Recommended connection Speed

[0tolerance]

What connection speed do you think is appropriate to run a medium sized site with maybe a couple thousand members?

I'm thinking of buying a server and i know that my 1.5mbs / 256kbs connection will not support the server to run a website without extremely slow load times.
From the little knowledge i have with computers, i know that my Upload has to be significantly bigger, but im not sure how big is sufficient enough.

Does any one have any ideas on what sort of connection speed i will need?

Cheers.

[nexialys]

actually, it would cost you way less if you purchase a hosting plan... if you know nothing about hosting and your ISP is giving you low speed connections, there is no solution for you... even me who have a good connection and i'm a webmaster and webhost for like 10 years, i would never host my websites on a personal connection...

[lighti]

Yes purchaseing hosting would be the cheaper route, specially if you do not have experience operating server software. You can start with a quality shared hosting account and move up from there as your site grows. Shared plans can cost just a few dollars a month.

[0tolerance]

yea but im going to have the money to throw around in a few months, its kinda going to be a learning curve for me for my career and future business stuff..
i know that i could straight up go for a 1gb/s business package.. but i just want to know what would be sufficient to run a website with a few thousand members.
I know abit about hosting and that sorta stuff, but im wondering about what sort of connection that would be, as at the moment i dont run a board witha few thousand... so i dont know..

Im rambling now, but its just a learning thing.. money doesnt matter.

[lighti]

100mbit is about the norm for a web connection.

[eUKhost.com]

100mbit is about the norm for a web connection.

Yes 100 Mbit connection on the server is common amongst the major hosting companies.

[0tolerance]

100mbit is about the norm for a web connection.

Yes 100 Mbit connection on the server is common amongst the major hosting companies.

cheers for your help.

[eUKhost.com]

cheers for your help.

Glad we could help you:)

[Marco van Herwaarden]

100Mb what?

NIC (Network card)?
Full 100Mb synchroneous connection to the internet backbone from the server?

[Peter85]

Im actually surprised to see just how little bandwith my own board is using. With 50 active users online right now ive got an average network usage of about 0.3Mbit or such and peaks on 1Mbit.
And that is with a shoutbox installed, and I suspects thats whats using most of the bandwith. Also, my board is resending the CSS on each page load. By removing the shoutbox and fixing the css issue I think I could drop the bandwith usage about 30%.
So to sum it up, my _guess_ is that youll need at least a 1Mbit connection plus an additional 20kbit for each active user online.

[0tolerance]

i find that interesting, i will probably go straight up for the 100mbit next year when i move to the city/business area...
I've Got plans to start a game hosting company... plus a few extras.. but thats a secret :).

I think that the 1mbit connection probably wouldnt go to well to run a forum for people that may be on the other side of the world.

[Peter85]

IMHO connection speed gets less and less important the further away from each other the server and the client gets.
The connection between the server and the company you buy your bandwith from is just one small part of the link. That company has to be connected to your countrys back end. And your country has to be connected to the country next to it, and so on. In many places in the world these connections are very slow and the few millisecounds it takes for the data to travel that short distance over your 1Mbit connection will be more or less negliable.
But still, 1Mbit is a bit too slow for anything but really small forums.

[ssslippy]

If you dont plan to have a heavy active forum but want a solid connection usually a 10Mbit connectionc an handle this.

[lighti]

100Mb what?

NIC (Network card)?
Full 100Mb synchroneous connection to the internet backbone from the server?

Usally a 100mbit, card connected to a 100mbit port at the router.. Full Duplex, is rather common..

10mbit are available to, Hardly any site can max out 100mbit line and if you do, you will be paying a fortune in overage charges.. the 100mbit is good because its mainly for "Bursting" to handle sudden spikes in traffic. A forum does not use "That" much bandwidth per user because they are basically down loading just text. If their browser caches the images, then they really are only downloading text each different page they visit. So for a Forum site 10mbit would probably work. Unless you have alot of changeing images, and attachments that the users will be downloading.