Question about bandwidth (mbps)

[Taem]

My two sons want to run a minecraft server on their own computer. We have two choices:

1) Allow my sons to get their own IP at 25 mbps costing them each $34 a month.

2) Increase our bandwidth to 50 mbps for the household and they each pay me $20 a month for the upgrade.


How much bandwidth does the household use? The maximum I can think up is Netflix on the living room TV and from the Wii in the girls room (Netflix uses a max of 6-mbps for a high-def program per), 5-smart phones downloading apps (1-mbps total at most), three computers running internet intensive apps (3-mbps each), Wii-U, DVD-player, and Xbox all downloading updates (1-mbps each is my guess). So, at absolute most we're talking 25-mbps if my math is correct. Add onto that the minecraft server and fluctuations in bandwidth from the server to our house and my current 25-mbps seems a little lite for my son's minecraft server to also be sharing the load. So which option do you think is best, #1 or #2?

[Taem]

I contacted my IP and asked them their opinion and the one sales man I talked to said he thought I should get two separate IP's because even at 50-mbps, with so many items pulling bandwidth, service will still bottleneck to whichever device is pulling the hardest. But someone on another website said it really shouldn't matter and that 50-mbps is the way to go.... so confused!

[Chesspiece_face]

Have you done any tests running many of these things together? It shouldn't be that hard to start up the Minecraft server on your existing service and then have people try to watch videos on the individual devices to see what point things start to slow down.

Right now I'm running a Minecraft server as well as Netflix downstairs and Youtube streaming through the Xbox up here on a 20 mbps connection. If other people jump on the internet the Youtube stream will not keep up.

I would try to figure out how intensive the Minecraft server is going to be on your present service and try to make you decision based on that. The seperate IP will probably be the most reliable bet however as most internet speeds will fluctuate based on time of day and other factors. The speed they list is just the maximum you can possibly get.

[Drasca]

Taem,

Minecraft is limited on upload speed, and it won't really be affected by your family's download usage.

Keep in mind what you've listed is the download speed, not the upload. The upshot is you have to figure out how much your ISP's upload speed is capped at. It is typically 10% of the download, but that's not always true. You must investigate what their upload speeds and caps are.

For minecraft in particular, a quick google shows two major factors. Upload speed and ram.

http://canihostaminecraftserver.com/
This calculator is highly conservative in its estimate though

and

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1190...-per-user/
The forum user listed a 3 mb upload hosting 20 people with no major issues. Later posts showed the math behind it, vs typical player usage (majority of them standing in place / running as opposed to flying).

How big's your family? I'd be more concerned about how well your router handles the different streams. Depending on what is wired and what is wifi, that's a potential wifi mess for the router.

If I were you, I'd be upgrading to the 50. If I were your son, I'd be paying for my own dedicated ip and enjoy my own seperate streams. I have a 50 mb connection, and it is really nice for steam and other things.

[Taem]

I'm exceedingly happy with the new speed ! The cable guys came out yesterday and fixed the speed, although I had to spring for a new modem capable of handling those speeds. And now... every speed test we attempt shows my download speed between 60-65 mbps. H-O-L-Y.... ! The upload speeds have been consistently above 4-mbps. I really didn't notice much slow-down before at 20-mbps, but now it's nuts! And we did some tests during peak hours and still holding true at those numbers. Sick!

In regards to the router, we have newest Cisco Linksys EA6500 and the Universal Media Connector WUMC710 (we got the bundle a few months back when it first came out) which has speeds faster than plugging directly into the wall, so the speed tests coming from this hub are actually faster than on my computer plugged directly into the router! Nuts.

Anyways, I think you are right about they would benefit from having their own IP more than sharing one, however the entire household is happier now that we have 50+mbps , and I've seen zero lag or drops in speed even when, last night, I had netflix going on the two tv's, was doing a speed test on my computer, and my sons server was up. I love it!

[kandrathe]

Anyways, I think you are right about they would benefit from having their own IP more than sharing one, however the entire household is happier now that we have 50+mbps , and I've seen zero lag or drops in speed even when, last night, I had netflix going on the two tv's, was doing a speed test on my computer, and my sons server was up. I love it!

I think you chose correctly. The server will have peak periods, which you can alleviate by avoiding lots of streaming at that time. Much of the time it will be empty, allowing you to utilize the bandwidth for other purposes.

And... With a little more home networking and bargain hunting, you could shape your IP packets. http://www.ebay.com/bhp/packetshaper A packet shaper sits between your internal network, and your firewall. It can filter or adjust bandwidths by TCP/UDP port. (ie. Give priority to the servers packets, over the netflix packets.) Since streaming video assumes terrible bandwidths they have large buffers, so you'd probably not notice any difference.