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Bandwidth

To make an informed decision regarding bandwidth for web hosting solutions, be it for a dynamic ecommerce site or static media servers, an understanding of basic terminology is in order.

Bit (connection) vs Byte (transfer or storage)

The measurement of the network connections is done in bits as opposed to data transfer and computer storage which we measure in bytes. Eight bits is the equivalent of one byte. Thus a 100Mbps (Mega bit per second) can handle 12Megabytes of data per second.

Units of measurement

K	Kilo	1,000 one thousand
M	Meg	1,000,000 one million
G	Gig	1,000,000,000 one billion
T	Terra	1,000,000,000,000 one trillion

To get a meaningful estimate of throughput, divide the data connection pipe by eight.
i.e. A 56K modem can download at a maximum throughput of around 7KiloBytes per second.

Residential Lines

Pipe	Data connection size (Bits per second)
28K modem	28Kbps
Phased out in most major hubs. Available away from major city centers, provided by the much smaller ISP's servicing rural towns.
56K modem	56Kbps
DSL modem	768Kbps
Cable modem	1Mbps
Cable typically has a 384Kbs upstream. Downloads can theoretically be as high as 10Mbps but since it is a shared connection it usually never reaches this value, additionally ISP's add their own specialized drivers and software to throttle the throughput to a much lower threshhold. ISPs also block traffic on certain ports. Thus using your connection to host a server a very iffy proposition. (It would also go against most of their TOS agreements for a residential line) i.e. Comcast blocks port 25 traffic (SMTP, send mail due to spam bots and viruses). i.e. Adelphia blocks port 80 traffic (web traffic). This means that you can't host a mail or webserver reliably with those connections/pipes.
2-way Satellite	1Mbps
Satellites typicaly have an upstream of 64Kbps. Same situation as cable, the potential to download large amounts of data up to 10Mbps.
T1 (aka DS1)	1.5Mbps
T1's are 1.544Mbs up and 1.544Mbs down. They are more expensive because you have a dedicated 1.544Mbs of bandwith. There is no restrictions on what you can use that bandwith on. They usually have less latency because they are connected closer to an internet backbone.

Dedicated Pipes (Web Hosting in Data Centers)

Pipe	Data connection size (Bits per second)
10Mbps	10Mbps
A typical computer now comes with at least a 10Mbps connection Maximum transfer rates of 1.25MegaBytes of data transfer per second.
T3 (aka DS3)	44Mbps
100Mbps	100Mbps
This is the currently the maximum rate you can have on a single connection to a server. Maximum transfer rates of 12.5MegaBytes of data transfer per second.
1Gbps	1Gbps
You should note that a single computer usually comes with a single 100Mbps connection. Thus a 1Gbps pipe is placed at the router level which connects to the individual computers with a 100Mbps connection. A standard setup is a 20 server rack with a 1Gbps router.

Bandwidth, How to Choose?

Which is better, (a) a fixed 2,500 Gigs of transfer per month (a shared 100Mbps pipe, by 20 servers) or (b) an unlimited 10Mbps pipe?

Of course, (a) hands down!

Why?

A 10Mbps pipe can handle a MAXIMUM throughput of 3,240 Gigs of data transfer per month (30 days).

Since almost ALL traffic occurs on some sort of bell curve, your server will start to suffer LONG before it ever reaches that theoretical limit. Think gridlock, rush hour in downtown LA.

At 50% of your theoretical throughput limit, you would have already started suffering long delays/lag time during your peak hours of operations and it is time to move to a bigger pipe.

A 10Mbps connection can handle websites of up to 1,600 Gigs of transfer a month.
A 100Mbps connection can handle websites of up to 16,000 Gigs of transfer a month.

Typical website bandwidth load per month?

99% of websites consume less then 10Gigs of data transfer a month.

As soon as your website exceeds 300Gigs of data transfer a month (or makes intensive use of CPU or diskspace) then it will be time to place it on its own server.

Once you exceed 1,500 Gigs of data transfer a month time to start thinking about a load balancer, or a web farm.

Once you are at that point it is a question of what parts of the system do you want to farm out. A common solution is creating an image server web rack. In that case you can skip the load balancer and go with a round robin DNS solution. A domain name would have multiple IP addresses associated to it, each request would go out to each domain in a round robin sequence)

If its a forum that is causing the load then making a db only server could be the way to go. It would then be easier to cluster that server as the load increases.

Hope that helps would be web masters to plan out how to grow their web sites, and as a final note, get a hosting provider that can provide real phone support when you need it

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