Posted: 7/15/2005 1:24:00 PM EDT
|
I am a complete noob regarding the mechanics, $$$, maintence of hosting of websites, traffic, bandwidth usage, etc. etc. It just always pops up when I type "a r 1 5 . c o m " in the browser.  Anyone care to share? |
|
Up to 50GB, $7.95/mo www.ihost.biz/ That's for total data transferred. Some places charge X amount for a maximum sustained bandwidth. For example, you can transfer 256kb/sec, 24hrs a day, 7-days a week. |
|
The bandwidth costs for this site (and they've been heavily negotiated to get them this low) is likely around $3,000 per month. Then there are fees for the server farm that runs the site, which are managed by the hosting company. You're looking at around $5,000-$6,000 per month for total infrastructure. Then, there's the software itself, which was custom-written (and re-written, and re-written) by Goatboy, who has dedicated THOUSANDS of otherwise billable web development hours over the last 8 years to get the site to its current state. None of which was paid time, and were very much at the expense of his family. No big deal, right? -Troy |
|
I manage a WAN....I am paying anywhere from $800 - $1400 a month for T1 access to the Internet, depending on the location, and how far they are from the nearest POP. Big pipes cost a lot more.....I got a quote from one carrier just this week for a T3.....$4000 a month. |
Not that I don't apprecate this site but you are way off. Text is cheap, images take up more bandwidth and the figures your quoting are really out there. |
In before the math geeks start trying to figure out how much money this site is making. 
|
|
a place like godaddy.com will get you 2 terabytes (2000 gigs, 2,000,000 megs) of bandwidth a month for $35. Things like dedicated servers can run a bit more. For the most part, bandwidth is dirtcheap. ETA: this topic youre viewing right now, as of my post is approx 60k. if my math is right, approx 32 million could look at this topic before monthly bandwidth is exceeded. |
Text is RELATIVELY cheap, yes, but this site also hosts a TON of pics (remember: members get pic hosting as part of the Gold & Platinum accounts), email (with attachments), chat, and many other features. And the site has to support THOUSANDS of users simultaneously. I know a little bit about what's going on here. -Troy |
you pay for reliability |
Check out just ONE big picture thread, like a military photos thread or BOTD thread. Consider a couple hundred images, with a couple hundred K per image, viewed a couple thousand times. Then realize how often that happens. To be honest, while I'm still a bit skeptical on the bandwidth costs, I can see how they would use a FUCKLOAD of bandwidth because of the image hosting they provide. |
Hope I didn't open a can of worms...not my intention. For me, some computer stuff is second nature and some is Greek. I have never really understood the nuts and bolts of the hosting and maintaining a site, not to mention the expenses. Just trying to learn a bit. |
Depends how custom you want it. For just a basic "at home" hosting plan its pretty cheap and pretty simple. Your account is on a server shared with others, your given the login to your account and you go from there. If your lucky enough to have Cpanel (And most do) you have a nice simple GUI to work in. If it comes with Fantastico its even easier as all your packages are literally point and click to install. You pay a flat fee (plus bandwidth overages) and thats that. You sold space on the server, then bandwidth. As an example, you might get 1 gig of space and 25 gigs worth of bandwidth for 10 bucks a month (All arbitrary numbers pulled out of my ass). The more you want the more you pay. You can have larger storage / bandwidth but it costs more. You can have more options in your account (unlimited emails, subdomains etc) but it costs more. You can go Big Daddy style and have your whole entire personal server. Really just depends what you want to do. |
No problem with asking a question. We average one of these discussion every 3 months or so. Usually it someone bitching about having to pay for a Team Membership or the cost for advertising here though. |
Currently Online: There are 443 Team Members, 702 Members, and 2987 Guests 440 * $24= $10560 I think the bandwidth costs are covered. |
Since the price just rose to $24 recently it's going to be more like 443 * $20 = 8,860. According to my calculations, ARFCOM needs to get about 300 new members a month to support bandwidth costs this way. Advertisers absorb much of this cost as well, so it's apparent the Avila's are in this to provide the community with a great place to hang and enjoy themselves, not to make themselves rich. |
Links to the Archive Server so only Team Members can read... 
|
You gotta love the irony. 
|
|
Well, I pay $45 a month for cable modem access... I run a web server off of it, but don't use a lot of bandwidth. I heard if you use gigabytes upon gigabytes, the cable company might actually bitch at you... but I haven't heard it recently. Bandwidth can be measured in two ways: How quickly you can download files How much actual data you have sent and received. Most website hosts will charge you based on the latter. |
I believe latency is outside most ISP's control, as they dont have much say in the backhaul paths. Now a major telecomm company (Such as the one I work for) we can give you guarentees to your latency. But we have "Da Power" to re-route your connections across our network for best paths, and we control essentially the whole damned thing from point A to point B. Smaller ISP's I think just dont have that luxury. |
Hey now, the Avila's are getting rich off this. They are gaining all of us as friends, and that's priceless. right? 
|
|
Did you even read your link? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Select Economy Plan Just $34.95/mo 12 Months - Save 20% Just $27.96/mo Base Plan: 10GB disk space 500GB bandwidth Red Hat 9 Operating System FREE BONUS! $25 Google AdWords credit --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Step 2: Choose Bandwidth Add extra data transfer capability.* 500GB (included) 1000GB - Add $29.00 1500GB - Add $58.00 2000GB - Add $87.00 * Additional bandwidth fees are billed monthly and do not participate in 12 month discount. --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
Most of thos pics are hotlinked to someone elses servers. Its not from arfcom. This site is not hurting for cash. Think of all the free sites out there. |