Good prices for Bandwidth - How much do you pay?

[gaydemon]

What would a good price be for bandwidth? (larger volumes)

For example:

10,000 GB / 30 Mbs for US$800
10,000 GB / 30 Mbs for US$1000

Whats a good price? Are there other variables to account for?

(1Mbps = 320 GB )

[HunkMoneyLuke]

depends on your server (hardware) and support requirements, but you can get a 25Mbps server for $399/mo from NationalNet, and that includes full 24/7 support, monitoring, etc on a nice bit of hardware.

I would have includes comparison pricing on an unmanaged from theplanet, but their site is timing out (never a good sign, is it!!!)

[gaydemon]

Ok, in my example this is the server type (dedicated):

2x Opteron 2350HE (Quad core), 16gb ram

So for that kind of server would this be a fair price:

35 Mbs for US$800-1000?


Or what would be a good price? Is that over priced? Its hard to compare on any hosting sites because they all have different packages, types of servers etc.




depends on your server (hardware) and support requirements, but you can get a 25Mbps server for $399/mo from NationalNet, and that includes full 24/7 support, monitoring, etc on a nice bit of hardware.

I would have includes comparison pricing on an unmanaged from theplanet, but their site is timing out (never a good sign, is it!!!)

[abostonboy]

30 Mbs at $800 is over priced imho.

Any hosting company that wants your business on a high bandwith plan will work with you on the setup of the box.

I mean you can get a 1gig line for $4k from here
http://www.choopa.com/unmetered_servers/
and that is cogent free bw. Now, one box can't possibly handle that so you would have to work something else out.

But, at $800 for a 30Mbs line, you would be paying about $25,000 if the rate didn't go down after 30Mbps.

[100boys]

Your figures are way too high Bjorn! I pay 6$/mbit and for large volumes you'll get it even cheaper (fully managed servers).

If you're looking for cheap tube hosting you can find deals for about 400$ for a 100mbit pipe and a quadcore server.

[abostonboy]

Who do you host with?

[100boys]

With my beloved yellow fibre :) They are not the cheapest but support is amazing!

The 400$ I was referring too is not an offer from yellow, just to not cause any confusion here ;)

[gaybucks_chip]

$8-10 per mbit is definitely in the ballpark. I was talking to Andy at CCBill who (at least as of a year ago) was reselling Level 3's CDN, and he was indicating that pricing in the $10/Mbit was definitely doable.

I've seen other carriers in the $6 to $8 range, but you really need to look at whose bandwidth they're getting and what capacity they're running at. A few ISPs are selling decent Tier 1 bandwidth cheap, but running at 90 or 95% capacity, which almost ensures you're going to have timeouts due to the spiky nature of web traffic.

And I've heard of a few others offer very low prices, but it's "blended" bandwidth (tier 1 + some mix of offbrand bandwidth). We used to use a provider for a couple of our less-important servers who bought spot-market bandwidth (the routing and upstreams were constantly changing). It was dirt cheap, but wasn't always the most reliable.

[gaydemon]

I see. So the way you qoute I would be paying $22 / mbit and your getting it for $6 / mbit?

And the service is good? Always up, fast and reliable?

By the way I've been qouted 10,000Gig for $800. Does the fact its in Gigabytes and not Mbit make any difference.

From what I understand its 320gig = 1 mbit.



Your figures are way too high Bjorn! I pay 6$/mbit and for large volumes you'll get it even cheaper (fully managed servers).

If you're looking for cheap tube hosting you can find deals for about 400$ for a 100mbit pipe and a quadcore server.

[MrMax]

Can someone tell me if I'm getting a good deal?

I pay $300/month for 25mbps.
Intel Core2Quad server with 4GB RAM, and 2 x 500gb Hard drives in raid 1 on a 3ware 9650se raid card.

[basschick]

the fact that it's per gig DOES make a difference. while a mbit is technically 320 gig, it's not quite like that. 320 mbsp is aore about how much you can push per minute, and i'd figure it's closer to 280 useable gig or a little less because you don't want to get that close to the peak amount of bandwidth you can push at any time.

btw, 9 cents a gig is pretty good if the host is good and the bandwidth isn't all cogent or something.


I see. So the way you qoute I would be paying $22 / mbit and your getting it for $6 / mbit?

And the service is good? Always up, fast and reliable?

By the way I've been qouted 10,000Gig for $800. Does the fact its in Gigabytes and not Mbit make any difference.

From what I understand its 320gig = 1 mbit.

[abostonboy]

Can someone tell me if I'm getting a good deal?

I pay $300/month for 25mbps.
Intel Core2Quad server with 4GB RAM, and 2 x 500gb Hard drives in raid 1 on a 3ware 9650se raid card.

You have a good deal.

[HunkMoneyLuke]

Can someone tell me if I'm getting a good deal? I pay $300/month for 25mbps.

its a good deal as long as you are happy with your host!


