Question about bandwidth (mbps)

[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.