What does 'unlimited' data transfer really mean?

[Tartarus]

Hello,
We've all heard the warning never to trust hosts who advertise unlimited data transfer. However, I've been referred to BlueHost as one of the best webhosts out there, so I wanted to clarify what limits actually exist. I'm looking for at least 25-30GB monthly to start with, and the possibility to expand to ~1000GB at relatively short notice. The webhost I have currently (3FN) has 20 GB and packages up to 100 GB, and 1&1 Internet Hosting offers up to 3000 GB, which sounds astronomical... so I'm not inclined to trust them.

Any advice/numbers for a newbie webmaster?

[Early Out]

For that kind of load, you probably shouldn't be looking at shared hosting at all - it's time for a dedicated server or VPS.

Yes, BH offers "unlimited" bandwidth, but the terms of service also say that if there's anything about your account that seriously degrades performance for other customers (like the other 450 accounts on your server), they'll terminate your account.

[Lumina]

what I find with shared host; if you got alot of bandwith being used,. your cpu will turn over before you even think of touching much in large bursts.

So they can easily offer more than you can really use. but thats fine with me!