Broadband usage

ShaunC

I am trying to figure out how much data I am up/downloading when playing on xbox live as I have a 10gig limit per month and regularly exceed my limit. I don't download demos etc.

-=al=-

No demo's and movies is good, but unles your playing for and excessive and unhealthy amount of hours a day you won't use more than a few gb

can vary from like 10-20mb for an hour of use

Dazza

ShaunC wrote: »

I am trying to figure out how much data I am up/downloading when playing on xbox live as I have a 10gig limit per month and regularly exceed my limit. I don't download demos etc.

If you are with Eircom they dont charge if you exceed your allowance if you are on the ordinary DSL packages(non-NGB)

ShaunC

Thanks lads, I'm with Voda mob bb. It's all I can get out in the sticks, and they have a strict 10gb limit. I'm on for about 2 hours daily so I should be sound.

Con_R

I can't imagine you'd exceed 10GB just with online play. Do you use torrents or anything? Also, is your network secured or would it be possible that someone else is tapping in to it?

TheMooseInNam

This is quite an interesting thread and comes up regularly.

Basically, if you don't host a game, download demo etc and only connect to other peoples servers, the amount of useage is virtually nothing... at the moment, with XBL. This may change in the future.

Hard to give an exact figure on the amount you'll use but it's around .1 to .15Mbps when you combine both the upload and download amounts.

Yes, you read that correctly! Between 10-15Kbps is what's required. So, as long as you're not the host (which could use .5-1Mbps depending on the game) you would be seriously hard pressed to use a gig or two per month. If you do, then I would suggest counselling for gaming addiction and consulting with your local GP about possible deep vein thrombosis

This will probably lead on to people wondering why they need really fast broadband for gaming... the answer is, you don't for XBL. What you need is very low latency (ping times to the server) and a high QoS with low jiiter which will give you a steady stream of uninterupted data.

Hope this clears up any concerns/issues you guys might have. Any questions, fire them at me, I'll be back on later... I'm also available for bar mitzvah's, weddings and funerals

ShaunC

Thanks moose. I blame the wife and her online shopping. I think jitter is my biggest problem. I get a ping of about 90ms most of the time and speeds of 1-2 mb. One of the downsides of living in the countryside, mobile BB is my only choice. Still you can't beat xbox live.

TheMooseInNam

ShaunC wrote: »

Thanks moose. I blame the wife and her online shopping. I think jitter is my biggest problem. I get a ping of about 90ms most of the time and speeds of 1-2 mb. One of the downsides of living in the countryside, mobile BB is my only choice. Still you can't beat xbox live.

Yeah, mobile broadband sucks! In fact, I'm even against calling it broadband... maybe midband would be a better name for it.

-=al=-

aye marketed as broadband but it certainly is not!

I'm stuck with 3 myself with 30gb a month limit for 26 quid... it does the job tbh, but i had to put the router on the roof... crazy that this day and age i can't get any fixed broadband service in dublin, madness!

denballs

to put up a simple estimate-1 gb in 8 hours for a game like halo 3

the minimum for live gaming is 64kb/second

1024 kb=1mb
1024mb=1gb

so 3.75mb a minute
225 mb an hour
so with 10gb....using the minimum amount required by live...(not hosting and plying the least bandwith strenous game) then you,ll get 45.51 hours.

My suggestion is.......you phone up UPC...and get a proper broadband connection with unlimited usage......l

ShaunC

denballs wrote: »

to put up a simple estimate-1 gb in 8 hours for a game like halo 3

the minimum for live gaming is 64kb/second

1024 kb=1mb
1024mb=1gb

so 3.75mb a minute
225 mb an hour
so with 10gb....using the minimum amount required by live...(not hosting and plying the least bandwith strenous game) then you,ll get 45.51 hours.

My suggestion is.......you phone up UPC...and get a proper broadband connection with unlimited usage......l

One of the downsides of living in the countryside, mobile BB is my only choice.

TheMooseInNam

ShaunC wrote: »

One of the downsides of living in the countryside, mobile BB is my only choice.

It might not be you're only choice. There are plenty of companies out there now that offer long range wireless options that are every bit as good as DSL. I have permaNET in Co Kilkenny, I'm about 20Km from the base station and pinging around 30ms. Digiweb are also supposed to be very good too. My in-laws have a company called Aptus supplying them in the middle of the sticks in Co Laois, seems pretty decent too. Have a look around, you might get lucky.

dunworth1

denballs wrote: »

to put up a simple estimate-1 gb in 8 hours for a game like halo 3

the minimum for live gaming is 64kb/second

1024 kb=1mb
1024mb=1gb

so 3.75mb a minute
225 mb an hour
so with 10gb....using the minimum amount required by live...(not hosting and plying the least bandwith strenous game) then you,ll get 45.51 hours.

My suggestion is.......you phone up UPC...and get a proper broadband connection with unlimited usage......l

where are you getting you figures

and upc dosent have any unlimited plans (not advertised anyway)

i might do a test later on using the usage monitor on my router to see if i can get an fairly accurate figure

dunworth1

ok what i going to do is tonight i am going to disable the internet connection on all other devices and record the WAN in and out on my routers monitor.

i will do it for about 20min
i will be playing battlefield bc2 and in a party.

we will then know how much data xbox live uses.

i will then post the video to youtube and you can see for yourself.

i will also reset the total up and down and post a screenshot if it (but i will do this for an hour)

dunworth1

ok guys here is the total data used

Total xbox live bandwidth usage (battlefied bc2)
Time - 1 hour
20MB (160mb) - downloaded
15MB(120mb) - uploaded
Total 35MB (280mb)

i have attached the screen shot.

i am currently uploading the 15min of live transfer rates i will post it here as soon as its uploaded.

dunworth1

ok here is the video

i started recording from when the xbox booted up
jump to around 3min in to see while playing an actual game
from about 6min in i am hosting an xbox live party with two other people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5UJPuj7EgI

TheMooseInNam

Ok, just waiting for the video to process on youtube.

Can you share the figures you got?

dunworth1

TheMooseInNam wrote: »

Ok, just waiting for the video to process on youtube.

Can you share the figures you got?

i posted the figures in the post just before the one with the video.

from watching the video the speed varies from 10kbps and sometimes spiking up to 70kbps

it averages in around 30-50kbps most of the time for the download speed

the upload is more stable staying in our around 30kbps.

it does jump up and down a lot so my guess is that it depends on what is happening in the game but this is total speculation i have no proof.

being in a party didnt seem to have much effect other then it droping less ferquiently and it didnt go below 30kbps.

i may try this on another game such as call of duty tomorrow if i get a chance. as not having dedicated servers may change the result greatly.

it did strike me that it was using so much data 280mb in one hour is quite a lot

on average i play 4 hours a night which means i use just over a gb a night on gaming.

this has changed my view on the subject as i always believed that it used a very minimal amount for data.

denballs

i download 10gb on an average day and upload at least 1......so....yeh/......UPC is unlimited......if you go to a comparison between companies......like the one in the carphone warehouse catalogue ..you will see that on upc it will be unl;imited and on others it will say somthing like 10-20gb........or alot less for mobile internet......

what we really need is virgin media in ireland.....they are currently giving 3 month free trials on their new 100mb connections in the UK

dunworth1

denballs wrote: »

i download 10gb on an average day and upload at least 1......so....yeh/......UPC is unlimited......if you go to a comparison between companies......like the one in the carphone warehouse catalogue ..you will see that on upc it will be unl;imited and on others it will say somthing like 10-20gb........or alot less for mobile internet......

you are mistaken upc have a 250gb fair use policy on all broadband packs
(read your T&C)

the cap is to be upped to 500gb in September

denballs

dunworth1 wrote: »

you are mistaken upc have a 250gb fair use policy on all broadband packs
(read your T&C)

the cap is to be upped to 500gb in September

........i joined before this term was brought in......my contract allows me unlimited

......BESIDES ...THEY DONT ENFORCE ...that......

dunworth1

denballs wrote: »

........i joined before this term was brought in......my contract allows me unlimited

......BESIDES ...THEY DONT ENFORCE ...that......

it was never unlimited there was always a FUP in the contract

they do enforce it in some areas in depends how my people on connected in the area

Healium

I'm in a short term let in the UK, 2 more months here. My housemate has broadband, so I can't get a second service on the one line, and he won't share it with me. Only option seems to be back to mobile broadband. Best offer is 5GB per month for £15. So, so awful, but do you think I'd manage? Lots of free WiFi in town for browsing, and I could download content at my friend's gaff, so I'd just use it for gaming. I'd probably play for a couple of hours every day, and I imagine I'd go over the limit. Although I'll mainly be playing Gears 3. Will it use less data because of the dedicated servers? Desperate situation