Ok, in my example this is the server type (dedicated):

2x Opteron 2350HE (Quad core), 16gb ram

So for that kind of server would this be a fair price:

35 Mbs for US$800-1000?


Or what would be a good price? Is that over priced? Its hard to compare on any hosting sites because they all have different packages, types of servers etc.

do you really need 2xquad core with 16GB RAM? thats huge overspec'd unless you are running a mega hard working site. You should be able to push 30-40Mbps on a single dual-core or quad-core processor box with 4GB RAM.

[gaybucks_chip]

10,000 gigs of transfer is very roughly similar to ~30Mbits BUT in addition to what Patti said, there are significant differences.

One of our servers has very, very spiky traffic. If we measured on 95th percentile with Mbit of pipe pricing, it would probably require 15 or 20Mbits... but the actual monthly transfer is only about 1500 gigs, which equates roughly to 10Mbits.

The main thing is, you have to keep an eye... if you're on Mbit billing and suddenly get mention on Digg or something and your traffic goes through the roof for any extended period, you'll blow your 95th percentile billing and end up with a huge overage bill. With per-gig pricing, you can use the full capacity of the pipe supplying your server and as long as your traffic goes back down, you probably won't go much into overage.

[basschick]

and if you're on a capped line, so you have a flat 30 Mbps per line, and you have a traffic spike, your surfers will get very slow pages and videos - sometimes pretty much unbearably slow.


10,000 gigs of transfer is very roughly similar to ~30Mbits BUT in addition to what Patti said, there are significant differences.

One of our servers has very, very spiky traffic. If we measured on 95th percentile with Mbit of pipe pricing, it would probably require 15 or 20Mbits... but the actual monthly transfer is only about 1500 gigs, which equates roughly to 10Mbits.

The main thing is, you have to keep an eye... if you're on Mbit billing and suddenly get mention on Digg or something and your traffic goes through the roof for any extended period, you'll blow your 95th percentile billing and end up with a huge overage bill. With per-gig pricing, you can use the full capacity of the pipe supplying your server and as long as your traffic goes back down, you probably won't go much into overage.

[100boys]

Can someone tell me if I'm getting a good deal?

I pay $300/month for 25mbps.
Intel Core2Quad server with 4GB RAM, and 2 x 500gb Hard drives in raid 1 on a 3ware 9650se raid card.

Yep that's really good if it's fully managed and your techs know what they're doing!


I see. So the way you qoute I would be paying $22 / mbit and your getting it for $6 / mbit?

And the service is good? Always up, fast and reliable?



Yes, service is top notch, couldn't be any better!



By the way I've been qouted 10,000Gig for $800. Does the fact its in Gigabytes and not Mbit make any difference.

From what I understand its 320gig = 1 mbit.

As others said it's a huge difference. Because of our traffic peaks and 95 percentile calculation for us the packages where calculation is done in GB is about 40-50% better value than being charged in mbit. If your traffic is very stable then it won't matter that much but I doubt that it is, so being billed in GB is much much better if you only pay slightly more!

I know some guys who only pay about 300-400$ for a quadcore server with a 100mbit pipe and they are quite satisfied. It's not all premium bw obviously and servers are unmanaged but if you plan running a tube which needs about 5gbps or more (which would be about 25 servers of that kind) then it might be worth to consider such an offer. Otherwise you have to be a marketing geniuous to make more from ads/memberships than you pay for hosting. On my current plan such a tube would cost me 38,500 $ in hosting per month and that tube still wouldn't be really huge.

[gaydemon]

See this is what I mean, its all very confusing. I did have a feeling it wasnt just as easy as converting 320gig = 1 mbit.

It doesnt help when I check out the different hosts and hardly any of them have prices for bandwidth on display.




10,000 gigs of transfer is very roughly similar to ~30Mbits BUT in addition to what Patti said, there are significant differences.

One of our servers has very, very spiky traffic. If we measured on 95th percentile with Mbit of pipe pricing, it would probably require 15 or 20Mbits... but the actual monthly transfer is only about 1500 gigs, which equates roughly to 10Mbits.

The main thing is, you have to keep an eye... if you're on Mbit billing and suddenly get mention on Digg or something and your traffic goes through the roof for any extended period, you'll blow your 95th percentile billing and end up with a huge overage bill. With per-gig pricing, you can use the full capacity of the pipe supplying your server and as long as your traffic goes back down, you probably won't go much into overage.

[gaydemon]

So its not really possible to compare Gig pricing with Mbit pricing really?

I guess only time will tell. :)



As others said it's a huge difference. Because of our traffic peaks and 95 percentile calculation for us the packages where calculation is done in GB is about 40-50% better value than being charged in mbit. If your traffic is very stable then it won't matter that much but I doubt that it is, so being billed in GB is much much better if you only pay slightly more!

