What is bandwidth?

[~pEnGuIn~]

Ok I know this is a stupid question, but since it's so stupid, y'all probably know the answer. But what is bandwidth and like how is it measured?

~Bethany T.

[[lhomme]]

Bandwidth is how much data you can transfer in a second. I believe its usually measured in bits, with a prefix (kilo,mega,giga,tera etc). Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Btw - most webhosting sites will get this mixed up with data-transfer, which is the amount of data your host (or physical limitations) will allow you to send in a certain amount of time (usually monthly).

[cheatpark]

Just one addition. There are 8kbit in a kilobyte.

[~pEnGuIn~]

ok... so how much is sufficient for a site that's html files take about 3-5 mb of space and other files take about 5-7 mb of space and usually gets no more than 30 visitors a day?

~Bethany T.

[Daniel]

Let say your site is 10mb big,

10*30*30=9000mb of data transfer a month.

Thats a rough estimate if your visitors download all the files and visit all the html pages.

[~pEnGuIn~]

Hmm... though chances are they won't visit ALL the pages...

Thanks for giving me an idea of how to estimate it....

~Bethany T.

[shizzle]

9000 megabytes or megabits?? I would assume megabytes according to your calculation,

[Archbob]

I will give a more reasonable estimation.

I think 1GB is enough for you.

[Bruce]

1 GB of data-transfer would be more than enough. I know fr a fact not every visitor is going to download 10 MB or even close to it.

[Moonman]

yes, but if they do she will need about 9GB of Data Transfer.

[Bruce]

But they won't, so there's no need to worry about hypotheticals.

[rochen]

With reference to bandwidth in general.

If you are buying a shared hosting package it will most likely be 'x' GB/month. However if you are buying co-location space it may be measured in 'x' MBit/second.

*X where the the number would be. e.g. 2

[Moonman]

Originally posted by Bruce
But they won't, so there's no need to worry about hypotheticals.
well what your saying is also a hypothetical, but it is more likely that yours is correct.

[Bruce]

Originally posted by rochen
With reference to bandwidth in general.

If you are buying a shared hosting package it will most likely be 'x' GB/month. Which is data-transfer, not bandwdith. Bandwidth is always measure in bits per second.

[rochen]

Originally posted by Bruce
Which is data-transfer, not bandwdith. Bandwidth is always measure in bits per second.

I know. :)

However in recent years companies seem to refer to bandwidth/data transfer as the same thing.

Sorry for any confusion. ;)

[Bruce]

Originally posted by rochen


I know. :)
You sure? ;)

Or are you just going with the flow and doing as others do?

[rochen]

Originally posted by Bruce
You sure? ;)

Absolutely ;)