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What is the normal ratio of space:bandwidth for free hosts?

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BlackStorm

New Member
Hello,
What is the normal/average ratio of space:bandwidth that free hosts offer?
I offer 20mb space with 300mb bandwidth currently, it was 25mb space but just got a cPanel server and it worked out better to offer 20mb space.
Im offering this on ensim server and cPanel server.
Just want to get some input to know if you think this is ok, i think its fair but opinions of others would be useful,
Thanks,
John
 
I doubt it, for only 20MB that's over 1GB bandwidth...
I think it's more like 10MB space:100MB bandwidth :classic2: meaning that a 50MB space provider would probably be called upon for 500MB or more of bandwidth.
 
Yeah notnamed, I think 1:50 is far too much,
Dont think I have ever seen a host offering that but Im sure there are a few out there.
Havent really looked at other free hosts to see what they are offering, just tried to work it out and thought if i offer 20:300 that should be ok for most sites anyway.
Do you think Im offering enough?
John
 
I just had a quick look at some of the hosts out there, and the bandwidth figures vary hugely.

0catch.com - 100Mb space and 600Mb bandwith with 1Mb file size limit
Fortune City - 25Mb and 3Gb
FreeServers - 12Mb and 0.5Gb with 256Kb max file size
Netfirms - 25Mb and 1Gb
Spaceports - 20Mb (can be upgraded for free) with 1Gb (5Gb if using paid ad removal)
Tripod - 20Mb and 1Gb


If you're wondering, I picked those by first checking hosts that had been in business a while, included ads and who actually stated the bandwidth in an easy to find place (many bury that info).

I don't know about the other hosts, but Spaceports has been losing money for several years now, and are subsidised by their parent company (who offer paid hosting).

I suspect many of the others also depend on the paid hosting options, considering the low rates paid for banner ads these days.

If you do decide to raise your bandwidth, I would suggest that you add a file size limit if you don't already have one.

Those with sites that mostly consist of HTML pages can get by on very little bandwidth.

For example, I have a help site that gets something like 11,000 unique visitors/70,000 page views a month and use maybe 600Mb of bandwidth. If I didn't have WS_FTP LE available as a download, I'd use even less.

From your point of view, allowing users more space is more cost effective, as bandwidth is a constant drain on funds, whereas hard drive space is only paid for once (per account).

If you raise your bandwidth level too high, you're going to get a higher percentage of abusers I'm afraid. If you're just starting out, you might want to limit the number of new users by keeping your specs low, until you have a clearer idea of whether the service will be able to pay for itself.

You can always offer additional free features to members who have followed the rules for a certain length of time.
 
Thats great advice wysardry :)
Im sure that will help me a lot with the site.
Thank you for taking some of your free time to help out, I really appreciate it,
John
 
I think 300MB of transfer isn't enough.

Many providers provide around 1-3GB of transfer for 20-30GB of webspace.

People may not have the chance to expand the site a little bit before moving on to a paid host.

Although it should be more than enough for a personal website with little images, it may not be enough for those who makes little proggys like me, if you allow them. It's about content, really.

It doesn't really depend on a ratio. 50MB of space paired with 1-3GB of transfer is reasonable. Not everyone will make full use of the 50MB. Maybe you should go by a system where when someone wants more transfer and he is reaching the threshold, you raise the transfer a little, and if he wants more, perhaps cut his amount of disk space.
 
My bandwidth and space may be average but i offer ensim and cPanel control panels ;)
I just wanted to make sure 300mb would be enough, I want to keep it limited anyway, dont want to fill up a server like most free hosts and the users end up with very bad speeds.
My speeds are sure to be better than any other free host, feel free to test if you want :)
Thanks for all the info,
John
 
Say trenz...smoking is unhealthy.
Many providers provide around 1-3GB of transfer for 20-30GB of webspace.
Click to expand...
Not free ones, which is what this thread and forum are about...

And the only time a personal page, or even a semi-popular download page needed more than 500MB bandwidth was when they got a link on Slashdot, CNN and Memepool simultaneously. And actually got clicked on.
Static HTML doesn't take up that much bandwidth :confused2
 
BlackStorm: I didn't mean to imply that your service was average, just that any host making decisions based on what the average host does would make them average too.

You've already shown that you're striving to create an above average service for your users by asking your original question.

And yes, I agree, offering too much is often worse than offering too little, especially when just starting out.

It doesn't matter how much bandwidth or space a host provides, there will always be users who expect more (and for free). There's no point in running at a loss to cater for such (ab)users, and it seems you appreciate that.

I'll certainly consider your service, once I have some content to go with a couple of domains I haven't done anything with yet.
 
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