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Bandwidth is defined as the amount of data that one can "push" through an Internet connection at the same time. The commercials on TV for home service equate bandwidth with "speed" and, while that is somewhat true, in the case of a high performance web site like StockCharts.com, bandwidth is really all about capacity.
Over the years, our bandwidth has grown tremendously and each time it increased our customers benefited. Initially, we had a 1.5 megabit T1 connection to the Internet. We managed to fill that up pretty quickly. So we added another (3.0 megabits), and then another (4.5 megabits) and then another (6.0 megabits).
At that point (2002) adding bandwidth by adding T1 circuits didn't really make sense. So next we stepped up to a huge (at the time) T3 circuit - 45 megabits! Over 7 times more capacity than we currently had. We'd never run out of bandwidth again! Right?
We added our second T3 (90 megabits) in 2004. And our third (135 megabits) in 2006. And our fourth (180 megabits) in 2008. That's where things stand today.
Right now, on a busy day, we use about 160 megabits for serving our charts. Since we never want to use up all of our bandwidth, we've been looking into adding even more bandwidth. But, as with the T1s, adding yet another T3 doesn't seem to be the right solution.
Fortunately, there is now another option: Fiber Gigabit! That's 1024 megabits in one connection. That's over 5 times more capacity than we currently have! We'll never run out of... bandwidth... again... oh, wait.
Well, even if (when?) history repeats itself, we'll be ready. In the mean time, by moving to Fiber Gigabit, we will be enabling much more growth in the future and we are ensuring that you will always have full access to our charts without any delays.
We are going to be switching over to our new Fiber Gigabit connection on Friday afternoon after the market closes. IN THEORY, the move will be invisible to you. IN THEORY, our site will run uninterrupted throughout the process. IN THEORY, no one will notice the change. That said, I wouldn't be surprized if there was a short interruption in service just because I like to err on the side of caution.
I'll make another announcement once the change over is complete. If we are offline for more than a couple of minutes tomorrow, we'll post messages up on our Status blog.
