How much data needed?

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Studentkyle

33 posts

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#20115 13-Mar-2008 19:44

I'm still trying to decide if its worth upgrading to broadband. My big hangup up is the phoneline and until i can justify considerable savings the wife wants to retain it so Naked is out. Therefore the things holding me back are 1. do i wait for cheap naked broadband and how much data i would need and what upload speed is the minimum i would need for gaming?
I think this is what i would us
General surfing (mostly trademe) (no streaming)~100hrs (i know you can get info on Providers websites based on pages but does returning to the same page get counted?)
Gaming (xbox) ~10hrs
Emails ~300 (mostly from traders from trademe)
Downloads (this is easy so dont worry)

Really its the gaming that i cant find out how much it would use.

Thanks

manhinli

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#116470 13-Mar-2008 21:01

I'm guessing you'll need around 10GB, but some companies allow you to add data blocks on top (like Slingshot), but other companies also allow complete flexibility over data allowance at any time (which would be Xnet)

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Studentkyle

33 posts

Geek

#116481 13-Mar-2008 21:30

Thanks for that. I'm a frequent visitor to nzconnections so im fairly familiar with what companies are offering just dont know about the data. thanks for your thoughts on it though. I was hoping 5 would be enough but starting to think maybe not.

raytaylor

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#118230 23-Mar-2008 14:26

I would suggest downloading a data transfer monitoring program. Get it to count your data as you surf on dial up and then expect to double or triple it as you will like your new high speed.

If you cannot be bothered doing that - I know I wouldnt, then just go with Xnet on a 5gb data allowance and then adjust it as needed. They are one of the cheapest and most of the call centre staff speak kiwi as their first language from my experiences.

Ray Taylor

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itxtme

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#118265 23-Mar-2008 19:50

Lets get some perspective here!

Gaming xbox - Most games use 25 - 50 mb of bandwidth an hour including voice (thats 500mb per month or 0.5 GB)

Websites - Hours are irrelevant! Let say you visit the stuff website @ 200kb you could visit that say 10,000 times a month and you would use 2GB's

Emails - average email size is 6kb times by 300 = 18 mb! +

say 150 of those email have images (unlikely) add 100kb per message = 150mb

All up = 2668 MB of bandwidth (hours dont count) or 2.7GB of bandwidth.

Xnet Stream with 4GB = $31
Xnet River with 4GB = $38 *best value for money*
Xnet Flood with 4gb = $54

Studentkyle

33 posts

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#118270 23-Mar-2008 20:35

Thanks heaps for that. Will the 128kb upload speed be enough for xbox live.

garvani

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#118282 23-Mar-2008 22:42

Studentkyle: Thanks heaps for that. Will the 128kb upload speed be enough for xbox live.

Not really.. However im on go large and have my upstream capped at 160k, and i play on both xboxlive and psn without a problem (most the time, depends where the host is located).. you could probably get away with 128k but for an extra $20 a month or whatever it is i would go fullspeed upload.

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raytaylor

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#118306 24-Mar-2008 06:18

garvani:
Studentkyle: Thanks heaps for that. Will the 128kb upload speed be enough for xbox live.

Not really.. However im on go large and have my upstream capped at 160k, and i play on both xboxlive and psn without a problem (most the time, depends where the host is located).. you could probably get away with 128k but for an extra $20 a month or whatever it is i would go fullspeed upload.

Im not into gaming but I have heard a few of my friends, and my boss at home are on the 128k upload plans and have interleaving switched on or off - i cant remember and they seem to think that it is ok. Can someone clarify for me how the interleaving works in regards to gaming and does it auctually work in the real world to help with gaming on the 128k upload? Im interested to know as general knowledge

Ray Taylor

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psychnurse

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#118308 24-Mar-2008 06:35

When xbox live came out I was on 128k up, no probs. Sounds like at the most you will use 2-4 gig. I play wow for hours with voice coms, download a few torrents and only do 10-15gig a month.

Detruire

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#118455 25-Mar-2008 00:16

raytaylor: Can someone clarify for me how the interleaving works in regards to gaming and does it auctually work in the real world to help with gaming on the 128k upload? Im interested to know as general knowledge

Interleaving is a form of error correction which induces artificial latency. Thus, when it's turned off, pings usually decrease. (When they don't it's usually because some packets have become corrupt)

Having interleaving off decreased my pings by around 40ms.

rm *