Bandwidth Question (yes, another one!)

[swanameeks]

My husband is looking into beginning a website for our church but we are both completely ignorant to what is actually needed in terms of bandwidth. I don't really know what information I need to give in order for anyone to help but I'll at least tell what we want to do.

He is looking to have about five pages, 3 with text and maybe 1 or 2 graphics per page, 1 with pictures, and 1 with sermons (audio), which will be 30-45 mins long. We are a small church and are really just wanting a new way of keeping those members that are unable to attend church due to health reasons and other circumstances, abreast on what is going on and what they have missed.

I am pretty certain that there will be less than 500 visitors in a week much less a day, so I'm guessing we probably will get more than we'll ever use with web host packages that I have found online, but we would like to have at least a general idea of what to get. I know that I have more than likely not supplied enough or the wrong information but if anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it.


Thanks

 

[Gadget Man]

Hi, I have many clients on websites of between 2 and 10 pages. Most of them B&Bs, small businesses, spas etc. None of them go above 100 MB in a month. Obviously the pages are optimized for loading, i.e. the size of the pages and content is kept low even though there is lots of graphics and pics, downloadable maps etc. Most people visit one or two pages, which should be no more than 200KB. The audio will unfortunately push it out. For 45 mins audio, you're looking at around 64 MB at 24 kbps (very low quality but adequate). You should make it available through streaming. Your biggest concern on bandwidth is the audio. If you know how many times it is to be downloaded then you can estimate the bandwidth.

 

[davidpey]

Hi swanameeks

I've just sent you a PM.

 

[RSkeens]

Hi swanameeks,

It's very difficult to estimate what the usage would be, however most web hosts allow you to select their lowest package to start with and then you can upgrade from there as your needs increase.

Your audio file will be the deciding factor in your bandwidth requirements in your case - if many will be downloading the file your bandwidth requirements will be high (nothing excessive though).

Let me know if you need any help and good luck!

 

[andres101]

also have a look at hosting internationally. local hosting is expensive! of the top of my head, host4africa will host internationally while charging in Rands.

PM me if you need help with the setup/registration.

 

[SilverNodashi]

Hi swanameeks.

Every website will use different amounts bandwidth on different times. This all depends on the type & amounts of content you have, especially when it comes to graphics (images / photos / icons / backgrounds), flash (often used for nice menu effects / moving content), audio (videos / songs / etc). Obviously the more content you have, the more bandwidth will be used. But, if the content is more static (change less often), it gets cached by upstream ISP's proxy servers, which reduces your bandwidth usages.

Local hosting (meaning servers located in South Africa) are more expensive (both on space, and bandwidth), than servers hosted in America / Europe. The speed difference (about 300ms slower) is often so little that you won't even notice the website is hosted overseas. For the same price as 500MB bandwidth per month in South Africa, you could easily get 5GB or even unlimited bandwidth from overseas.

Many companies have servers overseas, so you can still deal with someone in South Africa, and pay in South African Rands.