{"id":1288,"date":"2017-06-22T14:42:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T18:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pair.com\/support\/kb\/?p=1288"},"modified":"2025-06-05T11:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T15:41:07","slug":"how-does-bandwidthtransfer-work","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.pair.com\/support\/kb\/how-does-bandwidthtransfer-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does Bandwidth\/Transfer Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Learn about bandwidth\/transfer and how it is used with your hosting account. This article also covers things that will affect your hosting account's bandwidth\/transfer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Bandwidth\/Transfer?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To view a website, a browser will first download the website\u2019s data. This includes images, fonts, etc. The browser will use your website\u2019s <\/span>bandwidth\/transfer<\/b> to download this data.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandwidth<\/b> is the total capacity your website has for transfer<\/span> in a given period. The more browsers visit and download your site, the more data transfer<\/span> is used.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amount of bandwidth you are allotted varies by package. For more information, check out our <\/span>Disk Space and Bandwidth Usage<\/b><\/a> article.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things That Affect Bandwidth and Resource Usage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cache Expiration Date<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When a browser first visits a site, it will download the website\u2019s data and store it in a <\/span>cache<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A <\/span>cache<\/b> is simply data that the browser keeps so it doesn\u2019t have to re-download information every time it visits. However, caches will expire after a certain time and the next time it visits the website, the browser will have to re-download the data. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to lessen the amount of bandwidth your site uses, you can extend the expiration rate for caches made for your website. You can control the cache expiration rate in your <\/span>.htaccess<\/b> file.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using CDN<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you have a lot of content, your data transfer usage will be higher. To help this, you can use a <\/span>CDN<\/b> for static content. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The <\/span>CDN<\/b>, or <\/span>content delivery network<\/b>, is a network of servers that deliver web content to users. Users will connect to the CDN server that will give them the fastest load time, which is usually the one closest to them geographically.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using CDNs will show the content on your site, but the visiting browsers will download the CDN content from a CDN server, reducing your data transfer usage.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Content from Third Parties<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There is a lot of content out there for your website that can be accessed remotely. This means visiting browsers will access the third party to download this content, not your website. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Google Fonts provides you with fonts by giving you links to put in your website code. The visiting browsers then go to Google\u2019s servers to download the font.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using remote content like this will decrease your data transfer usage, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Do I Find Out How Much Bandwidth Has Been Used?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You can check your bandwidth usage in the <\/span>Account Control Center<\/b> (ACC).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandwidth Quick Check<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Log into the Account Control Center (ACC) at my.pair.com<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. In the \u201cResource Usage\u201d section, your account\u2019s bandwidth allowance is listed<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Bandwidth Detailed Check\u00a0\u00a0<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Choose the tutorial that reflects your ACC interface type: <\/p>\n\n\n\n