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why hosting companies limit bandwidth for websites.

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because bytes don't grow on trees. – Darren Kopp May 31 '09 at 18:56
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closed as not a real question by Mark Henderson♦ Oct 3 '11 at 10:07

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3 Answers

up vote 6 down vote

Because their bandwidth isn't free, and you're not their only customer.

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up vote 3 down vote

When internet companies connect with each other, they need to dig holes in the ground and lay wires. They also need to be maintained over time.

Hosting companies are reselling the bandwidth and they realized that most people don't use alot of bandwidth all the time, so they just have you share a pipe and sell by bandwidth so they can make more money.

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up vote 2 down vote

Bandwidth is part of the service their customers pay for. There are a couple of common models for hosting:

  • Charge a fixed amount for a fixed amount of bandwidth. The hosting company enforces the limits so you can't go over.

  • Charge a base amount for a minimum amount of bandwidth and then charge you more if you go over that amount. This is like most cellphone plans. Your website will stay accessible even if you're over your monthly allocation of bandwidth, but it can get expensive very quickly.

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