How much bandwidth required? Recommendations please...

[chertudi]

We are planning to move our web site from a shared server location at an ISP to our own office. With it we will be buying servers, routers, firewall, etc etc. What we are trying to gauge is how much bandwidth will we need to keep things running smoothly?

Currently:
We have 1.1 Mbit DSL serving office of 25 clients, with single file server and email server on local network. DSL mainly serves web browsing and internet email. We throw in a rare video conference as well.

Proposed:
Dropping DSL in favor of dual T1 lines. Also, we would be moving our business website in house. Here are some stats from the website for the month of December...
6.6 Million Hits total
334,000 Hits on MOST active day
8.6 GB data transfer per month
Usage most heavy during 8-10am PST
1/2 of all traffic generated during 8-5, M-F

We also have grand plans of adding a 1-2 more websites we expect will experience traffic similar to the current site.

So, how much is enough? Ideally we would not notice significant slow down during the busy times on the website, we want to be able to work in the office efficiently throughout the day. However, we don't want to bring in multiple T3's or anything like that. Anyone running similar setup and has found a happy medium? I don't want to go soley on recommendation of someone selling us lines :-/

Thanks in advance

 

[rootaxs]

Well, considering the number of hits you get i would propose better hardware. I have 2 Servers running right now with 80 domains total getting a whole lot less hits than you have on a 768k line but for the month of January it's done a grand total of 65 GB of traffic. That should give you an idea somewhat on bandwidth useage.

 

[spidey07]

8.6 GB transfered per month is not much at all. A t1 or two should handle it niceley, especially since you only have 25 clients browsing/e-mail.

I recommend cisco 2620 router pluse a PIC 520 firewall with IP sec/3des. The routers are cheap and can support multiple T1s. Once you need other access options (t3/atm/pos) then move up to a 3600 router or 7000.

To help you gauge better, I have t1s that move a few GB in a few hours.

Cheers!

ps - as always, there is no such thing as too much bandwidth.

 

[Russ]

Spidey is right. A single T1 would handle that traffic without breathing hard. There are a hell of a lot of small hosting companies with multiple shared sites that do fine with just a T1.

Of course, you do need to consider scalability and redundancy so, if the money is there, it wouldn't hurt to also have the second one.



<< I don't want to go soley on recommendation of someone selling us lines >>



No wiser words were ever spoken.

Russ, NCNE

 

[rootaxs]

Just to add, just as a guide - A 512k pipe if pushed to it's limits 24/7 can do around 160 Gigs. It's not very accurate but should serve as a good measure for what you're thinking of pumping out on a monthly basis.

 

[IJump]

My company has two T1's running about 20-30 websites spread over at least 6 different physical locations through out a small city. My location has about 450 computers on the network browsing, doing email, and other standard network stuff. I haven't seen too many problems with our access times or when browsing our sites from computers outside of our network.

I would recommend Cisco hardware. I have found it to be more reliable than some of the other stuff. Bay isn't bad either.