The monthly web site traffic function is generally known as data transfer or bandwidth as well, yet all these terms refer to the very same thing - what amount of information can be transferred to and from your shared website hosting account. The traffic can be produced in two ways, the more apparent one being website visits. If somebody opens your web site, their browser requests and downloads the web pages from your web hosting server and then displays them on their end. The more website visitors you have, the more outbound traffic is generated from your web hosting account. Considering that this feature includes the entire site traffic, not just the site visits, you should not forget that incoming traffic is measured as well. This means that site content along with other files that you upload to the account with a file manager or an FTP application are counted towards your account quota. The transfer is usually checked per month and the counter resets on the very first day of each month irrespective of your actual registration date.