# Xbox 360 Bandwidth Usage!



## jayhusky (Jul 3, 2009)

Hey all,

recently bought a 360 and was wondering how heavy on the bandwidth the console is, was looking at how much it would take out of my bandwidth if i used it on Xbox live

if you need to know what games i would be playing etc it would be:

Halo 3
NFS Prostreet
Rockband 2

etc

I would be using voicechat on occassion.

Thanks for any info.


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## Sam (Jul 3, 2009)

Just go play it. : /

Each console that hasn been sold has three free xbox live 1 month trials that you can use simply by making an account. ( Has to be a new account each time ). Go try it out and see if it interferes or can play on your network. If not, oh well - it's not like you payed for online service. 


( Remember to sign up for silver. That's where it gives you the free trial. ).


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## ArielMT (Jul 3, 2009)

Minimum 512 Kbps connection required.

I had a hell of a time getting this out of Microsoft when I signed up a customer to hook up his 360 to Xbox Live.


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## Sam (Jul 3, 2009)

Is that upload or download?


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## ArielMT (Jul 3, 2009)

My understanding is both, and I vaguely recall Microsoft saying both.

The tiers of DSL that my ISP offers are 256/256, 1.5M/896, and 3-7M/896.  One can't support it, the others more than meet the requirement.  That means I don't really have a way to test.

What I've been told happens if your connection doesn't meet that minimum is that it works, but maps take literally hours to load.


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## jayhusky (Jul 3, 2009)

Sorry i just re-read my post.

I actually meant to refer to a download limit.

such as 10GB, how much it would take out of it.


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## Runefox (Jul 3, 2009)

Yeah, it's not _absolutely ohmygodeverythingelsefroze_ heavy on bandwidth, but on a slower connection, you're likely to have problems. That said, all the broadband here can support it, with the exception of the "Ultra Light" package our cable provider offers. Most of the time, you'll be getting a megabit at the least if your provider is any good. I guess it'd be different in other parts of the world, but it really shouldn't be too difficult to manage.

EDIT: In my experience, the 360 doesn't really do much in terms of bulk transfer of data unless it's downloading a purchase or an update. If I had to guess (and I haven't measured it), I'd say in the hundreds of megabytes at maximum per month. Some accounts I've managed to dig up say that people who have shaped 1GB caps (that's what they called it; I think this means that they buy blocks of bandwidth a la carte) can last about three months of heavy usage.


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## Kaamos (Jul 3, 2009)

Runefox said:


> EDIT: In my experience, the 360 doesn't really do much in terms of bulk transfer of data unless it's downloading a purchase or an update. If I had to guess (and I haven't measured it), I'd say in the hundreds of megabytes at maximum per month. Some accounts I've managed to dig up say that people who have shaped 1GB caps (that's what they called it; I think this means that they buy blocks of bandwidth a la carte) can last about three months of heavy usage.



This, basically.

You would only have to worry about reaching your limit if you download demos, downloadable content (DLC) and other stuff a lot. Just playing a game doesn't take up much at all.


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## jayhusky (Jul 3, 2009)

Ok thanks for this.. 
I was looking to go unlimited bandwidth anyway because of the content that gets downloaded through my laptop and such.

I will bear this all in mind.


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## CaptainCool (Jul 3, 2009)

yeah, i think so, too. online gaming doesnt need much bandwidth, otherwise lots of people i know wouldnt be able to play online because they have bad connections^^
if you use xbox live for online gaming only it would be 100mb at the most i guess.


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## CyberFoxx (Jul 3, 2009)

From my talking with other Rogers customers who have a 360 (And sometimes a PS3) and also have the same 60GB/month limit as I do, they have said that their console don't make a dent in their monthly bandwidth limit. In fact, IIRC, one said that he streams more music than what both his 360 and PS3 have downloaded on average.


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## jayhusky (Jul 3, 2009)

fair enough you have a 60GB/month allowance I was defining the smaller ones 
1,2,5,8,10 etc


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## AshleyAshes (Jul 3, 2009)

A ROUGH guess for any online gaming is about 10KB/s in up and down data streaming on average.  So somewhere in the area of 35MB/hour.

This would of course vary game by game.  I'm figuring that for online games where a lot of information on each player needs to be transmitted like an FPS game or such.

You'll probably see a lot less if you're just playing Uno.


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## CyberFoxx (Jul 3, 2009)

furcity said:


> fair enough you have a 60GB/month allowance I was defining the smaller ones
> 1,2,5,8,10 etc



Ouch, sorry, I meant no disrespect. Just, I've always thought that the main ISPs up here in Canada were the biggest pricks in the world with their caps. More ya learn I guess...


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## Runefox (Jul 3, 2009)

Not really the biggest pricks in the world, more some of the biggest pricks in North America and parts of Europe on the whole. There are other providers both in and out of those areas that are even worse about it.

What makes Rogers crooks is that they not only cap your bandwidth, but they also throttle P2P/torrent traffic as well as all encrypted traffic. And they'll swear up and down that they don't, but they are absolutely notorious for it.


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## jayhusky (Jul 4, 2009)

CyberFoxx said:


> Ouch, sorry, I meant no disrespect. Just, I've always thought that the main ISPs up here in Canada were the biggest pricks in the world with their caps. More ya learn I guess...



thats ok, its a UK ISP anyways, they're generally quite crap.


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