*ALL* ntl Cap Discussion Here Please. (Part 2) - Page 21

roy · 06-07-2005, 23:25

I doubt a 1gb cap is going to effect gaming, but it would be interesting to know as I also do online gaming. Obviously you dont download anything really, you just are on a server collecting information, so I guess you are downloading, but the information must be pretty small to get it so fast. I'm just using common sense here as I don't really know.

mrlipring · 07-07-2005, 00:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by roy

I doubt a 1gb cap is going to effect gaming, but it would be interesting to know as I also do online gaming. Obviously you dont download anything really, you just are on a server collecting information, so I guess you are downloading, but the information must be pretty small to get it so fast. I'm just using common sense here as I don't really know.

next time i'm playing halo 2 online i'll see. It'll vary from game to game, but it'll give us some kinda idea. It'll let us guesstimate how long you can play for in a month.

dragon · 07-07-2005, 07:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrlipring

next time i'm playing halo 2 online i'll see. It'll vary from game to game, but it'll give us some kinda idea. It'll let us guesstimate how long you can play for in a month.

i once played world of warcraft on 56k when i was away from home i think i transfered a grand total of 3mb in 2hours of playing, (might have been in 1 hour)

not sure how much it uses when playing on broadband but its actally supprising how little data it needs to send/recive to work

Ignition · 11-07-2005, 15:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragon

i once played world of warcraft on 56k when i was away from home i think i transfered a grand total of 3mb in 2hours of playing, (might have been in 1 hour)

not sure how much it uses when playing on broadband but its actally supprising how little data it needs to send/recive to work

I love WoW, and it uses virtually no traffic at all, it's very efficient and is a reminder that most games are just transmitting *numbers* and your client does the rest of the work.

The main reason for 'broadband' requirements in games is voice comms, the games themselves rarely use much. Certainly FPS games don't really have that much excuse to use a ton of bandwidth beyond sloppy netcode.

Hans Gruber · 11-07-2005, 17:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignition

The main reason for 'broadband' requirements in games is voice comms, the games themselves rarely use much. Certainly FPS games don't really have that much excuse to use a ton of bandwidth beyond sloppy netcode.

Not really, the main reason you need broadband is for the low latency. Voice comms needs little more than a 56k connection.

Ignition · 11-07-2005, 19:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hans Gruber

Not really, the main reason you need broadband is for the low latency. Voice comms needs little more than a 56k connection.

No I was referring to games that state a 'broadband' connection as a requirement - this is mostly down to voice comms using up too much of the 33.6kbps upload V90/K56 dialup has.

Stuart · 11-07-2005, 21:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignition

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hans Gruber

Not really, the main reason you need broadband is for the low latency. Voice comms needs little more than a 56k connection.

No I was referring to games that state a 'broadband' connection as a requirement - this is mostly down to voice comms using up too much of the 33.6kbps upload V90/K56 dialup has.

After all, as you say, all most games would need to transfer (apart from voice comms) is the position of any players and movable objects within the game. Unless you have thousands of objects moving within the game, that's not going to use an awful lot of bandwidth.

Chrysalis · 17-07-2005, 22:13

I discussed somethign with an ex ntl customer today, and he mentioned about changes coming 21 august this year as in things been more enforced is there any truth to this? he had no proof. But there is something that has changed I dont know when, but the 1 gig day cap is now 30 gig a month as shown on the signup page. Although I am currently not bothered about the current soft cap, A hard enforced cap of 30 gig does scare me as I know I will breach it (average usage 40-70 gig) but I feel as I download 90% of my stuff early morning NTL can do more to allow higher usage. Nevertherless if this does happen on the 21st august with no options for people such as myself then I will end up leaving and signing up elsewhere. This incidently stopped my friend signing up and its how I found out about the change, he probably uses the net for 10 hours a week but refuses any capped service he just wants peace of mind of garantueed unlimited use.

dragon · 17-07-2005, 22:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart C

After all, as you say, all most games would need to transfer (apart from voice comms) is the position of any players and movable objects within the game. Unless you have thousands of objects moving within the game, that's not going to use an awful lot of bandwidth.

actually I was suprised that how little bandwith some games do use, i've played world of warcraft on 56k when i was away from home and i think i totaled about 3mb transfered for the whole time i was playing (cant remember if it was for 1 hour or 2) and that included questing though an instance in a party and some time spent in one of the capital cities.

