Bandwidth isn't the issue.
It's a hardware / network design issue.
I'm sure they know what they are doing by stepping back to gauge what the max # of simultaneous users they need to support is before spending the money and building the network only to find out they needed 10x the network.
Forums can be tricky because there is the DB element to them.
It's not as simple as getting a beefy box, connecting a gigabit link to it & you're off.
LARGE forums often run on multiple _well equiped_ DB backeneds with
as many load balanced client front ends you need to serve your load.... until you saturate your resources to your backend.
Err... to explain it easier:
X number of users requires Y number of front ends.
Y number of front ends requires Z number backends.
Holio is just trying to get the value of X before spending any serious money building a network.
A word to the wise tho Jim.... plan for at least 10x peak requirements with Howard. You never know when he's going to piss off half the world and have them land on the forums doorstep... wouldn't want to give them the satisfaction of thinking they brought the forum to it's virtual knees.
