Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : What the heck

[Need Help]

Being a total newbie to this web host and site stuff I need some clarification(s) , If I could please get some Help!

What the heck is "bandwidth protection" (some research said something about "Hotlinking")? A host wants (optional)$75.00 for it on top of the yearly cost of $99.00 for the annual hosting cost.

How do I determine what size of stuff I need ? (GB, MB, KB )

What is monthly data transfer, How to pre determine what size I will need?

Is there a charge for monthly traffic to the site?

What the heck am I getting into?

I'm starting to get dizzy!

[UH-Bobby]

Originally Posted by Need Help

Being a total newbie to this web host and site stuff I need some clarification(s) , If I could please get some Help!

What the heck is "bandwidth protection" (some research said something about "Hotlinking")? A host wants (optional)$75.00 for it on top of the yearly cost of $99.00 for the annual hosting cost.

How do I determine what size of stuff I need ? (GB, MB, KB )

What is monthly data transfer, How to pre determine what size I will need?

Is there a charge for monthly traffic to the site?

What the heck am I getting into?

I'm starting to get dizzy!

It's probably protection to where if you get hacked or have someone trying to abuse your site, you won't be billed in overages. Every host offers different levels of monthly data transfer.

Yes, there's a charge for it. Usually a certain level is included. In the hosting world though, there's a cost for each MB or GB consumed.

It's a dizzying concept . For an unlimited host, they'll have the limits in their TOS, or at any point you could be suspended for using too much. For the limited hosts, they specify how much you can use, and it's defined. You can still get suspended for CPU abuse whether the host is limited or unlimited, but most of the time, the limited hosts are more easy going, whereas the unlimited have to be strict in the TOS.

The reason for that is, although the package may be unlimited, there's always limitations somewhere. You can't get a dedicated server level of resources for $5 per month.

[WebairChris]

I would suggest seeking out a hosting plan that has clear limitations. Many people go for the unlimited hosting plans just because of the pricing and the "unlimited resources" that are included. These plans can be a bit deceiving and I think you will have a better experience knowing that the guidelines are in black and white

[HostRefugee-Vince]

Originally Posted by Need Help

Being a total newbie to this web host and site stuff I need some clarification(s) , If I could please get some Help!

What the heck is "bandwidth protection" (some research said something about "Hotlinking")? A host wants (optional)$75.00 for it on top of the yearly cost of $99.00 for the annual hosting cost.

I would ask for clarification from the host who offers "bandwidth protection". It could mean a variety of things and they would be able to give you the correct answer.

Originally Posted by Need Help

How do I determine what size of stuff I need ? (GB, MB, KB )

Diskspace: Most hosts don't deal MB/KB anymore, now offers are 1 GB+. Diskspace usage on a hosting server generally comes from emails not yet downloaded from the server, web statistics/traffic logs, databases and any files you upload directly into your space.

Here's a breakdown of what you could get with 1 GB of space.

52,428 - 20 KB Emails Stored on the server (most of my text based emails are 3 - 10 KB)

10,485 - 100 KB Images

69,905 - 15 KB Web Page Files (.html, .htm, ect..)

Even though offers are now in the GB's, I could name 100's of sites that use less than 10 MB's of space, and 1000's more using less than 100 MB's of space.

Originally Posted by Need Help

What is monthly data transfer, How to pre determine what size I will need?

Monthly data transfer comes from a variety of sources. FTP uploads/downloads, pageviews, file downloads and even checking your email.

I am willing to bet, most of your transfer will be used on pageviews or perhaps FTP uploads/downloads when your first uploading your site.

Let's say you have a 10 page site, each page (w/images) is 75 KB's and each page gets 1000 visitors per month (10,000 pageviews).

1000 x 10 x 75 Kb's = 750000 Kb's (732 MB's).

Unless your site becomes popular, this example of traffic is not going to happen overnight. Even if it did happen, most of the "very small" web hosting plans offer 15x the transfer my example is giving.

Originally Posted by Need Help

Is there a charge for monthly traffic to the site?

Generally you get a fixed amount of bandwidth/transfer that's already included in the plan. If you went over that amount, there may be extra charges. Some hosts automatically suspend your account if you reach your limit, this prevents overage charges. You would need to discuss with your potential host how overages work, and at what rate they are charged.

Originally Posted by Need Help

What the heck am I getting into?

I haven't had to search for a host for a VERY long time, and I can't even imagine what people go through anymore. Back when I was looking for hosting, there were only a handful of companies to choose from. Now it seems there are 1000 new hosts popping up per day!

Originally Posted by Need Help

I'm starting to get dizzy!

Me Too. Let's simplify this though!

