When it comes to web hosting, the quality of the bandwidth is as important (if not more important) than the hardware your site runs on. That's because even with the fastest web server, your site will come to a crawl if it's connected to poor quality bandwidth.

In the beginning, the Internet consisted of a single network (backbone) used by US government-funded researchers and organizations. Today, the Internet consists of more than a dozen backbones and hundreds of interconnected computer networks. These networks exchange traffic with one another primarily at two public network access points in the US -- one on each coast (MAE East & MAE West).

Then the Internet grew and telecommunications companies built additional backbones to support the additional traffic. But while additional backbones provided more bandwidth, the overburdened public network access points caused major slowdowns and serious bottlenecks. To ease this congestion, backbone providers created private connections or 'peering points,' between their networks. This allows data to move from one network to another with much less use of the public access points.

But as Internet traffic continues to increase, private peering points are becoming more congested and backbone providers lack the financial incentive to invest money to accommodate their competitors' traffic. When peering points are congested, data packet loss occurs, slowing downloads and decreasing the reliability of data transmissions. This may not sound like a problem, but when you consider that even a one percent packet loss can double your customer's download time, you can see how points of congestion lead to major slowdowns in data transmission on the Internet.

The solution: Intelligent Routing Technology and ASsimilator Technology.

Intelligent Routing Technology simply means instead of routing your Web site traffic through MAE East or MAE West or peering points, your web site is directly connected to the major backbones. Nine of these backbones are considered major and carry approximately 95% of all US Internet traffic. Data from point A to point B is sent directly to its destination via the fastest and least congested path possible. This dramatically boosts your web site's performance. Multiple routing options also virtually guarantee connectivity to the Internet, regardless of problems individual backbone providers may be experiencing. This technology also assures you of superior performance during peak traffic times by getting your data to its destination and back in the fastest, most efficient way.

ASsimilator technology is intelligent software-based systems for Internet Protocol route optimization-that selects the most direct route for your data. ASsimilator assesses the global routing tables being advertised by all of the backbone networks home to a given service point. It automatically determines exactly which Internet Protocol routes are to be optimized to which networks. ASsimilator then routes data to its intended destination backbone. A verification system allows ASsimilator to monitor the routing of data, and if routing is found to be suboptimal, adjustments may be made to further optimize routing. ASsimilator controls outbound routing to a backbone network from the service point as well as influences inbound routing from non-controlled networks.

So what does this all mean if you are looking for a company to host your website?

You need to have your website hosted by a company that uses these TWO technologies. They are BOTH necessary for the effective and efficient functioning of your website. It will bring certainty to the process of communicating on the Internet -- a peace of mind that your website has the redundancy and bandwidth needed to stay online 24/7.

Additionally, it will allow your customers to receive fast, reliable and centrally managed Internet connectivity services that maximize the performance of their mission-critical Internet-based applications.

Rick Caraballo is the author of this article and the CEO of Avance Web Marketing- http://www.avancewebmarketing.com, a South Florida Web Marketing firm that provides state-of-the-art web design, e-commerce, marketing consulting services and web hosting using BOTH Intelligent Routing and ASsimilator Technologies and up to nine of the major internet backbones.