Bandwidth

What is bandwidth?

Refers to a physical 'transfer limit' and its purpose is to restrict the total amount of data that can be transferred into or out of a virtual host in the period of a month.

This is a kind of "web currency" in which web hosting costs are driven higher for all parties involved in this service. Bandwidth is comparable to "toll roads".


How is bandwidth calculated?

We calculate this by periodically sampling the byte counts on the network interfaces on the system that are connected to each virtual system, and recording the change. Typically, this sampling is done every 5 minutes. Each hosting package (or virtual system) has its own bandwidth limit.

To calculate bandwidth:


(Average Page Size * Visitors * Page Views) + 
(FTP Usage) + 
(Downloads * File Size) * 
(Days in a Month) *
(Buffer)


What happens when your bandwidth has been exhausted?

If your virtual server exceeds its limit, a notification will be sent and your server can be temporally suspended. Usage is reset at the end of each accounting period and at this point, automatically, your virtual server will be started again. To manually overwrite this change please contact FullSail Systems.


How to use the bandwidth estimator?

We have created the “Bandwidth Estimator” to help you estimate your potential bandwidth usage. If you do not have all of the specific information required to completed this form we have given some default ranges that can be used. If using these default ranges we would recommend selecting the bandwidth estimate from the “Large Buffer”.

Field Unit Instruction Default
Visitors Daily Average Your web applications average daily visitors over the past 3 months (or) your expected average daily visitors. 50-200
Page Views Daily Average Your web applications average number of page visits per visitor per day (or) for new web application please select within the default range. 3-10
Page Size Kilobytes (kB) The average size of web application most popular page (or) new pages can use the index or default range. 450-4048
FTP Usage Daily Average in Kilobytes (kB) The average amount of data transferred to and from the server daily (or) your expected average daily usage. 512-3072
File Downloads Daily Average Average daily files downloaded from your web applications independent of your content (or) for new web application please select within the default range. 0-20
File Size Kilobytes (kB) Average file size hosted (or) for new web application please select within the default range. 950-1229
Estimator

  BANDWIDTH CALCULATOR

Average Daily Visitors

Average Daily Page Views

Average Page Size

Average FTP Usage Per Daily

Daily File Downloads

Avergae File Size

  BANDWIDTH ESTIMATES

  KB MB GB
Small Buffer      
Moderate Buffer      
Large Buffer      

  Visitors FTP Usage (MB)
Total per Month    

Which Buffer Level Should I Choose?

It is never a good idea to scale your virtual server on exact projection numbers. We should always use a buffer to account for growth. To select the correct buffer we typically suggest using your confidence level in your projections and growth/traffic projections.

  • Very Accurate / Consistent Traffic = Small Buffer
  • Accurate / Steady Growth = Moderate Buffer
  • Inaccurate / Large Gains = Large Buffer

*** If you find that you are between buffers it is suggested to use the larger value to avoid any service interruptions.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: This tool only offers an estimate of usage. For actual bandwidth data please check with your hosting provider. If FullSail System is your host provider please contact support for detailed information about your bandwidth usage.