BB Download estimation

I'm just considering changing over to broadband (exchange finally enabled)
and trying to decide what sort of package will be suitable. Main problem is
download limits. I don't want to choose a package with too low a limit and
end up getting problems through exceeding it. On the other hand, I don't
want to pay unnecessarily for a higher limit if I'm never going to get near
it.

Two questions,

1. Is there an accurate way of finding out what my monthly usage is
currently? I'm on Home Highway with BTInternet at the moment.

2. This is probably a silly question... but, when looking at a web page,
would the page content - the text, icons, graphics, pics, etc count towards
my download limit? I'm thinking of documents with diagrams & pics that I
have as word documents and are maybe 300Kb for example. If I viewed such a
document on a web page, would that incur 300Kb of my limit?

Cheers

"Proteus" <@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:dctipg$bcg$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm just considering changing over to broadband (exchange finally enabled)
> and trying to decide what sort of package will be suitable. Main problem
> is
> download limits. I don't want to choose a package with too low a limit and
> end up getting problems through exceeding it. On the other hand, I don't
> want to pay unnecessarily for a higher limit if I'm never going to get
> near
> it.
>
> Two questions,
>
> 1. Is there an accurate way of finding out what my monthly usage is
> currently? I'm on Home Highway with BTInternet at the moment.
>
> 2. This is probably a silly question... but, when looking at a web page,
> would the page content - the text, icons, graphics, pics, etc count
> towards
> my download limit? I'm thinking of documents with diagrams & pics that I
> have as word documents and are maybe 300Kb for example. If I viewed such a
> document on a web page, would that incur 300Kb of my limit?
>
> Cheers
>

Dont choose Tiscali.

"Proteus" <@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:dctipg$bcg$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm just considering changing over to broadband (exchange finally enabled)
> and trying to decide what sort of package will be suitable. Main problem
> is
> download limits. I don't want to choose a package with too low a limit and
> end up getting problems through exceeding it. On the other hand, I don't
> want to pay unnecessarily for a higher limit if I'm never going to get
> near
> it.
>
> Two questions,
>
> 1. Is there an accurate way of finding out what my monthly usage is
> currently? I'm on Home Highway with BTInternet at the moment.

You could try a netmeter for a month to see what your average use is, I
guess...

Download this one: http://www.mefo-shop.de/readerror/NetMeter_v0860.exe
Install this and then check it after a month to see how much use you have
had.

>
> 2. This is probably a silly question... but, when looking at a web page,
> would the page content - the text, icons, graphics, pics, etc count
> towards
> my download limit? I'm thinking of documents with diagrams & pics that I
> have as word documents and are maybe 300Kb for example. If I viewed such a
> document on a web page, would that incur 300Kb of my limit?

Everything adds to your download limit, pictures, websites, any transfer
whatsoever all adds to the limit.

>
> Cheers

Unless you are into downloading music and software in large quantities then
something like the Plusnet basic service at £14.99 permonth wil be OK. That
is what I use. Avoid Tiscali, NTL, Tesco, Virgin and Wanadont!

Peter Crosland

On 4 Aug 2005 17:20 UTC, "Proteus" <@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I don't want to choose a package with too low a limit and end up getting
>problems through exceeding it. On the other hand, I don't want to pay
>unnecessarily for a higher limit if I'm never going to get near it.

Check ADSLguide.org, ISPreview.co.uk and net4now.co.uk and uk-bug.net
Also, see a page <http://www.mywebpages.org/Broadband-2005.html> of mine
that shows a number of the budget end accounts, most with quota limits.

Depends a little on what you plan to do, but there are accounts such as
the one I'm using with generous limits (only if you were downloading a
hundred GB or more a month might there be raised eyebrows) at 2000 kbps
for 14.99 a month. There are cheaper accounts from Metronet with a cap
on traffic, and other accounts from other firms to choose from, too. In
the last 30 days I've downloaded around 30 GB (a moderately heavy user
for streaming audio and video from webcams and movies). If you're not
desperate to use peer-to-peer file sharing (like BitTorrent) or binaries
of news services, then it might be a suitable account (*) Peter M.

(*) Most 'free' setup accounts cover the activation cost if you stay
with the service for a year. Plus.Net has decided to put a much longer
length of time into use, so they cover the 50 +VAT activation fee over
a 5 year period, taking 20% off for each complete year you stay as a
customer (leave after 1 year and you'd pay 40+VAT, after 2 years,
they would want 30+VAT and so on).

--

UK ADSL <http://tinyurl.com/5jpa4> - Happy to save cash with Plus.Net!!

"Steve" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> Two questions,
>>
>> 1. Is there an accurate way of finding out what my monthly usage is
>> currently? I'm on Home Highway with BTInternet at the moment.
>
> You could try a netmeter for a month to see what your average use is, I
> guess...
>
> Download this one: http://www.mefo-shop.de/readerror/NetMeter_v0860.exe
> Install this and then check it after a month to see how much use you have
> had.
>
>>
>> 2. This is probably a silly question... but, when looking at a web page,
>> would the page content - the text, icons, graphics, pics, etc count
>> towards
>> my download limit? I'm thinking of documents with diagrams & pics that I
>> have as word documents and are maybe 300Kb for example. If I viewed such
>> a
>> document on a web page, would that incur 300Kb of my limit?
>
> Everything adds to your download limit, pictures, websites, any transfer
> whatsoever all adds to the limit.

Also remember that a cap also takes into account the upload transfers as
well as downloads.

Basically you need to total your upload and download amounts, and this will
be the true figure for the monthly useage.

How many hours do you surf a day? And do you do any file sharing etc?

Just to give you an idea, if you download a 250kb file 4000 times, you
will have download 1GB of data (or thereabouts)

Hope That Helps.

"Peter Crosland" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42f266ee$0$24049$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Avoid Tiscali, NTL, Tesco, Virgin and Wanadont!
>

Is Wanadont Datastream or IPStream?

> Is Wanadont Datastream or IPStream?

Avoid it anyway!

"Peter Crosland" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42f266ee$0$24049$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Unless you are into downloading music and software in large quantities then
> something like the Plusnet basic service at £14.99 permonth wil be OK. That
> is what I use. Avoid Tiscali, NTL, Tesco, Virgin and Wanadont!

Yes, it is only downloading software (or music) that has caused me to exceed 1GB
/ month.

--

Michael Chare

"Peter Crosland" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42f2847d$0$3486$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Is Wanadont Datastream or IPStream?
>
> Avoid it anyway!
>


Why?

What's the problem with Wanadoo ?

I been with them for around 3 years, using uncapped 512kbps B/B running 24/7
server

I have never had connection issues, or disconnects, or port blocking.

What issues have anyone else had ?