Don't understand bandwidth

My daughter wants to change her provider (small unheard of local company)
but doesn't want to pay much more than the 16.99 a month she's paying now.
PlusNet offer packages from 14.99 dependant on bandwidth. the 14.99 package
comes with 1GB per month going up to 5GB for an extra £6. But what does that
actually MEAN? She's out at work all day so only uses it a weekend and in
the evenings and just uses it for email, online banking and various shopping
sites. she doesn't download music or films or games but she does tend to
just leave it on when she's in. How much bandwidth is she likely to need?
thanks

"sniper" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:411b680c$0$49863$(E-Mail Removed)...
> My daughter wants to change her provider (small unheard of local company)
> but doesn't want to pay much more than the 16.99 a month she's paying now.
> PlusNet offer packages from 14.99 dependant on bandwidth. the 14.99
> package
> comes with 1GB per month going up to 5GB for an extra £6. But what does
> that
> actually MEAN? She's out at work all day so only uses it a weekend and in
> the evenings and just uses it for email, online banking and various
> shopping
> sites. she doesn't download music or films or games but she does tend to
> just leave it on when she's in. How much bandwidth is she likely to need?
> thanks

1GB/month sounds like it will be fine for your daughters use

Just leaving a computer on/connected but "inactive" does not use much
bandwidth

You can confirm this by installing a program such as http://www.dumeter.com/
for a month - it measures the amount of bandwidth used and you can use it
for free with 30 days.

Regards
Sunil

sniper wrote:
> My daughter wants to change her provider (small unheard of local
> company) but doesn't want to pay much more than the 16.99 a month
> she's paying now. PlusNet offer packages from 14.99 dependant on
> bandwidth. the 14.99 package comes with 1GB per month going up to 5GB
> for an extra £6. But what does that actually MEAN? She's out at work
> all day so only uses it a weekend and in the evenings and just uses
> it for email, online banking and various shopping sites. she doesn't
> download music or films or games but she does tend to just leave it
> on when she's in. How much bandwidth is she likely to need? thanks

Just leaving it on doesn't use bandwidth. Bandwidth is a measure of the
amount of data transferred e.g. downloading a web site to your computer
transfers that amount of data to your machine.

If your daughter is not downloading large files, and does not do things like
listen to internet radio stations etc., it is unlikely she will use more
than 1GB in a month.

Out of mere curiousity, why does she want to change providers?

Dominic

"Dominic" <d.foulkes-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:IaednfIP2eVt9IbcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> sniper wrote:
> > My daughter wants to change her provider (small unheard of local
> > company) but doesn't want to pay much more than the 16.99 a month
> > she's paying now. PlusNet offer packages from 14.99 dependant on
> > bandwidth. the 14.99 package comes with 1GB per month going up to 5GB
> > for an extra £6. But what does that actually MEAN? She's out at work
> > all day so only uses it a weekend and in the evenings and just uses
> > it for email, online banking and various shopping sites. she doesn't
> > download music or films or games but she does tend to just leave it
> > on when she's in. How much bandwidth is she likely to need? thanks
>
> Just leaving it on doesn't use bandwidth. Bandwidth is a measure of the
> amount of data transferred e.g. downloading a web site to your computer
> transfers that amount of data to your machine.
>
> If your daughter is not downloading large files, and does not do things
like
> listen to internet radio stations etc., it is unlikely she will use more
> than 1GB in a month.
>
> Out of mere curiousity, why does she want to change providers?
>
> Dominic

Thank you.
It's because the current one (Eastserve - a wireless local community ISP
based in East Manchester) is down more than it's up and support is non
existent.