Unless you have huge diskspace or bandwidth requirements, just stick to the basics. Find a reputable company who has positive reviews that offers what you need. Don't be blown away by the massively sized hosting plans, chances are you don't need a fraction of what there offering. In fact, don't get blown away by any offer that looks to good to be true.... because most likely it is "to good to be true".

[vpsville]

Unless you have a very busy site start with a small plan and upgrade it as you need to.

[DDT]

Our "average" site uses less than 10MB of disk space and 200-500MB of transfer. I can count the ones that break a gigabyte on my hands and the ones who break multiple gigabytes 2 or more GB per mo. one one hand.

Example: extremely busy account (4 sites) with fairly busy forums (10-20+ users all day), connected Coppermine gallery for forum user's to post photos, fairly active E-commerce store (has 1 employee just to process orders all day-8hrs.), and other personal company web site for owner. May hit 3-4 GB transfer on a busy month.

[Sean M]

I would recommend perhaps starting on a small shared unlimited plan. You could then estimate after a few months your traffic and could go from there if you need to upgrade.

[stablehost]

Originally Posted by Sean M

I would recommend perhaps starting on a small shared unlimited plan. You could then estimate after a few months your traffic and could go from there if you need to upgrade.

Unlimited?

[Need Help]

Originally Posted by EditDNS-Tyler

Unlimited?

Yea ! I'm new , But have already figured that one out. As I see many hosts turning and changing their descriptions to that method.

Actually it turns me off and away, cause I really don't feel like reading all that extra mumbo jumbo just to find out it is like 5% or 10% percent of a actual number that never gets explained.

One site described it as over 5% and you are terminated or suspended. The big catch was that if you are suspended you do not get a refund of the remainder. So pay a 12 month subscription get suspended in 2 months and Presto I'm out of host and Money!

Is'nt that the way it works?

[xyclonehost]

do some research and check for reviews... personally i'd hate overselling though.... and it all depends on what kinda site you are gonna host.. all that will determine how much space n bandwidth you'd need. hope this helps..

[ldcdc]

small shared unlimited plan.

Interesting to see small and unlimited so close to each other. Funny though, it does have some sense.

[bithost(NET)]

Need Help, the easiest way for us to help you determine what you need, is for us to ask what do you plan to do? Paint us a picture of your website. What is it going to look like, what's it about, and what will it do?

Those of us with experience running similar sites can tell you what we've seen other sites needing & running. And we can also give you some specific ways to figure your resource needs (like, math-wise, if you're really that interested).

Bailey

[mastert]

if you don't know how much Disk/BW you need, so look for companies which have several plans, Shared,Reseller,Vps And Dedicated so you can upgrade if needed,

[Need Help]

Originally Posted by bithost(NET)

Need Help, the easiest way for us to help you determine what you need, is for us to ask what do you plan to do? Paint us a picture of your website. What is it going to look like, what's it about, and what will it do?

Want to start a little hobby business that connects youth and adults to the world of racing hobbies.

We will do some events locally for charities, organizations, fund raisers and also promotional events for the business.

6 to 10 grand a month for square footage in a warehouse is begining not to be an option to run the business in so here we are looking for web sites to help promote things.

We have Windows OS and will probably use a lot of those type programs and softwares for photo's, video's, designing and creating. So does that limit us to a windows compatible host?

We would like to have a host program that offers:

1-Easy site builder of some kind with plenty of templates to play around with.
2-We would like to get some kind of e-mail correspondence program for scheduleing and questioning types and places of events. Also to keep up with people for the purpose of thanks to you for your business and future events in there area.
3-Would like it to where customers and client could leave feed back for services provided.
4-Would like at minimal paypal compatible shopping cart with maybe at least 20 to 30 items , that has the cabibility of maybe future use of some of the better shopping carts that we may purchase later down the road.
5-We would be running about 5 or 6 different types of hobby racing so maybe at least be able to use a 5- 10 page site useing many photo's and video's. (i believe video will use lots of space).

6- Need it to be secure and relaxing yet exciting to use and view the site with a great sense of security of doing business with us.

7- Eventually we want to be known as the place to contact and be known to be able to schedule an exciting and fun filled race with some hobby raceing equipment that we provide/set-up and actually organize and oversee the race. Possibly maybe we could eventually provide party events and rentals for birthday parties , scheduled events and such.

After much research it seems that we don't need over a small business type thing.

I like open honest feedback (as I tend to give sometime)so I would like a dependable open customer service that will be upfront and not BS me around.

Hope this helps as some of the info may be irrelavant but details come with painting.

Thanks

[Netunt]

You proberbly won't need a lot of space. My quota is 6GB and I use less than 6MB.