When Size Does Matter: KB, MB, GB, TB... Help!
Written By: Debbie Gillespie
Do the various terms hosting providers use confuse you?
You are not alone!
Many people find themselves confused and frustrated when trying to figure out what a host is actually offering them and whether or not they really need it. If HostA is offering 1,000 MB of bandwidth, HostB is offering 1 GB of bandwidth, and you are wondering which host is offering you more bandwidth, then this article is for you.
First let's look at the facts.
- 8 bits are equal to 1 byte.
- 1,024 bytes are equal to 1 kilobyte (KB).
- 1,024 kilobytes (KB) are equal to 1 megabyte (MB or Meg)
- 1,024 megabytes are equal to 1 gigabyte (GB or Gig)
- 1,024 gigabytes are equal to 1 terabyte. (TB)
(We do not need to go higher than this, as it is not likely any host will offer you a terabyte of space or bandwidth)
NOTE: Depending on who is doing the math: many people will replace the 1,024 nuMBers with an even 1,000. You will need to ask your host how they calculate it
You may have seen these equations elsewhere but still not be sure what it really means. How many pages will fit into a byte? A single character usually utilizes the entire storage space of a byte. No web pages will fit into this amount of space. Luckily hosts offer quite a bit more space then this. The average web page on HostHelp utilizes around 10 kilobytes (10KB) of space, some less, some a little more. This means that we could fit about 100 of the HostHelp pages into a single megabyte of space. If you were to purchase 20 megabytes of space from a host then you could fit the equivalent of two thousand HostHelp pages into your web site!
"So if that many pages will fit into 20 megabytes of space, why do so many people and hosts make it sound like I need more space?" Many sites do not need more then 10 or 20 megabytes of space. A web site like HostHelp certainly does not need that much space at all, yet some web sites will require more and here is why.
If you carefully look at the HostHelp web pages you will notice that we only use two graphic images on this entire site. The rest is text only (this is great for our visitors, since the pages will load more quickly and the content can be viewed without distractions). When you view other web sites, you are sure to notice, many of them use more graphics and have other dynamic content on their sites.
The average graphic utilizes between 5KB and 20KB of space alone. If a web site has many different graphics then it will need more space. You may have also noticed web sites that contain message forums. These forums generate web pages much faster and obviously require more space. Another reason you may need more web space is if you are offering software or other various products for your visitors to download. You would need to store these products within your web space and again, these items utilize more space.
Figuring out how much web space you need, for an existing web site, is easy. You can simply check the space you are currently using and then evaluate how much you think the site will grow from there. If you have not begun building your web site yet, and do not have much experience in the area, it may be more difficult to decide how much space you will need. In this case, it is recommended that you start with around 10 to 30 megabytes of web space. This should give you more then enough room to begin developing your web site without costing you much at all.
If your web site does in fact run out of space then you should be able to easily purchase more space from your current host. This is why it is important, when searching for a host, to make sure you find one that makes it easy to upgrade and does not charge extra fees for doing so, outside of the cost of the upgraded package of course.
What about Bandwidth?
HostHelp will more then likely have many articles that concentrate on the issues of bandwidth. This seems to be the 'hot topic' when it comes to hosting. For the sake of this article, we will only go into the fundamentals of bandwidth usage.
Bandwidth is the amount of data that is transferred through the high-speed lines your host is connected to. When you load a HostHelp web page (noting the average HostHelp page is 10KB) you are downloading 10KB of data. How this adds up is the same as we noted above when discussing web space. A 10KB web page can be loaded 102 times before utilizing a single megabyte of bandwidth.
Note: Each file within a page is calculated also. So if you were to have a 10KB web page that consisted of three images (10KB each), then every time the page was visited, 40KB of bandwidth would be used; ten kilobytes for the page and 30 kilobytes for the images.
If designed correctly, a web site can be very successful and receive many visitors, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and still utilize very little bandwidth. The page you are reading now could be downloaded and viewed by two million ninety-seven thousand one hundred and fifty-two visitors before utilizing 2 gigabytes of bandwidth! Some hosts try to say that other hosts will not allow you to be successful if they limit your bandwidth. This is obviously not true. Your success is dependant on how you develop, promote, care for, and remain dedicated to the task at hand. If you care about the success of your web site, then you will care enough to educate yourself about what it is your web site needs. This includes finding a host that will provide those needs efficiently and honestly. The hosts that are currently promising you unlimited bandwidth are either not being honest with you, have many hidden restrictions they are hoping you will not notice, or simply are not educated themselves and are possibly risking their entire business on the hope that their clients will not utilize an enormous amount of bandwidth.
With Bandwidth, it is equally simple to guesstimate how much you will need if you have an existing web site, by checking your current usage and evaluating it from there. For a first timer this is more difficult. Starting out with 2 gigabytes of bandwidth is usually more then enough to allow room to develop and grow. This is also included, at no extra charge, with the majority of packages most hosts offer. If the host is not offering a minimum of 2 gigabytes of bandwidth, you may want to shop around a bit more.
Again, you will want to assure the host you choose leaves room for growth in case your site does end up requiring more bandwidth. Additionally, just as with space, if a site contains an enormous amount of images, message forums, or other various products for download this could cause your bandwidth needs to be higher.
The Host I use, or am considering using offers unlimited (or limited) hits, transfers, or pages views. Is this same as bandwidth?
When a host claims to offer a certain amount of hits, transfers, or page views, again they are showing a lack of education with their business or they are assuming you yourself are not educated enough to know what bandwidth is. A hit means someone has downloaded a file from your web site. A page view means someone has visited your web page, and a transfer is the same as a hit.
The host is in fact referring to bandwidth when they make this offer. The flaw in this offer is that there is no way for the host to know what size each of your files will be. Therefore, there is no way for them to predict how many hits, transfers, or page views they will be able to offer you. It is recommended that you either avoid a host making these claims or question the host to confirm exactly how they calculate a hit, transfer, or page view in terms of bandwidth.
Any web site that utilizes more then 50~ gigabytes of bandwidth per month should be on what is called a dedicated server. Dedicated servers are servers that host only your site and do not share the resources with other sites. These are more expensive then community hosting but if you care about your site's success, and you are utilizing more then 50~ gigabytes of bandwidth, then dedicated is the way to go.
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