i have no idea what the bandwith usage is on the broadband but i don't think its much!

both me and a mate have played on his 300kps ntl and it ran fine (and there was a 3rd computer connected downloading windows updates at the time aswell).

rikesh · 19-07-2005, 09:14

hi id just like to ask if any members have been punished for going over the new ntl cap limit? if so, what exactly do ntl do?

thanks,

Gogs · 29-07-2005, 09:07

Is there any way I can find out how much of my 3GB cap I have already used this month?

sherer · 29-07-2005, 10:38

you will need to install a meter program I use DU Meter.. do a search on google and you can find it

Gogs · 29-07-2005, 13:51

Cheers

Bluestraw · 14-08-2005, 10:19

Hello everyone. Sorry if I'm asking a very common question, but I'm new here and I don't want to read all 28 pages of this (and the previous) capping threads!!!

Has anyone on a 3Mbit connection actually had any action taken against them by NTL for going over their limit? I'm seriously tempted over to NTL as I'm too far from the exchange for 2Mbit ADSL - and with the 10Mbit coming 'soon' it sounds even better. But the limit of 30Gig (even the proposed 75 for 10Mbit) seems totally crazy for a ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£38pm product!!

Mauldor · 14-08-2005, 10:35

BlueStraw the place we call home, to answer your question from "My Point of View" is as follows really...

The CAP as we know it is a recommended Cap, if you abuse your connection and it effect a lot of people in your Area then I am sure NTL will be having a word or two. Now Capping as the thread title says is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good in that there is other ISP's that have no cap but people are finding there connection a bag of spanners and people leave there downloads / Upload (P2P) going 24/7 - Having a Cap can stop this happening as Home connection are shared - if all 200 Users all downloaded at once, you wont quite get that 3mbit you paid for, then of course you will be complaining won't you??

Most ISP I think are moving to a different Model, you get the fastest Speed you line can take (in the case of ADSL) and you pay according to your useage per month.

So to sum up Breifly then (my Guess by the way)....
ATM is a Soft Cap - as is not really Enfoced..
They WILL bring in a Hard cap for Def...then again most will - so you cannot really win..

Bluestraw · 14-08-2005, 11:17

Thank you for the speedy reply and warm welcome

I totally understand the need for some kind of Cap - but I schedule my downloads to run off-peak (overnight), which is actively supported and encouraged by my current ISP (Plusnet). Therefore, although I have a heavy monthly usage, it's not affecting others, and so nobody minds.

Sounds like the NTL policy is not so clearly defined, but hopefully there would be some common sense to allow a usage pattern like mine. Running at 3Mbit/s, I'd be happy to make all my downloads between 2am and 7am!

Do other people do this sort of thing? Anyone out there with a 3Mbit/s connection who successfully downloads a LOT per month, with no 'troubles'?

Chrysalis · 14-08-2005, 18:40

Yes currently its a soft cap which is very unlikely to affect you, what has upset people is it is unclear in the t&c the exact details of the cap and there is no time of day discrepancies, if it was a cap that only applied during peak hours I think ntl would win with everyone.

PC_Arcade · 16-08-2005, 16:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluestraw

Do other people do this sort of thing? Anyone out there with a 3Mbit/s connection who successfully downloads a LOT per month, with no 'troubles'?

Yeah, me for one

No troubles (yet), but they're coming

Radeon · 18-08-2005, 04:13

I have been NTL for the last 3 yrs and am extremely happy with their service, probably only lost my Internet connection about 5 times in 3 yrs

, currently on the 3mb service, have always used NTL fastest service, being honest I use a lot of bandwidth, on average every month my total for download and uploading, totals around 90gb per month + I upload about 2.50gb every day, and have done so for ages ( due to P2P

)

I have never had a warning from NTL or any of my friends who use similar amounts of bandwidth per month, at the moment I don't think NTL give a dam about their caps but that might change when the upgrade to 10mb broadband, just hope they use softcaps then to, will soon find out

Phlashman · 18-08-2005, 10:25

Just got a warning letter from NTL for going way over my download cap. They say unless I get it to under 30gb during september they'll either cut me off or reduce my service while "paying the same or less" than I am currently!

Has anyone got one of these before? Have they been cut off?