Give them an inch and they take a mile?

[Technical Ben]

Just a little discussion about bandwidth really. As the title says, if your given the bandwidth allowance, do you use it? I find I do. Whatever it is, I will find a game or software demo (up to 4GB these days!  ), windows updates, or something frivolous to use it up. When I don't have the bandwidth available, I just use it less. What about you?

[Gary]

Just a little discussion about bandwidth really. As the title says, if your given the bandwidth allowance, do you use it? I find I do. Whatever it is, I will find a game or software demo (up to 4GB these days!  ), windows updates, or something frivolous to use it up. When I don't have the bandwidth available, I just use it less. What about you?

It depends I use YouTube alot and iPlayer for Music and TV I missed like Mock the week, also iTunes for Music and film. Patches take up a lot as well, OSX 10.6.5 will come on about 500-700MB I guess so its always getting used up. If I go over (rarely) I don't mind paying the extra, the allowances are good, its just a shame off peak is after midnight because I am at home all day so I use most of my bandwidth during peak times.

[zappaDPJ]

I occasionally push my peak usage but in general I seem to be way below my allowance most months e.g. I'm currently at 16.44GB Peak/39.16GB Off-Peak.

[pctech]

700 Meg per update seems a tad steep.

Glad I don't use a Mac.

[Glenn]

Over the past 2.75 years, I average 8.67Gb, the most I have downloaded in that time is 18Gb in any month.

[Gary]

700 Meg per update seems a tad steep.

Glad I don't use a Mac.

That's for a standalone (combo) update which is pretty much like reinstalling your whole OS and can be used to update multiple systems as it contains all relevant updates for all versions of the latest OSX variant, and can used if you have issues with your install as well, the software updates via the updater are much smaller as they only update what you need.

[Technical Ben]

Mac OS X SP2.

[Bill]

if your given the bandwidth allowance, do you use it? I find I do.

Nope, I just use whatever I use, I don't really take much notice of the allowance. I think I've only once come anywhere near it...

THBS, I do tend to keep big stuff (usually iTunes) for off-peak, and I don't do gaming.

[Bill]

700 Meg per update seems a tad steep.

I think I've only ever seen that on a really major OS update, like 10.(x) to 10.(x+1), 50 to 100MB is more typical, and a recent one was less than 1MB!

[Gary]

I think I've only ever seen that on a really major OS update, like 10.(x) to 10.(x+1), 50 to 100MB is more typical, and a recent one was less than 1MB!

I think 10.6.3 was that size as a combo, but all other patches apart from OSX number updates are smaller as bill has said.

[esh]

I'm in the slightly curious position of 20GB peak being a little too close for comfort but I very rarely get near the 40GB peak limit I have currently. Looking at the idnet monthly breakdown, my average is 15.29GB/month (on and off peak, but mostly during peak). I had to be a little more careful than usual this month because a 6GB update failed... so it downloaded it again, which failed again... third time it worked but it then had to download another 7GB update after that!  At this point I just yanked my laptop into my institution and downloaded the 15GB at 8MB/s. Annoying!

[Simon]

I hardly ever go near my bandwidth limit.  Perhaps I'm missing out? 

[faircot]

I hardly ever go near my bandwidth limit.  Perhaps I'm missing out? 

No you're not Simon. You're suffering from that strange affliction that doesn't involve computers and which used to be called "the real world".

[esh]

I like how a major ISP in Japan recently began enforcing a "strict monthly cap" of ... 800GB.

[pctech]

Indulge in a bit of Youtube, High Definition iPlayer and 4oD and watch your bandwidth use rocket as who wants to talk to people anyway  

[esh]

I wonder if ISPs like IDNet see a large peak at the end of the month as people try to use up remaining bandwidth?

[Technical Ben]

I wonder if ISPs like IDNet see a large peak at the end of the month as people try to use up remaining bandwidth?

Probably more like the wages... it all stops at the end of the month because your skint.

[Lance]

I wonder if ISPs like IDNet see a large peak at the end of the month as people try to use up remaining bandwidth?

Possibly levelled by people using their connection lightly having hammered their connection earlier in the month? I wonder of there is a peak early in the month as people use their new bandwidth?

[pctech]

I find I'm nearly out of bandwidth a couple of days before its due to renew.

[magicred]

I don't mind going over my usage,after some of the previous isps that I have been with,idnet is worth every penny.

[Holodene]

I'm limited by 180KB/s throughput. Just wait until I get FTTC. 

[Rik]

 

Just wait till we all get it.

[vitriol]

Just had a look at my average bandwidth usage for the past few months.  Seems to fluctuate between 10 and 20GB per month.  I think it depends what demo's and videos are available on Xbox Live.  I'm on the Home Max package 30GB Peak / 60GB Off Peak.

So nowhere near hitting the limits, but frustratingly too high to drop my package down a level to save some money.

[gyruss]

I don't use anywhere near my quota but thats because i've been plagued by a bad connection.

I generally play world of warcraft and certainly the latest set of patches i've downloaded are 5.odd gig for the pre-cata stuff.

Other than that i like youtube and grab the odd download here or there, but nothing like i used to download years ago.  I don't use torrents much except for wow patches.

Depends though i suppose, once my lines stable i'm sure i'll likely stream media more.