Information Centre

There's all sorts of jargon associated with the world of web hosting, some of which can be confusing to the newcomer. Here's an explanation of two common terms - data storage and bandwidth.

Data storage 

Also commonly referred to as server space, web space or hard drive storage, data storage is the space your web site and associated files will require on a web host server hard drive.

Some companies offer hosting packages with as little as 25 megabytes; however, Domain Registration Services offers world-class web hosting plans providing far more generous data storage quotas at a very competitive price!

Bandwidth/Data transfer 

Also called web traffic or data transfer, bandwidth refers to the amount of electronic information sent over the network each month in response to visitor requests for pages from your web site. 

Bandwidth usage will vary depending on web page file size (including images) and the number of visitors to your site. 

For example, a 50-kilobyte home page that is viewed by 20,000 visitors each month could use up to as much as one gigabyte of data transfer per month (50,000 bytes x 20,000 hits = 1 billion bytes, or one gigabyte). 

Note: Even if 20,000 visitors request your home page, it doesn't necessarily mean that the server will need to retrieve it 20,000 times - browser and ISP caching helps reduce the number of times a server needs to fetch a page and therefore reduces bandwidth usage.

Average traffic sites with average disk space requirements will find our entry level web hosting package to have more than enough monthly data transfer allocation and we also offer plans with far more bandwidth quota for sites experiencing heavy traffic.

Domain Registration Services offers a web-based control panel so you can monitor the amount of disk space and bandwidth your site is using.