If you have a website, one of the most important things you need to know about is bandwidth. Basically, bandwidth is the amount of data you can transfer at one time.

The less bandwidth you have, the longer your visitors will be forced to wait for your site to load no matter what type of connection they use. With more visitors, each visitor is going to have to wait his or her turn if you don't have enough bandwidth to accommodate everyone. When selecting a host plan you must first discern how much bandwidth you need.

Anyone claiming to provide unlimited bandwidth or monthly transfer is not being completely honest. Nobody can have unlimited bandwidth. Unlimited Bandwidth is a myth.

I've never seen any broadband company offering an internet connection as unlimited megabytes per second. So, how could a web hosting company, which normally doesn't even own its own access lines, claims to customers that it will give them unlimited bandwidth?

With high bandwidth site that have unlimited plans, most of the time they will be disconnected. When they are disconnected, no refunds are given. Typically, the web hosting company states that the website has violated the acceptable use policy or else their terms of service.

When researching what source you will use to serve your website always read the terms of service for any hidden policies. More information about the so-called Unlimited disclaimer can be found in the fine text.

When getting started, monitor your usage for the first three to four months to get a good estimation on how much time you would need from your web hosting service. These factors must be considered while estimating. How many users will access your web site? How many pages to be access? How big are the graphic and HTML files?

Large multimedia files, computer programs, and file downloads require more bandwidth. Flash web sites use tons of bandwidth. Virtual Reality and full length three dimensional presentations require the most bandwidth of all.

It's not precise, but it still will give you something to work with till your site's been online for some time and real traffic stats are generated. Do not go for the trap that the companies try to get you into with the unlimited bandwidth.