How do I test my upload??

Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 11:21 pm

This may be a stupid question, but I would like to know how I can do a simple benchmark to determine my BW. My upload to newsgroups is 75 KB/s how does that pertain to my upload on Kai or does it? So my Bandwidth on Kai should be... 256, 512, 1024, 1024+?

The reason I would like to know b/c I would like to host games on Kai but it may be better for my buddy to host as he is on cable. However, his upload is capped slower than mine at 60 KB/s. I'm on telus DSL, regular high speed package (1.5 Mb). If these both suck I might think about upgrading my package to a home network package (2.5 Mb), what should I be looking for?

At any rate I seem to have no problems w/ lag while hosting as long as the ping is 100 or less.

Thanks, Diablo911.

Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 11:46 pm

call your isp and believe their lies, or download a BT client and try to transefer a very popular file.

the more popular the better, let it simmer for a few minutes and you'll see your max upload speed.

mine is 100KBps +, though my isp claims it should be in the 900-1000kbps range.

Kai Enthusiast Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 252

Diablo911 wrote:

So my Bandwidth on Kai should be... 256, 512, 1024, 1024+?

You're suppose to choose upload speed, not download. However, 75 KByte = 600 Kbit.

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:14 am

his upload isparamount if he wants to host, so even just for his own peice of mind, 512kbps or better is good for hosting

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:21 am

So I should be ok to host then b/c my u/l is 600 kbps?? My max download bandwidth is much greater but I don't think that that is important if I am hosting. Thanks for the quick replys.

Team XLink Moderator Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 309

www.broadbandreports.com

speed tests available there

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:53 am

Thanks m8... I actually just stumbled upon a similar link b4 checking in on this post again( http://www.dslreports.com/stest ). My u/l bw was reported to be 524 kbps and my d/l was 1060 kbps... but I'm downloading something right now on IRC and I didn't want to stop it hehe. Still, it gave me a good ballpark estimate.

How's this for hosting big bandwidth games??... how many players should be allowed on the server, what should be the ballpark max ping time?

Soo many questions, Diablo911

Kai Enthusiast Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 252

Depends on what games you'd like to host.

DOS4GW wrote:

A normal game has a data flow of 2-5 kb/sec. 5 kb/sec equals 0.3 Mb/minute, wich again is 18 Mb/hour.

First person shooters usually generates much more data. So if your game has a data flow of 10 kb/sec, you upload 0.6 Mb/minute, thats 36 Mb/hour.

To find out how much bandwidth you are using for download, just multiply the total users, excluding yourself, with the amount of band used by the game you are playing. Remember that you don't download your own data, you only upload it. Therefor the upload is allways, and only your own dataflow. -Unless you host the game.

In example: You system link a high bandwidth game, wich generates a data flow of 10 Kb/sec, with 4 others, 5 including you, for 2 hours.

36 Mb/hour per user x 4 hours x 4 other users = 36 x 4 x 4 = 576 Mb downloaded.
36 Mb/hour from you in upload x 4 hours = 36 x 4 = 144 Mb uploaded.

Total amount of bandwidth used after 4 hours playing is 720 Mb.

Check wich games that uses high and low -bandwidth here.

The total amount of data exhanged on a 10 Kb/sec game, as in this example, played for 9 hours with 10 players, including yourself is apx 3.2 Gig.

Games: http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/?go=games

It's ok for all low-band games, like racing, fighting, and sports.
You cannot host a 16-player game on halo or other high-band games, however you should be able to host a 7/8-player high-band game.

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 1:12 am

I don't really care how much bandwidth I've used up by the end of the session I just want to make sure that it doesn't lag during play. I'm not sure if I'm understanding you right but if I have a 512kbps upload and I'm playing a fps w/ a flow of 10 kbps then I could theoretically play w/ 51 other people while hosting on system link w/o lag providing their ping times are low??

I think the bandwidth is much higer for most xbox fps' if this is the case b/c I've experience lag w/ much less people w/ decent pings. What I'm really looking forward to hosting is Halo 2 when it is released on the 9th of Novemember and I want to make sure my internet package will be adequate to host lag free matches for 12 or more players (Though this won't truely be able to be answered until it is out).

Plz clarify, Diablo911.

Kai Enthusiast Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 252

Read it again if you don't understand it, I can't say it much clearer. As you can see it was a qoute from an earlyer post, if you don't care about the total download just ignore it.

Yes, in theory you can play a 51 user fps game if the host has high band up and down, and low latency.

You upload 10 Kb/s. You download data from 51 other users. 10 Kb/s pr. user X 51 users = 510 Kb/s X 8 = 4080 Kbit = 4 Mbit

In most cases lag doesn't come from a host with low band, it comes from high latency.

In other words, you need a 4 Mbit down / 80 Kbit up -line for this.

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 1:33 am

No worries about the hourly usuage... that's interesting. I did understand what you were saying until you pulled out the "X 8" on the last reply, where did that come from. And pardon the other lame question: What is latency, and what can I do to reduce it?

Kai Enthusiast Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 252

JMEL CORRECTION: 8 bits in a byte :)

To find Byte from Bit devide. Ie. 512 Kbit/s upload = 512/8 = 64 KByte/s upload.
To find Bit from Byte multiply. Ie. 75 KByte/s upload = 75*8 = 600 Kbit/s upload.

JMEL EDIT: Does this make sense?

Latency = ping time

It's the time it takes from one sends a request to the reply comes. Basicly, it's "lag" in the system. It doesn't have anything to say on the total speed, when downloading or uploading, but it has a great deal to say when you play games online - when you need a quck response.

How to reduce latency; Keep everything wired, and keep the wires from being in a pile (if your wires are long). Also keep the wires from being close to high power/electro magnetic fields.

Wireless are like candy for latency. You'll never get a good ping if you're on wireless.

Kai Admirer Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 400

I'm may try not using the wirless for once when I have a RSL match and see if it helps.

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 2:01 am

DOS4GW wrote:

8 Bit = 1 Byte

To find Byte from Bit devide. Ie. 512 Kbit/s upload = 512/8 = 64 KByte/s upload.
To find Bit from Byte multiply. Ie. 75 KByte/s upload = 75*8 = 600 Kbit/s upload.

Capish?

I totally have it now... my mistake was that I didn't notice an upper case "K" in the original quote you had for me (I thought you had to kbps not Kbps). Thus I thought you were pulling numbers out of your ass... but it all makes sense now.

ping = latency... Now I get that too. Wise are you.

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 4:19 am

Diablo911 wrote:

DOS4GW wrote:

8 Bit = 1 Byte

To find Byte from Bit devide. Ie. 512 Kbit/s upload = 512/8 = 64 KByte/s upload.
To find Bit from Byte multiply. Ie. 75 KByte/s upload = 75*8 = 600 Kbit/s upload.

Capish?

I totally have it now... my mistake was that I didn't notice an upper case "K" in the original quote you had for me (I thought you had to kbps not Kbps). Thus I thought you were pulling numbers out of your ass... but it all makes sense now.

ping = latency... Now I get that too. Wise are you.

uppercase KB not Kb, don't confuse more people

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 4:25 am

the best way to refer to it is..

kbps and KB/sec ( Kilobits per second and kilobytes per second )

and same goes for other measurements..

mbps and MB/sec etc etc..

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:19 am

dfunked wrote:

the best way to refer to it is..

kbps and KB/sec ( Kilobits per second and kilobytes per second )

and same goes for other measurements..

mbps and MB/sec etc etc..

That's what I meant... it just didn't come out that way. So now I'm thinking about upgrading my DSL package so I can better serve on xlink.

Cheers, Diablo911

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 1:51 pm

do it do it do it

ask about wimax when you call.

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:08 pm

And to help/confuse you all more, here is my little txt file I like to keep handy!

Quote:

The Speed System!

It's a quasi-metric system ...

Mbps (megabits per second) vs. Kbps (kilobits per second) vs. bps (bits per second) vs. K/sec (kilobytes per second)

1.5 Mbps = 1500kbps = 1,500,000bps = 183.1K/sec

8 bits to a byte, 1024 bytes to a K (actually KB, KiloByte)

It confuses a lot of people.

Er ... so to actually answer the question...

Most people are familiar with files being measured by KB or MB (megabytes) ... so if you want to figure out how fast you'd transfer a file and you know how fast your connection is in kbps, you'd have to do the math.

A 1 megabyte file is 1024KB ... so if you had a 1300Kbps download speed ...

((1300 * 1000) / 8 / 1024) = 158.69 (K/sec)

1024 / 158.69 = 6.54

So ... you're downloading a megabyte of data every 6.54 seconds.

for gaming, Upload is the speed that counts when hosting becasue almost everyone has a Download equal to or greater than their upload speed!