A guide for the rest of us.

megavolt

I was just thinking, I know that the whole point behind ADSL / Cable / Broadband is to have the whole multimedia experience straight to your desktop, but how much do we use??

I know the power users among us could easily hit a few Gigs a week downloading tonnes of stuff but I will probably be doing a bit of streaming, gaming etc. I only have a 10 Gig hard drive so even If I do want everything my PC can't handle it and no matter how big a hard drive I get it's going to fill pretty rapidly.

To give myself and others the proper picture, maybe those on trials or with decent connections (even dial up users) could print up a report telling us how much they use over a week or month, what kind of user they are - mostly games, downloads, streaming audio etc, then we can get everyones details together work out averages and say if you are a light user this is what kind of connection you need and will also maybe prove to eircom that these caps are totally unrealistic. We can also calculate from this the price a heavy userwill have to pay once they hit the cap.

dahamsta

Good idea, but I think it should be pointed out...

I know the power users among us could easily hit a few Gigs a week downloading tonnes of stuff but I will probably be doing a bit of streaming, gaming etc. I only have a 10 Gig hard drive so even If I do want everything my PC can't handle it and no matter how big a hard drive I get it's going to fill pretty rapidly.

Although a lot of *us* will use broadband for downloading MP3's and ISO's, broadband isn't really about data transfer yet, it's about speed and productivity. For the majority of people, broadband is a boon because it's always-on and it's quick. Webpages come down faster, so you can find the information you're looking for quicker and without worrying about those per-second call charges. Email is delivered immediately, so it becomes more like a conversation, which is often easier to handle. It'll take two to ten years for broadband to really become about data tranfer.

adam

jmason

Hi megavolt,

I'm using DSL with a 3gig cap here in Oz at the moment.

Basically, for 95% of the time, I'm using it for the same stuff I used dialup
for -- reading my mail, surfing the web etc. The other 5% is a bit of
Counter-Strike, and the occasional streaming audio/video etc.

Each month I get through about 1.5 gigs, I'd guess (it's hard to tell, and the
ISP's reporting system is crud). So each big download is preceded by "I wonder
if this is going to hit the cap?"

In other words, it stops me using the high-bandwidth things; I don't want to
risk it. So it's a total dampener on real broadband use. However it still
kicks ass compared to Irish dialup

PS: don't think of it in terms of the size of your hard drive. Do you
already keep EVERYTHING you download now? I doubt it!

jbkenn

I have been monitoring my Powernet DL/UL since September using DUmeter

DU Meter Weekly Report
					
Period (From)	Period (To)	Download	Upload	Both Directions	Dial-Up Time
09/09/2001	15/09/2001	124,263 KB	14,344 KB	138,607 KB	0 sec
16/09/2001	22/09/2001	429,424 KB	36,281 KB	465,705 KB	0 sec
23/09/2001	29/09/2001	820,478 KB	325,179 KB	1,145,657 KB	0 sec
30/09/2001	06/10/2001	715,614 KB	66,369 KB	781,983 KB	0 sec
07/10/2001	13/10/2001	1,048,001 KB	68,401 KB	1,116,402 KB	0 sec
14/10/2001	20/10/2001	1,710,150 KB	424,145 KB	2,134,295 KB	0 sec
21/10/2001	27/10/2001	810,013 KB	360,509 KB	1,170,522 KB	0 sec
28/10/2001	03/11/2001	994,215 KB	384,212 KB	1,378,427 KB	0 sec
04/11/2001	10/11/2001	755,122 KB	909,908 KB	1,665,029 KB	0 sec
11/11/2001	17/11/2001	872,434 KB	308,946 KB	1,181,380 KB	0 sec
18/11/2001	24/11/2001	912,857 KB	176,903 KB	1,089,759 KB	0 sec
25/11/2001	01/12/2001	172,990 KB	12,635 KB	185,626 KB	0 sec

Jesus I hope this looks better when I post

jbkenn

i]'code' should work better than 'quote'. - adam[/i

megavolt

Cheers for that guys. I'm going to setup a program on my pc at work & at home and I'll post up the values per week and month.

Anyone have a suggestion as to a good personal web monitor thingy? That DUmeter might be just what I'm looking for.

It'd be great if everyone got involved - just so we can compare costs of dial up,cable & adsl. Maybe when people see the hard data they'll realise what our beef is.

Dustaz

ive been on adsl since august now but only installed dumeter a couple of weeks ago ill post results when i build a decent pattern.

im pretty sure i havent gone wildly over the 3 gig cap since the first month ive had it (went doolally downloading that month:) ).

Adam is entirely correct. the major asset about broadband is the speed and always on aspect. I jump up from the tv to check what film is on or who starred in it all the time now, simply because im connected and it doesnt take half an hour to load webpages, im sitting down again before a 30 second commercial is over.

i play cs a hell of a lot, and download what i need, but tbh once the thrill of downloading entire movies wore off, i havent downloaded that much really.

dahamsta

Adam is entirely correct. the major asset about broadband is the speed and always on aspect. I jump up from the tv to check what film is on or who starred in it all the time now, simply because im connected and it doesnt take half an hour to load webpages, im sitting down again before a 30 second commercial is over.

That would be the ultimate in coolness for me, as well as an obvious productivity boost. How many times have we sat in front of the telly and thought; "What's that guy's NAME?"; or "What does that mean?" More importantly from a genuine productivity approach, how many times have we been working on something and needed an answer? Most of the time, we have to wait until we have enough questions to justify connecting, and by the time you do, you've forgotten half of it. With always-on, you open your browser and hit Google. Because you *know* the answer is out there.

It's depressing to have to live like this. *sob*

adam

oscarBravo

What Adam and Dustaz said, only more so. In my last job, I had an always-on (though expensive and fairly slow) Internet connection. If I wanted to look something up, I just did. I never bothered printing out documentation for my programming languages and tools, because it was easier just to surf to the online documentation. I looked up phone numbers online. Life was good!

Now, I'm self-employed and working at home. The Internet sometimes seems like a distant memory. I crave always-on Internet!!

Whaddya mean, no demand for broadband??!? Dammit, I could even live with FRIACO for now: I'd just set up a dial-on-demand router. Slow, but at least the cost is predictable. Always assuming, of course, that Eircom decide to be gracious enough to give me that second line... that reminds me...

*rings Eircom*