"sniper" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:411b791f$0$50865$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Dominic" <d.foulkes-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:IaednfIP2eVt9IbcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > sniper wrote:
> > > My daughter wants to change her provider (small unheard of local
> > > company) but doesn't want to pay much more than the 16.99 a month
> > > she's paying now. PlusNet offer packages from 14.99 dependant on
> > > bandwidth. the 14.99 package comes with 1GB per month going up to
5GB
> > > for an extra £6. But what does that actually MEAN? She's out at
work
> > > all day so only uses it a weekend and in the evenings and just
uses
> > > it for email, online banking and various shopping sites. she
doesn't
> > > download music or films or games but she does tend to just leave
it
> > > on when she's in. How much bandwidth is she likely to need? thanks
> >
> > Just leaving it on doesn't use bandwidth. Bandwidth is a measure of
the
> > amount of data transferred e.g. downloading a web site to your
computer
> > transfers that amount of data to your machine.
> >
> > If your daughter is not downloading large files, and does not do
things
> like
> > listen to internet radio stations etc., it is unlikely she will use
more
> > than 1GB in a month.
> >
> > Out of mere curiousity, why does she want to change providers?
> >
> > Dominic
>
> Thank you.
> It's because the current one (Eastserve - a wireless local community
ISP
> based in East Manchester) is down more than it's up and support is non
> existent.
>

Have a look at www.metronet.co.uk prices start from £11.75 per month,
this gives 200Mb per month, which is not a lot, after 200Mb, you pay
extra for what you use, but costs for additional Mb's are very
reasonable, and for a low usage user, it seems ideal.
There is no email account included in the package, so this must be taken
into consideration.

Bandwidth is a measure of the
> amount of data transferred e.g. downloading a web site to your computer
> transfers that amount of data to your machine.
>

no,
bandwidth is a measure of the capacity of your link - eg 512Kbps - the 512
Kilobits per second is the bandwidth.
some isps impose restrictions on the amount of data they will allow you to
download on a monthly basis but that is not affected by bandwidth.

dave.r wrote:
> Bandwidth is a measure of the
>> amount of data transferred e.g. downloading a web site to your
>> computer transfers that amount of data to your machine.
>
> no,
> bandwidth is a measure of the capacity of your link - eg 512Kbps -
> the 512 Kilobits per second is the bandwidth.
> some isps impose restrictions on the amount of data they will allow
> you to download on a monthly basis but that is not affected by
> bandwidth.

No, in this context, bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred
in one month. Strictly speaking, bandwidth is the allocation of frequencies
on the cable, but that is irrelevant to the OP's question, as is your post.

Dominic

> Have a look at www.metronet.co.uk prices start from £11.75 per month,
> this gives 200Mb per month, which is not a lot, after 200Mb, you pay
> extra for what you use, but costs for additional Mb's are very
> reasonable, and for a low usage user, it seems ideal.
> There is no email account included in the package, so this must be taken
> into consideration.

But you can use any existing email accounts you have and you get smtp to
send mail. I have been on Metronet for almost 12 months and my average
bill is around £16 a month. I don't game though.
Usual Disclaimer

Dave

--

Some people use windows, others have a life.

On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 18:25:15 +0100, in article
<9Padnde1--pkOobcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)> "Dominic"
<d.foulkes-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> dave.r wrote:
>> Bandwidth is a measure of the
>>> amount of data transferred e.g. downloading a web site to your
>>> computer transfers that amount of data to your machine.
>>
>> no,
>> bandwidth is a measure of the capacity of your link - eg 512Kbps -
>> the 512 Kilobits per second is the bandwidth.
>> some isps impose restrictions on the amount of data they will allow
>> you to download on a monthly basis but that is not affected by
>> bandwidth.
>
> No, in this context, bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred
> in one month. Strictly speaking, bandwidth is the allocation of frequencies
> on the cable, but that is irrelevant to the OP's question, as is your post.

I think the expression you're all searching for is 'usage cap'.

--

Brian Morrison

please observe reply-to address

On 12 Aug 2004, in uk.telecom.broadband, Brian Morrison wrote:

>I think the expression you're all searching for is 'usage cap'.

Indeed ! MetroNet seems ideal for this particular case and has
(see <http://support.metronet.co.uk/adsl/free-firewall> ) a free
firewall option to reduce the possibility of an attack (I would
recommend "Block commonly abused ports" for almost anyone) but
additionally, rather than using the cheapest USB modem, using
a budget router (as well as having a firewall - I hope there
is already one in place on the daughter's PC) would give yet
another ring of security (in case the MetroNet firewall is at
any time inactive, because of config problem or whatever).

MetroNet is used by a couple of my clients and both are happy
(I have to admit I don't know whether they#re using the firewall
from MetroNet but both have s/w firewalls on their kit anyway).