Download sizes

[Newbie]

I'm new at all this so this is a very basic query but I
can't find the answer anywhere. I'm on a 300MB monthly
usage plan which includes uploads and downloads. I'm
shocked at how much I'm using up - I thought 300 would be
plenty for my purpose of building a family website. I want
to find out how I can monitor the size of the traffic I am
generating so I have a better undestanding on where I can
cut down. Also, I want to find out how I can minimise the
size of the graphics I am uploading without losing
clarity. There's just so much info on the web and I don't
know the correct terminology for asking questions in
search engines. If anyone can point me directly to helpful
sites for this type of info, I would be very grateful.

 

[S Vijay [MSFT]]

Hi,

First let me explain what all things that come under data transfer, using
which your ISP calculates your usage.

In general, "data transfer" refers to any data transferred into or out of a
site. For example, graphics, text, movies, sound files, programs that you
or your visitors either download or upload are all considered to be data.
Every time a web surfer visits a web page, data is transferred from the
server to users computer. Also transferring files from your site with HTTP
as well as sending and receiving e-mail through WebMail adds to your data
transfer totals. If you upload your pages through FTP using your account
and your password, those uploaded pages do not count toward your data
transfer totals. However, web pages uploaded or downloaded through
Microsoft FrontPage count as data transfer.

The smaller the total size of a Web page, the quicker it downloads. Thus,
many Web pages are often less than 30 KB in size. A typical graphic file
(say, a .GIF file) is about 20 KB to 30 KB in size. However, graphics on
Web pages are usually smaller, often no more than 15 KB to 20 KB of total
graphics size per page. . However, for most Web sites, using individual
graphics files larger than around 30 KB is not advised. Thus, to speed the
loading of your Web pages, reducing the size of your Web page graphics is
essential.

Generally most of the ISP have a facility to check in the amount of data
downloaded or uploaded to the Internet by their customers.

Hope this helps.

S.Vijay

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights