How limiting is a 30GB limit

geuro

Hi all

I am thinking of going for an NTL Express broadband package. The download and upload speeds etc look good, and i have heard that NTL offer a fairly solid service.

There is a 30GB usage limit associated with the product, and this is the one area i am not so sure about, as i have never had a usage limit before.. How limiting is this? Would one be likely to exceed it on a monthly basis if their main activity was general browsing, youtube, a handful of music downloads etc.. Does anyone have this package, and has the 30GB usage limit been an issue for them?

Thanks a lot

Gav

steveland?

Depends what you're doing. For general browsing you won't touch the upper limits.

Your average 128Kbps 3 minute song would be around 3MB. You could theoretically download a 3MB file 10,000 times before getting to the 30GB limit.

Your average episode of a TV show downloaded is 350MB. You could download around 80 of them a month before getting to the limit.

If you're downloading DivX movies they're usually around 700MB. You could download around 40 a month.

Watching Youtube videos depends on the quality and length obviously.

But so long as you're not downloading heaps of movies every month you should have no problem.

Also remember if you're using torrents to download anything then your upload is included in the limit

All figures above are approximate by the way

geuro

thats great Steveland, just the info i was after.. cheers

sweetie

I have a 30 gig rolling limit with digiweb and it's fine. I have come close a few times due to torrents but am fine a day or two later.

geuro

cool, thanks folks.. i make limited use of torrents and am not a huge downloader so it sounds like the 30GB will be more than enough for me..

Dodge

I'm with NTL

Received a letter before informing me I went above the limit and "in fairness to all customers" try and stay within the limits. Fair enough IMO

SeanW

30GB should be fine unless you go crazy torrenting and decide to download all the seasons of your favourite TV series or something equally obscene.

Assuming that you don't leech, a 30GB total leaves you with 15GB each way. Anything bigger than that and you might have to spread out over more than one month, or take your chances going over.

Youtube generally compresses the ****e out of videos, so again, unless you go El Nutso with it, no need to worry. General browsing, MP gaming etc will generally amount to less than 1GB in a month.

Shiny

Also you can download "bitmeter". You can enter in the cap of your isp
and it will warn you at intervals as you begin to get close to it.
You can also set a daily warning amount to help you on a day to day basis.