Understanding the Concept of Unlimited Bandwidth

To maintain existence, a website requires two basic things. Firstly disk space which is required to host various files of the website whereas second is called bandwidth which is needed to enable outside traffic to view and access the files placed on the website. An adequate amount of bandwidth is required to handle the increasing amount of traffic website is experiencing, whilst dictating that too much bandwidth is something being paid for nothing. You may have heard of almost every next webhosting package offering unlimited bandwidth but what it means in the true sense is known to only a few.

The concept

The name itself signifies that unlimited bandwidth refers to such a webhosting plan that does not cut off access for users to visit the website beyond a certain amount of traffic. Where fixed bandwidth is chosen, the services stop for the remaining month when the allocated amount of bandwidth has been used. On the contrary, that having unlimited bandwidth will keep running and be available to use. To be very precise, unlimited bandwidth in a physical sense is totally impossible.

The Decision

The unlimited bandwidth accounts have varying restrictions which differs from host to host. You must be well aware of all terms and conditions before going for an unlimited plan. This should be selected only if it meets all your needs.

Determining when to use unlimited bandwidth

If your website has gone viral over the internet, it makes sense to use unlimited plan. This however carries restrictions thereby its not regarded as the best choice for common use. If your website has content not forbidden by the terms of use section of the unlimited bandwidth plan, you can easily opt for this account. When your website aims for large amounts of traffic, bandwidth cap should be kept fixed. Use beyond the cap is chargeable.

Benefits

The main advantage is that by using unlimited plan, your services will not halt if you become viral in a very short period of time. It has been observed that social media interventions make websites go viral in a matter of few hours which requires bandwidth beyond what was initially achieved. One’s bills may easily rack up if web host charges more per gigabyte of transfer beyond the allocated ceiling. Web hosts keep the website down till payment is made by the owner which may cost the client in terms of lost business.

Drawbacks

The capacity of wires that are connected to the web hosting servers determines the physical limitations of bandwidth. The connections are likely to be overloaded if only a single website grabs the greater share of available bandwidth. Unlimited bandwidth is offered with a view in mind that mostly websites are not expected to reach the real peak.

Small rules are kept intact to handle overwhelming traffic with these so-called unlimited bandwidth plans. i.e. conditions are imposed like you are not allowed to stream video because of the significant amount of bandwidth it will be using.