What exactly does bandwidth mean when it comes to hosting? How to check how much bandwidth one is using?
6 min read
When deciding which web host to utilise, website owners and web developers give bandwidth a significant amount of weight as one of the most crucial considerations. This is due to the fact that bandwidth is what controls how quickly files on a website can be accessed by users within a given period of time. Therefore, let’s make an effort to provide a straightforward response to the question: what exactly is bandwidth when it comes to hosting? According to our understanding, bandwidth refers to the total amount of data that users of your website can receive within a predetermined amount of time. The majority of the time, it is measured in gigabytes (GB), and web developers and website owners choose which plan to buy based on how much traffic they need and how much bandwidth the band delivers. Typically, it is measured in GB. The capacity of a line to transport a specific volume of water is another analogy for bandwidth. It stands to reason that if the pipe is enlarged, it will be able to convey a greater volume of water.
In addition to the topics that we have already covered, bandwidth is an essential component of hosting due to the fact that it determines how a website will develop, how well it will run, and even how much it will cost in the future. Therefore, it is just as essential to maintain a close eye on the bandwidth as it is to select a web hosting plan that provides an adequate amount of bandwidth for your website. In the following section, we will concentrate on bandwidth and demonstrate how to determine how much of it you are now utilising. If you already have a website and want to know how to check your bandwidth use to make it perform better, then this post is for you. Alternatively, if you want to buy hosting from a firm, then this post is also for you.
1. Determine how much internet space / bandwidth you require before you start. Also verify how much you’re already using if at all
Everyone who has a website ought to comply with this regulation and examine how they are currently using it. You may evaluate the performance of your hosting provider for your website using this metric. Don’t stress if you don’t yet have a website of your own. This is an effective method for learning how to select a plan that will bring in the desired volume of traffic to your website. When calculating how much internet you require, there are three factors that are highly crucial to consider. One metric to consider is the monthly total of unique users who access the website. On average, a page on the website is seen two times before it is considered to be read. The width of the page on the website is three.
Please make use of Google Analytics to determine the number of visitors who visit your website as well as the number of pages they see while there. This will provide you with an estimate of the number of individuals who visit your website on a monthly basis as well as the total number of pages that they view. You should also examine the size of all of the pages on your website by using gtmetrix.
Now, the bandwidth of your website may be calculated by combining all of these data together: the monthly users, the average page views, and the average size of web pages.
The bandwidth that is included in your hosting package should make up a little bit more than half of this total estimate. In the event that you need to add more pages to the website, there should be some spare space available for you to use.
How to determine how much internet bandwidth you are now utilising
To determine the amount of data that your website is consuming, you will need to navigate to the Awstats section of your cPanel account. You will be able to view a list of the names and/or subdomains that are associated with your account in this section. You will be able to view both the HTTP and HTTPS versions of your website if an SSL certificate has been installed and configured for the set domains. This is significant because if you impose HTTPS links on your website, then that version of the website will consume up all of the bandwidth.
Even though the Awstats page has an outdated appearance, it will provide you with all of the data that you require regarding bandwidth. You can determine how far back you need to look at the data by looking at the information that is displayed at the very top of the page. You will need to turn on the update now button, as it is off by default. Only then will the statistics be updated. To accomplish this, use the cPanel File manager and then perform the steps listed below:
- Clicking on this icon will take you to the /home/username/tmp/awstats folder in your home directory. Right-click the.conf file to which you want to add the update button, and then choose “Edit.”
- Locate the line in the configuration file that says AllowToUpdateStatsFromBrowser=0 and replace the 0 with a 1.
- After making your changes, make sure to click “Save Changes” before clicking “Exit.”
If you re-enter the statistics for that site and then reload the page, the Update Now Button will show up next to the date that the statistics were last updated. You will have a lot more visibility into the ways in which your data is being put to use.
- Monthly, weekly or hourly details: This will provide you with a comprehensive picture of how much bandwidth is consumed in relation to these elements, as well as how your consumption was on a specific day and the reasons behind it. You can utilise these statistics to detect patterns of use and, if necessary, cut down on the size of your website page.
- Locales History: You may also discover which nation or location has the most users and which one consumes the most bandwidth by looking at the history of the locales. Once again, this can assist you in keeping track of the nation that is making the greatest use of your internet.
- Hosts: The top 25 hosts will provide you with specific information regarding the users whose IP addresses they have, as well as the number of hits and the amount of bandwidth that they have consumed.
You can also learn in great detail about all the beneficial and possibly harmful search engines and bots that explore your website, which includes information about robots and spiders. Because these figures aren’t displayed anywhere else in Awstats, you may look at them as a separate statistic to see how much of your website’s bandwidth is used for things that have nothing to do with actual people visiting your site.
You can do the same thing in awstats by looking at visits and how long they last. If you want to know how involved your visitors are, you can do the same thing in awstats by looking at how long they spend on your website. It will give you the number of users who left your website after reading it as well as the amount of time they spent doing so. For instance, if you initially verify that forty percent of visitors to a website leave within the first fifteen to thirty seconds of their visit, this shows you that perhaps the visitors weren’t all that interested in what was on the page to begin with. Or something else entirely, judging on the goals those websites were attempting to accomplish.
There are also other aspects to consider, such as the categories of files and downloads that consumed the most data, the times at which this occurred, the reasons behind it, etc. However, when it comes to checking the amount of data that is being consumed, they are typically not the most crucial thing to look at.
In conclusion
We believe that now that you understand what bandwidth is in hosting and how to check how it is being used, you will keep the points that were discussed above in mind when you buy shared hosting from a provider or even while you are maintaining the performance of your website in terms of bandwidth. We hope that this post has provided you with a clear concept of how to examine how your bandwidth is being utilised and what you can do next. If not, please let us know in the comments section below. If you have any further thoughts on this topic, please don’t hesitate to share them with us in the comments section down below. We will get back to you as soon as possible and add your questions to the list. Continue reading for the time being!
