Many of you have probably heard that the amount of bandwidth usage or data transfer allocated with a plan is an important aspect to consider, but what exactly is it?

The term bandwidth refers to how much data can be moved at one time from a web server out onto a network and across the Internet. You can think of bandwidth as the diameter of a water pipe. The bigger the diameter of the pipe, the more water you can move, even if the water is moving at the same speed.

Data transfer (AKA bandwidth usage) refers to how much data/information is sent to or received from your hosting account on the server over a specified period of time. In most cases data transfer is measured monthly. Looking back at the water pipe we used before, data transfer would be the measure of how much water has actually flowed through our pipe over a given period of time.

Every time someone views your image/photo it must be transferred from the web server, across the Internet, and onto the visitor's computer where it is viewed via a web browser. As a result, the amount of data transfer a hosting customer uses is directly related to the number of visitors to their site, multiplied by the size of their image/photos.

In these cases the image/photos account for the vast majority of data transfer used. This becomes apparent when you consider that the average html/text page consists of only of about 5 Kb of data, while images/photos can be as large as 50-200 Kb in size -- and many images are used and viewed by many people.

EXAMPLE: Your photo size is 50 KB in total. If someone accesses that photo through their browser then that photo totaling 50 KB will be downloaded from that users account onto the visitors PC so they can see the photo 

When that happens it consumes 50 KB of bandwidth. If that happens 1000 times in a month then 1000 x 50 KB or 50 MB of bandwidth per month will have been consumed. Now multiply this by the number of photos you have and how many people will view these photos. 

How do you know how many people will view these photos? You don't usually, unless you have been doing this a long time and have some history you can average. 

TIP: If your photo is 100 KB and it is viewed 1000 times a month then you will use 500 MB of bandwidth. This is why if you expect many people to view your photo (as in your "hot" ebay auction) it's important to keep your photo size as small as needed. You can reduce your bandwidth greatly by using smaller photo sizes. Our photo/image hosting accounts have a build-in tool to resize your photos and reduce your file size thereby reducing your bandwidth usage. Make sense?

SUMMARY: If you don't have a clue as to how much bandwidth you need, start with our BASIC plan and watch how your disk space and bandwidth is being used and if you are running out or not. Your bandwidth can vary month by month, after a few months you will have an average and a much better understanding of what you need.

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