Unlimited Bandwidth Offers
The wily geniuses who work in the marketing departments of web hosting companies have come up with a very seductive offer to lure in potential clients. And as in most deals that scream ‘free’ or ‘unlimited’, the proposition of cheap and easy unlimited bandwidth for your web site might contain a few hidden land mines you need to uncover before signing on the dotted line.
There are two principles to keep in mind in terms of bandwidth. First, there is no such thing as unlimited. On shared web hosting servers or even a dedicated server for that matter, there will always be a limit to available bandwidth. The web hosting providers that offer an unlimited supply is just assuming you will not exceed a certain amount of bandwidth allotted to your site. Second, web hosts aren’t going to lose money on your web site. If you do exceed your bandwidth allotment month after month then you’ll most likely be hit with additional fees or fines, and/or you’ll be recommended to look for another web host.
This means you need to do your homework and find out what unlimited bandwidth in this context really means. Web hosts may force limitations on your traffic by restricting media or other large files. Or they may put a parameter on your bandwidth by allowing ‘unlimited’ bandwidth but charging heavy fees or fines after you exceed a certain amount of traffic.
If you are a little unsure about how much bandwidth you really need but you want to plan for growth and increased traffic then first calculate your current monthly bandwidth usage. This can be roughly estimated with the following formula:
Number of pages on your web site x 0.05 MB x Number of monthly hits
You can use this number as a starting point and make projections about growth so you can have a better sense of what type of plan you’ll want to put under contract. The point of your web site is to increase awareness and therefore traffic to your little corner of the Internet. Don’t limit yourself by cutting corners on bandwidth. While free web hosting plans are good in some cases, they generally have bandwidth limitations. The best web hosting providers in the industry will offer web hosting plans that meet your needs without charging you an arm and a leg.
