Web Hosting FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Web Hosting

What do storage and data transfer limits mean to me?

Most web hosts claim to provide "unlimited" storage and data transfer, meaning you can upload as much content as you want, and take as much traffic (i.e. visitors interacting with your site) as you want. But, in fact, there are limitations. Most will limit you to the storage of files intended for your website (but not, for instance, backing up the files on your computer). Also, they will monitor your storage and traffic statistics to make sure you're not monopolizing their resources. Since most personal and small business websites are pretty small, there's not much danger in this. There's also not any real difference between "unlimited" storage and a 10 gigabyte storage limit. Next Advisor's site is about 25 megabytes, while a personal site may be closer to 7 megabytes or less, roughly the same size as a couple of MP3 files on your personal media player.

It is possible that a web host may penalize you for unusual traffic spikes, or excessive storage.

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