What does Unlimited Bandwidth mean in Shared Hosting?

My one site is cloaking lot of downloads from my shared web hosting account. I searched on internet as well as forums but no one could answer it. I found "online chat" with HostGator.

The customer care executive talked to the point about Unlimited Bandwidth issue with HostGator. Here is the important discussion that went.

It was on 24-apr-2011, I was talking keeping in my mind the HostGator shared hosting plans(baby, hatch-ling etc).

Also checkout the Awardspace ticket which I'd raised and got a nice reply.

Chat with Hostgator

My primary domain is www.downloadformsindia.com. What is the maximum bandwidth I can use in Baby plan? My site is now using 1GB/day and continuously increasing. What does your "unlimited" mean?

(01:34:12 PM) System: There are currently 1 people in front of you and 108 chat technicians assisting customers.
(01:34:19 PM) Krystal Sa: Welcome to HostGator LiveChat. I'd be glad to assist you today.
(01:34:43 PM) anurag: can you pl. answer my question
(01:35:27 PM) Krystal Sa: Unlimited = unlimited, if you start to bring the server down and create slow times for everyone else on the server, you will be told to upgrade your services.
(01:35:42 PM) Krystal Sa: There is no set number
(01:36:47 PM) anurag: The CPU bandwidth I'll use will be less but network bandwidth more. I mean it'll be less than 5GB/day. Will it be ok?
(01:37:18 PM) anurag: Public will only be downloading some files .. that's all, no forum etc (01:37:20 PM) Krystal Sa: Are you referring to traffic? or site content?
(01:37:27 PM) anurag: Traffic
(01:39:21 PM) anurag: r u there?
(01:39:38 PM) Krystal Sa: As long as you don't exceed our other resource limits, yes you will ne fine.
(01:39:46 PM) Krystal Sa: We don't limit the bandwidth specifically
(01:40:09 PM) anurag: Roughly how much max I can use? 5 GB?
(01:40:31 PM) Krystal Sa: There is no set number, because other clients are on the same server.
(01:41:36 PM) anurag: If I start using too much resources, will I be warned, say 1 week before? Or my account/sites will be shut down without my notice?
(01:42:18 PM) Krystal Sa: There will be no warning, you will just be shut down and notified.
(01:42:22 PM) Krystal Sa:
(01:42:29 PM) Krystal Sa: We do have people watching this however
(01:42:38 PM) Krystal Sa: So you can request that someone monitor your useage
(01:42:41 PM) Krystal Sa: *usage
(01:43:40 PM) anurag: What do you mean by shutdown? Will you close my account? Or I'll have option to upgrade or reduce system usage?
(01:44:15 PM) Krystal Sa: The account will be blocked from being viewed.
(01:44:34 PM) Krystal Sa: The security team will email with the changes that need to be made.
(01:45:10 PM) anurag: Will I lose the fees paid? What options will be told?
(01:45:36 PM) anurag: I mean given?
(01:46:48 PM) Krystal Sa: It depends on what the issue is.
(01:47:22 PM) anurag: Thanks for being frank.
(01:48:39 PM) Krystal Sa: It's hard to give you an example.
(01:48:44 PM) Krystal Sa: It really just depends.
(01:49:00 PM) anurag: Got it.
(01:49:04 PM) Krystal Sa: We have zero tolerance on spam, but if it is a bandwidth issue, we won't just close out your account.
(01:49:47 PM) anurag: ok
(01:50:18 PM) Krystal Sa: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
(01:50:36 PM) anurag: How many online users can Baby plan support roughly?
(01:50:55 PM) anurag: If you answer it'd be nice...
(01:51:16 PM) anurag: I mean generally a forum takes lot of cpu power
(01:51:29 PM) Krystal Sa: Shared and Reseller accounts are limited to 25 simultaneous processes.
(01:51:45 PM) Krystal Sa: Which can break down to 500 users in a forum
(01:51:56 PM) Krystal Sa: Most sites will work perfectly with a 25 concurrent processes limit. Processes open and close so quickly that they hardly ever overlap.
(01:52:32 PM) anurag: You mean 25 simultaneous http requests?
(01:52:52 PM) Krystal Sa: No processes, as in they open something.
(01:53:21 PM) Krystal Sa: even opening mail counts.
(01:53:25 PM) anurag: What is 500?
(01:54:23 PM) anurag: Please answer this and close the session, my baby is crying. Many thanks.
(01:54:37 PM) Krystal Sa: 500 what?
(01:54:44 PM) Krystal Sa: users?
(01:54:50 PM) anurag: yes
(01:54:55 PM) Krystal Sa: 500 people
(01:54:59 PM) Krystal Sa: are users
(01:55:12 PM) anurag: 500 people in 1 day?
(01:55:18 PM) Krystal Sa: No
(01:55:45 PM) Krystal Sa: 25 simultaneous processes open in miliseconds
(01:56:09 PM) Krystal Sa: It is very rare to hit that
(01:57:16 PM) Krystal Sa: Just log back into live chat if you have anymore questions.
(01:57:30 PM) anurag: Thanks, no more questions.
(01:57:32 PM) anurag: bye
(01:57:46 PM) anurag: closed this chat intentionally

Awardspace ticket resolution

Fri, Apr 22 2011 7:42pm
One my site is now using 1GB/day downloads.
What is the maximum bandwidth/day allowed for my shared hosting plan?
Do you charge extra if I use more bandwidth than allowed by you?

Fri, Apr 22 2011 8:00pm - Peter Smith
Hello Anurag Gupta,

Thank you for contacting us.

Please wait as I am escalating this issue to the proper department for a resolution.
We will get back to you and update this ticket as soon as possible!
Thank you for your patience.

Best Regards,
Peter Smith,
AwardSpace Dedicated Support Team
Tue, Apr 26 2011 10:47am - Peter Kayne
Hello Anurag Gupta,

Thank you for contacting us.
At the moment your sites are using a normal amount of bandwidth so you should not be worried.
Please note that the bandwidth updates every month so at the beginning of you new month circle it will start from 0 again. In case that you use more than the quota of the bandwidth we will contact you and provide an offer.

Feel free to reopen this ticket in case you have more questions or you need further assistance. Thank you for choosing our services.

Best Regards,
Peter Kayne,
AwardSpace Sales Team

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