internet plans
 

hi guys. got a question for anyone who can answer it.

does online gaming use a lot of upload?

i know it doesn't use much download, because ive checked the usage before & after a very long session of burnout paradise online, & that used-up stuff all download.

now what has all this to do with internet plans? our current optus plan has unlimited upload, as it's an old plan that doesn't count upload in the total monthly usage, so i have no way of knowing how much upload i use.

why i need to know is. we need to change our internet plan, & all the new ones on offer do count the upload in the total monthly usage limit.

Not sure about consoles, but with PC online gaming generally doesn't use much traffic either way. It does depend on the game though, whether it's got dedicated servers or peers to peer, and then some games are just less efficient than others.

I wondered this myself a few months back so I recorded traffic data for the PC whilst playing games:

Source engine games (mainly TF2 and L4D2) use dedicated servers and eat up around 35mb per hour down and 10mb up WITH voice comms

Borderlands (peer to peer, hosting) was about 20mb per hour download, 40mb per hour upload, with voice comms

Borderlands, not hosting, was around 50mb down, 10mb up with voice comms

Guild Wars used 30mb per hour down, 10 up

These stats were recorded with a nice little app called DU meter, however it monitors all traffic coming and going so what the games actually use could be less than that.

I did also check the usage for Killzone 2 by keeping an eye on my usage meter (also on an optus plan with uploads NOT counted), and it used between 70 - 100mb per hour down.

Anyway, my point is you probably won't have to worry about it, upload usage won't increase much unless you're hosting, and in that case the download usage will drop.

What Chief said :D

You need the upload to at least be stable though. This is the issue I am having at the moment, my download is fine, but 6 - 8 out of every 10 packets sent from me back into cyberspace is lost. /cry

so the upload is lower than the download, in most cases? & the difference between hosting & not hosting is interesting. didn't realise that would effect it so much.

wonder how difference there is between PC & console.

Should be the same.

Your upload has a huge effect on hosting. In Australia though you be hard pressed to find an upload above 512 - Standard is 256.

thanks for the info mate :)