also say that the 85% of customers who never use their allotted bandwidth most likely have no idea how much 10gigs of transfer really is/translates too.

Most order a 10gigs plan and end up using about 1 gig. :cartman:

The same can be said about webspace.....but the percentage is a bit lower.

Its like buying SUVs, there is good chances that you will never need 4 wheel drive, and the great economy 7 miles per gallon millage just so they can tow a boat or trailer they don't have. But they want it anyway.

It is also the same for heavy duty trucks. Though when I get mine, it will be for hauling new servers or hauling interesting equipment nasa is getting rid of :stickout.