Average bandwidth usage ?

damnyanks

Hi, I want to get one of the ADSL offerings (Or IBB) but am worried about the cap.

The usual usage in the house is games , chat, video conferencing and mp3 downloads (legal ones of course!)

Would I surpass the 4gb / 5gb limit easily ?

DaithiSurfer

Ym thinking on broadband is that once you get used to it you WILL download more, simply because you CAN.
How many time have you wanted a 50 meg file and decided not to download it because it will be too slow. Now with broadband it will be fast so you will download the file.
This trend will continue and eventually you will find that a cap is not big enough.

Cabaal

Agreed, 4/5GB limit pm for even a somewhat casual downloaed thats currently on 56K because you'll download even more on ADSL.

I put this to the test when I had 56K, I'd downlaoed 200MB in a day, then I got access 128K and I was doing 600MB +/- a day.

Recently I got access to 512K & 1MB lines and I'm downloading mad amounts of stuff.

So no way in hell is 5GB enough imho.

Stormfox1020

But if your not a mad downloader, and if you just want it for surfing or playing Games, You shouldnt pass your cap, plus if u download to much i think ull learn your lesson when the bill comes

MrPinK

You'd be suprised how quickly it can go. I'm on netsource so I haven't had any need to monitor my traffic, but at a guess I'd say I used up around 7 or 8 gigs in the last month, and I don't leave my pc downloading when I'm away or anything like that. I don't think you have to be a mad downloader to pass 4 gigs anyway.

Tazzle

I'm not a mad downloader either, I'm with netsource and I've downloaded 12gb in the last week and a bit. Me no like cap.

damnyanks

Is netsource any good for pings though ? I heard it was fairly dodgy.

Tazzle

tis dodgy alright, when it's good it's exceptional, had 30ms pings to english servers, but unfortunately they are few times when this happens, usually it's more like 300ms, just hope the next bandwidth upgrade does the trick. Download speeds are grand though. For eircom radsl pings are about 40ms-60ms and dl speeds a more or less constant 55k/s, perfect service, pity about the cap.

Stormfox1020

Netsource RADSL will be sweet if only it had stable pings of 30 to UK Sigh. But will it ever happen. Eircom gets 30 to and 130 to USA which is very good. And thats wut attracts most people. Taz wut do you download on the Internet tho? Surly 12GB isnt just playin Games because that works out to like 200+ hours of gaming and there is only 168 Hours in week.

MrPinK

There are always lots of little things that all add up. Patches are always pretty big nowadays. The latest Doom 3 trailer is 73 Mb. Game demos can be 150Mb+

Stormfox1020

But u only need to download them once. So Ill go for Eircom all i want it Surfing and Gaming i should be fine. I was reading about Netsource and does anyone know that does ur speed depend on how many people are on ur exchange using It or On Netsource in total, Because im the only one on my exchange so contention ratio is 1:1, so Will Netsource RADSL still be **** pings for me?

MrPinK

But u only need to download them once

You're not going to run out of things to d/l There's always something new to get

Your pings will still be the exact same as the rest of us netsource folk I'm afraid.

Tazzle

I never said I got dsl for gaming only.

Stormfox1020

Ok, roughly how much GB u use on gaming a month TAZ u know?

Tazzle

I play an average of about 5-6hrs of CS a day, so im guessing about 150mb a day.

For lazy people that's about 4.3gb a month

BKtje

Chat wont make a dent at all in your cap.
Games themselves will eat away at it, especially with patches.
MP3's will also make a fair dent into it depending on how much you do. Consider most mp3's are 3-5mb in size.

Video Conferencing..ouch. Say good bye to your cap now as you'll be over it before you realise

Multiply this by the amount of people going to be using it and you'll have your answer.

Stormfox1020

Thanks Taz