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Web Design Articles
How Much Hosting Space Do You Need?
Copyright 2002 Herman Drost
Many web hosts try to sell you a large amount of web hosting space that then
costs you a lot each month. However, you may not need this much space. Have you
ever calculated just how much disc space (MB) your web site uses? Do you really
need an expensive hosting solution for your web site?
For my first web site, I purchased 20mb of disc space and wondered if this would
be enough as I added pages to it. Well, recently I checked the size of this site
which had grown to over 20 pages. To my surprise the size was only 3,269KB.
This means it only uses a little over 3Mb of disk space. Most of my friends
sites also only use 2-3Mb for their sites. Therefore it is not necessary to
purchase a large amount of space for a small site (if 20 pages = 3Mb, then 20Mb
= 140 pages approx). Are you paying TOO much for the actual space you need?
How Do You Calculate The File Size Of Your Web Site?
1. First you need to understand how file size is measured. The smallest unit on
a computer is a bit. One bit is one electronic on or off pulse. 8 bits strung
together make one byte. One byte of information can put a letter, such as
“B” on your screen.
If you put 1024 bytes together and then you have one unit of information called
a kilobyte. Put 1024 kilobytes together and you have a megabyte. (Most floppy
disks hold around 1.4 megabytes of information). Most of your graphics and web
pages are measured in bytes or kilobytes.
2. To determine your total site file size, right click on the root folder where
your web site is housed – this will not only give you the total site size but
also how many files and folders are contained in your site.
3. If you use an editor, such as FrontPage, go to the reports view, click on the
site summary and you will get a reading of the total site file size. In
Dreamweaver, just use the method in No 2.
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If you put 1024 bytes together and then you have one unit of information called
a kilobyte. Put 1024 kilobytes together and you have a megabyte. (Most floppy
disks hold around 1.4 megabytes of information). Most of your graphics and web
pages are measured in bytes or kilobytes.
2. To determine your total site file size, right click on the root folder where
your web site is housed – this will not only give you the total site size but
also how many files and folders are contained in your site.
3. If you use an editor, such as FrontPage, go to the reports view, click on the
site summary and you will get a reading of the total site file size. In
Dreamweaver, just use the method in No 2.
Prepare To Expand Your Hosting Plan You may want to add pages, graphics,
features eg scripts, databases etc, to your site in the future. Begin with a
small hosting plan at first (even 5mb is enough to start out with), and then
expand it as you add new features.
Check with your web host, if you can easily upgrade your hosting plan as you
grow your site. You don’t want to go through the hassle of changing hosts
every few months.
Once you have determined your total site file size, check what hosting plan you
have purchased and how much disc space has been allocated for your site. If you
are only using 3mb of disc space but are paying for 100mb, then you may want to
switch hosting plans and save yourself a ton of money each year.
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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com
Affordable Web Site Design and Low
Cost Web Hosting
Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original
articles. subscribe@isitebuild.com.
You can read more
of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles
***********************************************************************
Reproduced
with kind permission from Herman Drost
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