Calculating How Much Bandwidth You Need

By Author: Edmund Brunetti
Total Articles: 751
Comment this article

When you start comparing different web hosting companies, you’ll most likely notice that every web host will tell you exactly how much bandwidth they’ll give you once you sign up with them. The amount of bandwidth you have is the amount of content people can view on your site. Anyone can look at as much content as they want, as long as it falls within your monthly bandwidth limits. If one person looks at one page, they probably won’t use that much bandwidth. If ten people look at ten pages, it will use much more bandwidth. So, how do you calculate how much bandwidth you will need?

First, you’ll need to know how big your webpages are. The bigger the webpage, the more bandwidth it’s going to take when it downloads onto someone’s computer. To figure out the file size, check how big the program is by right-clicking on the file and then clicking on “Properties.” A tab will pop up marked “General” and in here you’ll be able to see exactly how big your file is. Another way to do this is by double-clicking on the file’s name or the program. This will open it, after which you can click on “Settings” ...
... and then “File Information.” Write down the information so you can remember it, and then move on to the next step.

That is to jump onto Google or your favorite web browser and look for a bandwidth calculator; this can be done by simply typing in “bandwidth calculator” in Google. You will be returned with a huge listing of results that will supply you with the calculators you need. You can search through and find one you like, or you can just choose any of the first ones; they’re all very similar. Once you’ve pulled one up, enter the information you found from the above step and plug it into the calculator.

Once you’ve gotten your calculation returned to you, try it again with two or three different calculators. You should receive the same approximate number on each but don’t worry about it if they are slightly different. These calculators are not an exact science and while they’ll give you a good idea of how much bandwidth you will need to properly run your site, they are still just estimates.

When you’re running a website and you’re looking at all the different web hosts you can use, it can be difficult to tell which one is best for you. And when all of them are offering different amounts of bandwidth, it can become even more confusing. You need to make sure you have enough so that your website doesn’t shut down; but how do you know how much that is? Follow the above steps and you’ll never have that worry. The only thing you’ll need to concern yourself with is finding the right web host that will give you the proper amount of bandwidth that you need.

For more information about web hosting, please visit www.caratnetworks.com/web-hosting.php.