What should I be looking at from a provider to cover this sort of bandwidth? Is a dedicated server required? Or would a regular shared plan suffice? Of course I can browse the different plans offered by various hosts, but from experience the GB bandwidth they offer is mainly for show and doesn't reflect what they will actually allow after you've paid for the thing. At the same time, I want to know what would be reasonable, to avoid being oversold some über plan way beyond needs.
There are number of hosting providers offering unlimited bandwidth with shared hosting plans but I'd suggest you to ignore such overselling giants and consider a reseller or vps hosting plan.
There are a couple things to think about. Bandwidth is one, the other is usage. If your site has high processor usage, then an oversold shared host would not work, since they basically only want static sites, that way they can cram more onto a server. 150gb of bandwidth is not that much, and if you find a decent shared host, you should be able to get by without issues.
By usage do you mean things like hits, visits and page views? Visits are around 600,000 and hits approx 30 million in a busy month. Would that rate as high usage in relation to 150GB?
150gigs/month == 5 gigs/day... it is near to nothing... e.g. 000webhost offers 100 gigs for free byethost even 200 gigs
For this amount of bandwith its best to go for a dedicated server coz only that is actually capable of that amount of bandwith. There are some cheap providers of dedicated servers too. Contact me if you need help with that Edit i thouht it was 1500 gb bandwith for 150 gb bandwith any shared host will be ok.. i use webhostingpad and i use about 200gb bandwith widout any problem Regards
you can find a lot of webhost who offer unlimited bandwidth or 2000GB per 3.95$, dont trust in any, try to find good prices but not "SUPER CHEAP HOSTS"
Page views and hits go hand in hand with processor usage. If you have a mysql intensive script, it adds load to the server every time a page is requested. What type of site do you run? Does it require mysql?
No, its a very simple website--just html pages with text and images. I have to quickly move away from my current host who is pillaging my credit card with $50, $75 deductions every couple of days. Each charge coming in the wake of a suspension notice. Apparently the dedicated server plan I upgraded to a few months ago is no longer sufficient :S . . . despite the fact that the stats say I've only used 1% of my bandwidth allocation and that my traffic this month is half of it was earlier in the year (a normal summertime dip for my website).
Something sounds amiss then. Have you checked your account to ensure that is has not been comprised, and perhaps someone has uploaded a script that is putting your account over the limits? You state that you are on a dedicated server plan as well, is this true, or are you still on shared hosting?
I was on a shared hosting plan up until April, then switched to a dedicated server at my host's insistence. So now it is on a dedicated server. I am wondering now if this was really necessary in the first place, or if it was simply part of the company's aggressive sales strategy.' The fact that they suspended my account this month (now on the dedicated server) insisting I upgrade to a better (and much more expensive!) dedicated server plan is very suspect. Actually when I disputed the bandwidth, they fumbled around a bit. First they told me it was an error with the server switch, then they changed their minds and said I would need to pay for the extra (invisible to me!) bandwidth because it was the result of a Ddos attack. I have yet to see any evidence of this though beyond a pile of invoices.
If you are on a dedicated server, your host has no reason to suspend your account for over usage, unless you have very low allotted bandwidth to your server to start with, however, most dedicated servers have at least 1000gb of transfer. Can you post the specs for your server? Its a good idea to ask for information from your host, hopefully they can prove that you are going over your allotted specs.
You don't need a dedicated server, just use Byethost: 200 Gigs free, you can also use HostGator or WebhostingPad (check my sig).