BT Usage (Xbox 360)

Just curious roughly how much bandwidth the xbox 360 uses while playing games like call of duty modern warfare 2 (or) the latest guitar hero + voice communications?

My nephew is in deep doodoo because their recent household bt broadband bill was sky high (25GB over the limit) and his mother thinks his xbox usage is the cause but I was unsure if he could really rack up that much data just playing those?

I play a ton of games online (on the pc) but my bandwidth never really goes up that much so I am confuzled!

Is there even a way to tell who has used all the monthly GB allowance ? Especially with it being an xbox 360...

Edited by deleted (Sat 12-Jun-10 09:04:46)

Well it can depend on a number of things like the amount of voice chatter going on, if they are host etc, but when I checked my 360 bandwidth usage last year (as I was looking to change ISP's) when playing games it ranged from 10-40meg an hour.
So if those figures are still close then even going by the highest figure then your looking at 600+ hours of game play just to hit the amount it went over the limit.
More than likely downloading of game demo's on the 360 if anything 360 related IMO, but I'd say more chance of bbc iplayer/youtube if anything.

Sorry I know this is my first post to the forum, so I thought what better way to introduce myself, than to help by answering a question.. As XBOX Live gamer myself I can say bandwidth isn't an issue unless your downloading alot of demos. I have end users that browse the internet and play on xboxlive and are using aprox 8gb per month.
Xbox live can exceed the limit if he was downloading demos, pics, themes and watching sky player. 25gb is alot but can be possible as demos and games is at most 6gb to download. Which if he downloaded 4 at 6gb each for example that would account for 24gb.
Beware of ISP'S Fair usage policy as this can come as an unexpected shock when you recieve your bill. Look online you can get bandwidth checkers install one on your PC as this can help save money and not get an unexpected penalty for exceeding your download allowance.I hope this is of help to you.

Do you know of any download counters (bandwidth checkers) that can tell what the XBox has used?

PRTG should suit.

Doesn't PRTG only work with certain routers though? Or need other stuff to go with it? I'm sure when I looked into using it, it seemed quite complex.

I have to admit I'm no expert, but it can't be simple or all these Networx and tbbMeter type things would be pointless. Dead in the water even.

All that's required is a Windows box and an SNMP capable router Most are including the 585 but for many Netgears, you'll need to enable it from here.

That just lets me log in, and displays a blank page?

Is there a menu entry for SNMP anywhere? Which model do you have?

834PN. I don't see a menu entry, but haven't probed in depth.

I certainly had a go with either a Linksys WAG54GS or Speedtouch 585v6, and gave up.

Bad night last night. Going to bed now ! See you tomorrow.

I'm unsure if this model has an easily available SNMP control interface although I think the DGTeam firmware reveals it.

[tune]red, red wiiiine, goes to my head yeah[/tune]

has he been downloading demos, videos, watching video streams on the xbox?

those can amount to that amount of usage easily.

Well I got on their computers and xbox 360 today and it turns out there is a very simple answer!

Someone was using their (unsecured) wireless internet connection, So now that I have cleared all that up, Problem solved Cheeky Little [censored]!

Fixed them up with some passwords and a little bit of knowledge and all it well, Cheers for the help...

In reply to a post by T1Cybernetic:

Well I got on their computers and xbox 360 today and it turns out there is a very simple answer!

Someone was using their (unsecured) wireless internet connection, So now that I have cleared all that up, Problem solved Cheeky Little [censored]!

Fixed them up with some passwords and a little bit of knowledge and all it well, Cheers for the help...

It can happen accidentally.

A friend of mine when he first went wireless couldn't understand why sometimes his email worked fine and other times he wasn't recognised when trying to access the service.

He was unknowingly connecting to the stronger signal from the house at the other end of his back garden when that router was on, his USB wireless connector being on the window-ledge and the wrong side of his tower.

My son is a gamer and he tends to watch Sky through the Xbox so It would be brilliant if there was a piece of kit that monitors usage through the router.
I use the Homehub v2 because of broadband talk and it does state the Data transmitted/received in MB but it does not agree with the Networx monitors I've installed on each PC even when the Xbox is not in use.
BT are dragging their heels in providing a daily online usage on our accounts, there is an ongoing thread here -
http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-in-Home/10Gb-monthly-u...
Any help would be appreciated.

Del.