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There is nothing called unlimited bandwidth.
If and when you run across a host claiming to offer Unlimited Bandwidth,
you will definitely want to find out what their meaning of unlimited really
is (or better yet, just turn and run). No host can really offer true unlimited
bandwidth. If you could get unlimited bandwidth for around $20.00 a month
or less, why isn't Yahoo or Microsoft hosted there?
You will find that there is no such thing as unlimited. Somewhere, you
should find a statement describing what is meant by the term. Usually
it will fall under one of three categories:
Your site must 'qualify' for unlimited bandwidth
A lot of hosts do this - if your site uses less than, say, 5 gigs per
month, it qualifies for unlimited bandwidth. As soon as your traffic goes
above that you no longer qualify for the unlimited bandwidth and are either
charged for the excess or forced to move your site. In other words, it's
unlimited as long as you stay within the limits.
Restricted bandwidth
This is where a host allows you all the bandwidth you want, providing
that you do not offer mp3, zip, tar, exe, and a number of other file types
that are usually larger than standard HTML and graphics. Or they may limit
the amount or size of files you can have on your web space. Or they may
limit the types of pages you can have, such as "no image galleries."
Further, they usually require that all files stored in your space be linked
only from your own pages. This means that you must use all of your files,
graphics, etc, only on your web site, and cannot allow other sites to
link to them (other than linking to your HTML).
Absolute lie
There are some hosts that simply advertise things that they cannot offer.
They say things like "We won't penalize you for your success,"
but once your site does become too popular, you find that your account
has been deactivated. A lot of these hosts will have stipulations buried
in their Terms of Service that don't relate to bandwidth, but that they
can easily snag anyone on. These are little backup plans they use as an
excuse to deactivate an account, usually without refund, for whatever
reason they want to. This way they are not known for kicking sites off
for bandwidth reasons, but rather for a TOS violation. But word does travel...
Luckily the hosts that fall under # 3 usually do not last unless they
change their policies before too many people become aware of their business
practices.
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Hosts use false advertising because other hosts do it. They figure that
the majority of consumers do not understand how little bandwidth they really
need, and will never know that it is not really unlimited. For the most
part it is true that most people do not understand bandwidth - they see
a limit at one host, and another host with no limit, and they figure better
safe than sorry... Unfortunately, there are those who do use it and learn
this lesson the hard way.
Statistically, most sites use less than 500 MB per month, which is 1/2
of one gig. Unless you are offering software or music or video downloads
or are just very popular, you shouldn't have to worry too much about bandwidth.
Just keep in mind that if a host falsely advertises unlimited bandwidth,
who knows what else they are lying about or what other tricks they might
pull? We recommend that if you see a host making this offer, you don't
even consider hosting with them. Don't support this dirty trick, and don't
risk your time and money on a host that obviously isn't trustworthy.
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There are a number of ways to save bandwidth. A general advice is to keep
all files on your web site as small as possible.
To reduce the size of your pages you have to remove unnecessary tags
from your code. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) programs like Dreamweaver
have a clean HTML function.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is also an effective way to save bandwidth.
It is designed to reduce HTML file size by attributing values for any
HTML element/command at the beginning of the document.
Once that is done you have to go to the next step, optimizing all graphics
and pictures. It is important to know that graphics (vectors) have to
be saved as .gif files and pictures as .jpeg files. If you don't own a
picture program like Fireworks or PhotoShop then you can optimize your
pictures for free at NetMechanic.com.
Your dial-up visitors will thank you for optimizing all your web pages.
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