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keyDet79 · 04-30-2004, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Phil21
In a word. NO.

No, no, no, no, no.

Too many people have this completely, totally, and uncomprehendable misunderstanding about the way this works. It leads to MANY people not knowing what they are "really getting", and being totally confused when hosting overages hit.

320GB is the approximate MATHEMATICAL MAXIMUM you can get per 1Mbit/sec for a 30 day calendar month. THEORETICAL!

This will only happen if you have absolutely 100% the EXACT same traffic ALL day long, for ALL month. This *never* happens. Never.

If you are doing standard web traffic, you have approximately 60% more traffic during the "peak times" then you do at your lowest traffic periods. If your peak is exactly 1Mbit/sec this means that during your slow times you are only pushing 400Kbit/sec. Uh oh. This added up and averaged over a month means you are now actually using only about 260-160GB/mo of that theoretical "max" you can get out of 1Mbit/sec. The number changes from site to site, your traffic may be less bursty than some others, etc. However, looking at 100Mbit of shared per-GB billed shared customers on our network, the global average over that for us is about 220GB billed per mbit used.

Now wait! Your hosting provider must be MAKING OUT!!! I mean shit, you are paying for "1mbit/sec" and only using it 30-40% of the time!! I want my money back! Sorry. Doesn't work this way. Hosting providers (and backbone carriers, and consumer ISP's, etc. etc.) pay for PEAK CAPACITY. Meaning, when you use that 1Mbit/sec during your peaks they HAVE to have the infrastructure to support it without it slowing down. This means that during off-peak times, they have gigabits of unused capacity that they need to keep around for the peak times. Add to that, room for unexpected traffic spikes (customer gets listed on the AOL frontpage, new york times, whatever) and your host has to keep even MORE free capacity to be able to cover those peak usage times without slowdown.

So in reality, if you are peaking at X Mbit/sec, your host is paying for it. The unused time doesn't matter to them. This is why, in almost all cases (if your host isn't an idiot) per-GB pricing is WAY more than per-Mbit if you applied the "320GB per mbit" math on it. Why? Because 320GB is NOT 1mbit! You could use 5mbit for 3 days and then stop for the rest of the month, and only be billed for 300GB. Your host is billed for that 5Mbit, and now your account is a huge loser. Per-GB billing is a RISK most hosts take on, and bank on mathematical averages to even out over time and volume.

I hope that all makes sense. Please, please do not pepetuate this "320GB equals 1mbit" myth any longer. By the math, it does. In the real world, there is not a single case it ever will*.

Thanks!

-Phil

(*) For sake of argument. We have ONE customer out of hundreds who REALLY DOES peg their capped connection 24/7. He comes damned close to 320GB per mbit, but he's also trying to stuff 3-4 times more traffic down the pipe than there is capacity during peak times, and performance SUCKS for his end-users.

Long story short, on an uncapped line or even a 5mbit capped line, 3mbit average equals 965 gigs per month and exactly 321.68 gigs per mbit. This thread will grow a 2nd page like this.