A subscriber of this blog SELaplana had a blog hosted by the local web host. At first, his blog was fine. But soon as the traffic of his blog increased, his blog started to experience downtimes because of the bandwidth limit set by the web host for his web hosting account.

One day, he moved his blog to a foreign web host that offered unlimited bandwidth. He thought that his blog would be fine, but actually it became worst. His blog experienced downtimes everday not because of bandwidth limit but because of something he couldn’t figure out.

He emailed the customer support and sought help. But the customer support of the foreign web host told him that his blog is consuming too much server’s resources. He was warned that his account will be suspended and his payment will be forfeited if the blog continues to perform that way because it’s a clear violation of the terms and condition of that web host.

Now, he’s wondering why is it that his blog is accused of consuming too much resources when in fact the web host offers unlimited bandwidth? Is it just a scam when they offer unlimited bandwidth to us?

What is bandwidth?

Some of you understand already what bandwidth is. But for the sake of those who don’t know… bandwidth is the amount of the data transferred FROM the server and TO the server. Or it is the amount of data downloaded from the server and the data uploaded into the server in a given period of time. We can compare it to the amount of water that passes through the pipe going into or from the water tank.

For example, you’ll visit the homepage of my blog, “Make Money Online by Blogging“. The size of it is 59KB according to the Google SERP. If in 1 month the homepage is downloaded for 60,000 times, then the total bandwidth consumed in 1 month is 3,540,000 KB or approximately 3.5GB.

The bandwidth can be computed by multiplying the size of the file by the number of times the file is downloaded.

Is there really unlimited bandwidth in web hosting products?

Actually, there is no such unlimited bandwidth especially in web hosting products. The use of the terms “unlimited bandwidth” is just for the marketing purpose only which means that the bandwidth of each of the accounts created will be unmetered. And you should not expect that you are allowed to consume bandwidth that is more than the maximum bandwidth of that server. To let you know, before you can consume half of the maximum bandwidth of that server, you’ll be kicked out of the server.

If your planning to get a webhosting account with unlimited bandwidth, you should check the terms and conditions first. Usually, if the bandwidth is unmetered, other features of that web hosting product have limitations. You are not also allowed to upload your personal photos and videos into the server because these things really eat up bandwidth.

Usually, webhosts that offer unlimited bandwidth set a limit of the server’s memory, ie. 250MB, and CPU resources, ie. 0.05, that your account can consume.

If your blog consumes too much memory and CPU resources (or exceeds the limit) which are usually referred to as “server’s resources”, the system automatically suspend your blog or make it inaccessible so that the server will not crash, and saving other blogs and websites hosted by that server from downtimes.

Now, if you couldn’t make your blog behave according to the terms and conditions of that web host, your account will be suspended and you’ll be advised to transfer to other webhost.

How can you enjoy the unlimited bandwidth feature of your web hosting account?

Just like what I already mentioned above, just make sure that your blog consumes the allowable amount of memory and CPU resources only.

But how?

1. Avoid using buggy plugins. Make sure that the plugins that you installed into your blog are working properly.
2. Install plugins properly. When installing plugins into your blog, follow carefully the instructions given by the writer of the plugin.
3. Install plugins that will minimize the consumption of server’s resources. If your blog is Wordpress driven, you have the option of using either of the two Wordpress plugins: (1) WP-Super-Cache Plugin; (2) DB Cache. Yuga has made the distinction between the two plugins. Read Yuga’s blogpost, “WP DB Cache vs WP Super Cache“.
4. Update Regularly. Soon as the new version of the Wordpress engine and its plugins are available, update them immediately.

More Reading

1. How to Transfer Your Blog to Another Server without Downtime?
2. What Webhost’s Server is Best For a Busy Blog?

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