Normal Bandwidth Usage

I tried google but i wasn't sure what i should have been looking for so i decided to come to the place i knew could help.

I am using Streamline.net hosting (and i have read loads of forum topics of different sites about how cruddy they are but that was after i signed up for two years). And now i am trying to find a place which will be better. My problem is how much bandwidth does the average site use? My site will basically be using HTML (with a small amount of PHP) and there will not be many images. I found one place which gives 100MB of space and 1GB of bandwidth (which is also in my price range). Is 1GB a good amount for a site?

Also how much do your sites normally use (so that i could have a look and see what sort of stuff i can get away with depending on bandwidt size)

Thanks very much for any help!

100MB is plenty for a small site.....plenty, plenty.
1GB (per month I presume?) is also plenty.

I use Supanames.co.uk who are very good indeed (if you're in the UK)

Good Luck,
Duncan

The bandwidth you use depends completely upon how many people you get visiting your site per month. There's a table at Easily which guesses how much you'll need in one year depending on the number of visitors:

http://easily.co.uk/index.php3?exe=virtualhosting

You could also try asking your current host how much bandwidth you use in a month.

Yeah, if you have any traffic logs/summary reports available from your current host that would be a good predictor.

Be sure to leave a little upper end room though for growth and unexpected spurts. You never know when you'll end up getting a lot of seemingly unrelated hits due to causes beyond your control or expectation.

With PHP a lot of it isn't counted towards bandwidth. The PHP is on the server and is run on the server so the code isn't sent across the network/internet so it generates no traffic, except variables etc.

The only times I can see PHP counting towards bandwidth is.
1) Uploading it to the server, it's gota get there.
2) Resulting output, usualy HTML, IMAGE, JAVASCRIPT, CSS etc.
3) Re-Uploading it to the server after modifications. This is a reason why I use a local server. Save bandwidth, time, money, effort...easier.

With URL you are charged, in bandwidth, for each byte in your resulting code, HTML for example. I'm not sure how encrypting URL values works.

PHP Is PHun PHree and good for me.

Well currently my site isn't getting alot of hits as its not been given out too much and theres nothing on there. My main problem is they don't allow downloads on your sites so as its a software site which will have games, software that i have made i really need a place that will allow that stuff.

So maybe i'll find having my own server would be a good idea.

Also while on the subject, this may sound noobish - if i was running my own server what exactly would determine the bandwidth?

Running your own server is pretty difficult I believe; static IP's and all that malarky, not to mention security. It's not impossible and there are countless tutorials online for setting up, but the bottom line is that you need to know what you are doing.

The bandwidth will be determined by your ISP connection. For example I have a DSL 1024/256 connection. That means that whilst I can download at 1024, my upload is restricted to 256. As the server will be 'uploading' the pages to visitors, it is this (256) value which would determine my bandwidth.

PHP and Apache can run on a fairly low spec machine (compared with MS IIS/asp) so hardware should not be much of an issue unless you get 'loadsa' traffic!

I would recommend you upgrade your hosting to a package which allows .exe .mp3 .rar files etc to be stored. I'm in UK and use Supanames.co.uk; their middle range packages allow the hosting of such files and the rate is approx £50/annum. For the sake of £4/month, it is just not worth the hassle of setting up your own server IMO. If you really want to do it - for learnings sake - it may be a worthwhile exercise. I have never set up a server and cannot really show you the way....maybe somebody else could elaborate on the pros and cons!

Hope this helps,
Duncan

Just to add to what was posted above, the following site is definitely worth a read if you're planning on hosting your own web server:

http://www.dslwebserver.com/

Thanks for explaining that to me! I did have a server running at one point on my computer which was et up with mosts things but the problems were the static IP as you mentioned (although i could get round that) and the fact we dont leave our PC on (probably as it was a normal PC which the familly uses that would have come up as a problem at one point.) I will check out supanames now.

Thanks