How much bandwidth does online gaming use?

[Major Isoor]

So, here's the story - as mentioned in my "Steam Error" thread, I've got a lousy bandwidth deal, and can't really get a much better one due to where I live. The grand sum of it is 5GB per month. So, what I'm wondering is, how much does online gaming use? Since I've got a pair of sisters who love to download music and crap (although lately they're sort of learning to keep it down a little) and my dad's not really that keen on the idea of online gaming, seeing as it's supposed to use up a fair bit (especially FPS', I hear)

So, what I'm wondering is, how much does online gaming generally burn up, like in a one-hour session, for example? (worst-case scenarios are wost welcome here) Since I do enjoy the odd game, and am looking to increase the amount Ii play online a little, but I don't really want my dad (and the rest of the family by extension) on my back about it.

EDIT: And my PC appears to have a speed of 100mbps, so how well exactly will that fare? I don't seem to lag/load slowly with stuff like Company of Heroes or World in Conflict, but I don't normally do stuff like FPS' online, so I'm not sure how well it'll do

[PsychoMantis]

Is your internet actually a 100 mbps connection? Because that would be incredibly expensive. What you are seeing is what your network card is able to go up to. Most people tend to have an internet between 1mbs-15mbs.

To find out how much of your bandwidth you are using just download a bandwidth monitor.

[Major Isoor]

Ah, ok - I'll download one when I get home, as well as try and check out the actualy speed of the internet connection

So yeah, what would you say an FPS with 3-4 people playing, (Rainbow Six Vegas 2, or Left 4 Dead, probably) probably with something like TeamSpeak going as well? Since I've been getting mixed reports from Google - some saying "intensive stuff like COD4 only uses up 10MB an hour", or some things suggesting it's 40-80MB an hour.

[Goku]

After a little research on my own, I came to the conclusion that it is entirely dependent on the game you are playing and the servers you are using. I know that's not very helpful, but if your research came up with 40-80 MB an hour, you should be able to play for an hour or two at a time. You just have to watch those sisters of yours.

[dimmerwit]

Teamspeak varies by codec. The PIMI one is 23.9kbps which is about 11.38 megabytes per hour. Not too much of a huge hit.

And you really can't go for an unlimited service? Does South Australia still use telegraph poles to do internet or something?

[Major Isoor]

Nah, I just live at the edge of the suburbs/country, so I'm stuck with a wireless broadband deal.

On the plus side, however; I think my dad is starting to care less about how much bandwidth we use, since I had to download around 250mb (I worked that out for myself since Steam didn't tell me, so there's a good chance I'm a bit off ) of stuff for L4D, and my dad checked, saw no problem with that, then downloaded over 500mb of Windows XP service packs for a friend of his, who has an even worse connection

[dimmerwit]

The L4D updates total about 280MB, so you're quite close. Do you get charged if you go over the limit?

[Major Isoor]

Nope, it just slows it down a little. Meaning a lot, probably. Still, we apparently haven't actually used much, so hopefully I'll be able to take a nice slice of the pie - my sisters have obviously ran out of things to watch on YouTube, probably

And my maths skills are obviously better then I originally thought - since the speed of the download was constantly changing, so I just had to improvise

[Knilan_]

I can really relate to your problem as I'm also from Australia. The same problem happened to me Major, and my family and I constantly kept going over our download limit (I think it was 12 Gigs) all the time a few years back when we and my brother were constantly playing Counter-Strike.

I'm not sure how much downloads it 'eats up' but its alot. I mean we played like all day basically after school, weekends, hours and hours per day and ended up sometimes going over our limit halfway through the month and then getting our speed limited which got mum mad cause she couldn't do her online banking.

Since shes not good with computers we just told her we don't have enough downloads per month and we upgraded . Its been awhile since then and me and my brother don't play as much anymore do to a lot more commitments (were still pro at cs ). And i think we have like 25 Gig plan now

All I can say is an hour per day isn't going to hurt. My brother and I were playing like 3+ hours x 2 per day cause we were both logged on. Nevertheless, just keep an eye out on your limit on your ISPs email account usage page, and as someone said b4 keep an eye on your sisters. Constant Youtube streaming is a lot worse. Btw wat is your ISP? I live in Melbourne. Us think SA is a hole lol, but I've never been so yeah..

[Major Isoor]

haha, if you're from Victoria then of course you would think that about SA! lol

But yeah, we use "nuskope", which is a new company, I think. And unfortunately I've got a computer-literate dad, which isn't very good for me. And there's not much chance about us getting a better broadband deal, unless good ol' Kevin decides to give us what we've been asking for for a long time