At the time of selecting the service hosting or web hosting , we have a lot of parameters to consider, some clear and others where you have to have some knowledge. One of the most important parameters used to measure the benefits of a web hosting service, is the transfer rate.
Defining transfer rate
The transfer rate is the totality of data transferred to and from the server that hosts a web page. This amount of information is measured in Kb (kilobytes), MB (megabytes) or GB (gigabytes) in a given time period. The offer of web hosting services , usually the transfer rate ismonthly , so that the figure referred to is the number of bytes per month that can enter or leave the server.
The transfer fee includes data for all concepts (this is very important), so you must include the amount of information to be transferred from the server to users by the concept of site visits , the ups and downloads files by FTP , the file downloads and uploads from visitors, the use of email accounts hosted on the server, and in short, all kinds of movements, both visitors and keeping themselves of the page it is hosted.
What transfer rate do I need?
When selecting a web hosting service , we should ask ourselves this question. Generally, this is something that those who have experience and know how to handle dominate, but for those who are new to creating web pages may appear as something dark and difficult. In fact, we must bear in mind that when a site is new, the transfer rate required is very low. At first, the number of visitors to the site will be low, the amount of information in the site will not be very important, and therefore the percentage of the maximum transfer rate is irrelevant even when a service has modest benefits.
However, it should be noted that the site will gradually gaining many visitors , adding that he will go much information (which is not always possible to occupy a few bytes, especially when it comes to pictures or videos ), all of which comprise an increased rate of transfer site.
Anyway, usually hosting services offer several hosting plans , which have differences in their performance, so if you need better performance from the server, there is always the possibility of changing a figure higher paying plan.
How is the transfer rate required?
While it can be really difficult to know for sure what is the transfer rate required for a website, you can make some estimates which may be useful as a reference . We must take into account when making these calculations, we should do so optimistic as to calculate a lower transfer rate than necessary, can have unpleasant consequences.
To make our own calculations, we must consider the following figures:
- The “weight” total of files that make up the site . This is very easy to do, because you can just put all the files in a folder on your own computer, click the right mouse button and view the properties, which is clearly the number of bytes it contains.
- The maximum number of monthly visits to the site will receive . While this is difficult to predict, one possibility is to analyze the number of visitors who have similar sites to which you are about to create. The number of visits to a site can be (with some margin of error) on sites like Alexa , where by just typing the site name will appear a number of interesting statistics.
- The amount of data that need to be transferred to the FTP server concept , but this is a figure that will be negligible compared to the transfer rate for other items.
- The amount of information that users will download site , where visitors have the ability to download files. This calculation is much more difficult to estimate, so that the error margin is much larger. However, unless you’re thinking of a place intended primarily for downloads, the total transfer rate of this concept has a higher rate, but should take into account any data for no surprises.
- The amount of emails to be sent through the site . This, like the number of bytes of FTP transfer is a minor detail, since they usually have little impact on the overall transfer rate.
To calculate the transfer rate caused by page views, the following formula applies:
monthly visits x x pages per volume per page x 1.25
Imagine you have a website where there are about 30,000 monthly visits (1,000 visits a day), with pages that have an average size of 100 Kb (the maximum recommended) and visitors make a trip average of four pages per visit. This throws us the following information:
30,000 visitors x 4 pages x 100 Kb per page x 1.25 = 15,000,000 Kb
Given that each 1,024 Mb and Kb each 1,024 Gb Mb, we have:
15,000,000 Kb / 1,024 / 1,024 = 10.73 Gb
If desired, to convert units of information, online calculators can be used as Computer Units Conversion Site or Wilkinsonpc .
Now calculate the transfer for other reasons:
1000 downloads 1Mb x = 0.98 Gb = 1.000Mb
emails x 5,000 = 0.1MB = 0.49 Gb 500Mb
Using FTP, though exaggerated would not exceed twice the total weight of the component files of the site, so that, compared with other figures is negligible.
Summing all the Gb, Gb gives necessary transfer 12.2 (being always very optimistic). It should be noted that a calculation somewhat exaggerated, has meant that even if you visited the site more than we originally anticipated, will not overcome the stop server transfer .
What happens if I exceed the rate cap transfer my server?
Normally there are two measures that the web hosting provider companies take in these cases. In some, usually in case of free servers or economic options , once you reach the top of the monthly transfer rate page is no longer accessible, ie no longer seen, until the period of one month and ends begin to compute the new monthly transfer rate. In case of payment services, usually hosting company providing extra checks in excess transfers. In the latter case, the cost of the transfer rate is much higher than that calculated within the plan, so it is advisable to hire a top plan before this happens.
If interested, you can read the article on the databases necessary in a web host, within this samehosting manual .