[gaybucks_chip]

You can compare, but basically the difference is this... ISPs like Mbit pricing because that's how they have to pay for bandwidth. They have to buy enough excess pipe (if they're ethical) to cover any spikes that any of their customers have.

If a customer's site is suddenly all over the news, that site is going to max out whatever bandwidth it's allowed to take, which might be 10 times what they're paying for. The ISP is using the extra capacity it bought to cover your overage, and 95th percentile allows them to do so, for momentary spikes, without charging you extra; let's say 95% of the time you use 10 Mbits, but you get one mention on Digg and suddenly you're using 100 Mbits for a day. With 95th percentile, you still only pay for 10Mbits. (1 day out of 30 is less than 5%) BUT... if that spike goes on for more than a couple days, or you spike from 30Mbits to 5Mbits consistently, then you're going to get a bill for whatever that peak usage was... and unless you have bandwidth capping, or keep close track on usage, you have very little control.

As a result, while you can compare the two, per-gigabyte pricing is generally a bit higher than per Mbit pricing for an equivalent amount of traffic, because they are generally giving you the full bandwidth of the pipe. You could, for example, blow through 100Mbits for a week and a half straight, then have no traffic for the rest of the month, and still be using, in GB, a hell of a lot less than what you'd be paying for if you were buying 100Mbit service. The ISP has to be able to cover whatever bandwidth you use, whenever you use it, and that makes their capacity less predictable.

The real question is what do you pay for overage. If you're buying per Mbit at $8/Mbit and your overs are $10 or something, that isn't bad. Or if you're paying 5 cents/gig and 7 or 10 cents for overs, that isn't bad either. But most providers hose you on the overs; I've seen some that charge $10/Mbit and then $40 or $50 for overs, or 7 cents/gig and then 50 cents/gig for overs. They have to have some surcharge to encourage people to buy what they're likely to use, but hosing people at 5 times the pre-purchased rate is more about increasing profit than managing costs. Planet was famous for this.

One other thing: It's worthwhile to ask your ISP what their policy is on DOS attacks. If you suddenly get a DOS attack and the ISP has it's head up it's ass and can't address it quickly, you can burn through a ton of bandwidth and end up with a gigantic bill. Some ISPs will work with you in these cases, others won't. We left one ISP because they didn't even notify us that a DOS attack was going on until over a day into the attack, and made no attempt to do anything about it, even though we were willing to pay their techs to address the issue. Fortunately, most aren't that bad.

[gaydemon]

Thanks Chip,

I'm paying on a sliding scale by chunks of Gigabytes. The more I use the less I pay per Gig. I think it works out at 8 cents / gig.

And if go over 10,000 Gig they got to move my server over to a dedicated Gigabit link.. not sure what that means either. And I think then again the price would go down. They have a lot of available bandwidth from what I understand that they do not use.

The good thing with my hosts is that its guys I know very well and worked with for a very long time (I'm their oldest client) and we grown together really. So I know they're not trying to rip me off or anything. But if I knew what a comparable price was per gig was I could negotiate a price better.

I think they have had DOS attacks in the past on other clients and got system setup to tackle it when it happens. They are very clever people, a bunch of programmers so they wouldnt have their heads up their own ass. And didnt last time it happened to a client of theirs.

[basschick]

that seems fair - especially if it's your current host.


Thanks Chip,

I'm paying on a sliding scale by chunks of Gigabytes. The more I use the less I pay per Gig. I think it works out at 8 cents / gig.

And if go over 10,000 Gig they got to move my server over to a dedicated Gigabit link.. not sure what that means either. And I think then again the price would go down. They have a lot of available bandwidth from what I understand that they do not use.

The good thing with my hosts is that its guys I know very well and worked with for a very long time (I'm their oldest client) and we grown together really. So I know they're not trying to rip me off or anything. But if I knew what a comparable price was per gig was I could negotiate a price better.

I think they have had DOS attacks in the past on other clients and got system setup to tackle it when it happens. They are very clever people, a bunch of programmers so they wouldnt have their heads up their own ass. And didnt last time it happened to a client of theirs.

[gaybucks_chip]

8 cents a gig is a decent price, particularly if you can use pretty much whatever you need at that price and it's a host you feel good about.

I do think that if you're getting to the point where you're using a gigabit connection (that's 1000 Mbps) you're entitled to some better pricing, because at that point, you're buying in large enough quantities that it may help your provider to get better pricing from *their* upstream providers.

[gaydemon]

Thanks, thats a very good point!


8 cents a gig is a decent price, particularly if you can use pretty much whatever you need at that price and it's a host you feel good about.

I do think that if you're getting to the point where you're using a gigabit connection (that's 1000 Mbps) you're entitled to some better pricing, because at that point, you're buying in large enough quantities that it may help your provider to get better pricing from *their* upstream providers.