Every time someone views a web page all of the data (html code, text, graphics, etc.) within the page must be transferred from the web server, onto the visitor's computer, via the Internet where it is displayed by a web browser. As a result, the amount of data transfer (or bandwidth) a website uses is related to the number of visitors to a website, multiplied by the size of the web pages. Graphics and other multimedia files account for the vast majority of data transfer used. Flash files are often very large, along with audio and video files. Live broadcast feeds can also be bandwidth hogs. A three minute MP3 file equals approximately 3 megabytes per listener! Bandwidth and data transfer to a large degree are synonymous. There are three major factors to take into account:
1. The amount of traffic
2. The size of a site
3. The types of files served
How is transfer measured?
Formula: page size x page views X 30 days = Monthly Bandwidth Transfer
Page size: 10 kilobytes (KB) of text and 60 KB of .gifs would equal a per page size of 70 KB.
Page views: 60 vistors that look at 4 pages per day equals 240 views a day. 70 x 240 x 30 (days) = 504,000 KB or approximately 504 megabytes (MB).
-One kilobyte (KB) is equal to 1,024 bytes
-One megabyte (MB) is equal to 1,024 kilobytes
-One gigabyte (GB) is equal to 1,024 megabytes
-One terabyte (TB) is equal to 1,024 gigabytes
So how much is one byte?
First lets look at a BIT. A bit is short for BInary digiT. It is the smallest unit of information on a computer. All digital data inside a computer is represented using a binary number system where each number and character is comprised of 1's and 0's.
Eight bits of information is one byte, which is short for binary term. A byte is the amount of memory space it takes for the computer to store one character, such as the letter "A." One MB is equal to 1,048,576 bytes!
Realistically, based on average Internet traffic, most visitors don't view every single page on a site. The average personal to professional level site transfers 100 - 1,500 MB per month.
Unlimited Bandwidth
Another important key factor to look out for is web hosting companies offering "unlimited bandwidth". At times, this statement may be far from what it states. In truth, no such package exists, always read the fine print!