How much Bandwidth and diskspace will I need?

[zaon]

Just trying to gather some idea as to the amount of bandwidth I'll be needing to run a board... Say, for an example, I'll have up to 50 users online at any given moment, an average of 15 or so at a time, and attachment uploads either limited to disabled. What sort of monthly bandwidth would you guys guess?

Also, what would a database that housed 1,000 members, with 1,000 threads, and around 10,000 posts of a small/medium paragraph each require as far as disk space?

Thanks!

[nuno]

depends if they are very active or not
but i'll say about 15GB bandwith and 500MB for hd space

[JamesUS]

You shouldn't need 15 Gb of bandwith. More like 5gb if you enable gzip. And 500mb seems a bit over the top for disk space as well, especially seeing as you aren't allowing attachments. My database with 10000 posts, nearly 1000 members and 2500 threads only takes about 20mb of database space.

[zaon]

Ahhh... good to know.. thanks!

I'm not to worried about the diskspace needed (I've got hundreds of megs avail), but, I'm very worried about even 5Gb of transfer... that's half my allotment right there.

Could you tell me what gzip is and if that's browser dependent and whether it's reliable or buggy? Also, what other actions can lower or increase transfer amounts significantly?

[Martz]

Originally posted by zaon
I'm not to worried about the diskspace needed (I've got hundreds of megs avail), but, I'm very worried about even 5Gb of transfer... that's half my allotment right there.

Find a host which will help you grow, and if you exceed your bandwidth usage not pull the plug on you - but charge you for it fairly.

Originally posted by zaon
Could you tell me what gzip is and if that's browser dependent and whether it's reliable or buggy? Also, what other actions can lower or increase transfer amounts significantly?

GZIP is enabled on your server, most hosts install it by default. It doesn't matter what browser your clients/members are using - if the page can be compressed it will be. If it can't, you haven't lost anything. This is a very significate feature in vBulletin and will save you a lot of money on busy forums. I remember wluke from sitepoint.com saying that "he" saved around 40% in bandwidth usage when he upgraded to version 2.x of vB. :)

[chrispadfield]

yup gzip is the biggest possible BW saving you can make. There are some more tips here: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29446

15 users online with gzip I would recon between 4 and 9 GB. I use about 7GB on my ascifi forums which has about an average of 15 to 20 online but there are some attachments and lots of custom avatars (that add up a lot!).