Okay so, exactly as the title asks. Me and my 6 roomates only have 60 gigs between all of us, and I don't personally think that's a lot but I'm also not interested in paying anymore.

So, tell me everything you know about what adds to your bandwidth.

When you download a 3 megabyte song, is that 3 megabytes added to your bandwidth limit? What about a 700 meg movie? Is that 700 megs to your bandwidth?

What about streaming videos/online tv/youtube/etcetc.

I told my roomates to turn off all uploading settings on their downloading programs, but I'm about 98% sure they won't. Ever. And I'm under the impression that they think that it's okay for them to download like maniacs.

Indulge me. Because there's no way in hell I'm paying through my butt in bandwidth charges for my roomates' downloads.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

Okay so, exactly as the title asks. Me and my 6 roomates only have 60 gigs between all of us, and I don't personally think that's a lot but I'm also not interested in paying anymore.

So, tell me everything you know about what adds to your bandwidth.

When you download a 3 megabyte song, is that 3 megabytes added to your bandwidth limit? What about a 700 meg movie? Is that 700 megs to your bandwidth?

What about streaming videos/online tv/youtube/etcetc.

I told my roomates to turn off all uploading settings on their downloading programs, but I'm about 98% sure they won't. Ever. And I'm under the impression that they think that it's okay for them to download like maniacs.

Indulge me. Because there's no way in hell I'm paying through my butt in bandwidth charges for my roomates' downloads.

Everything you download or upload uses your bandwidth. So if you download a 700mb movie then 700mb of your bandwidth is used up. If you say stream from youtube or some other place your using bandwidth. Even opening a webpage uses bandwidth, but its very little. If you and your roommates download alot then you might want to consider switching to teksavvy the have very high bandwidth caps for low prices.

Originally Posted by syaseen

Everything you download or upload uses your bandwidth. So if you download a 700mb movie then 700mb of your bandwidth is used up. If you say stream from youtube or some other place your using bandwidth. Even opening a webpage uses bandwidth, but its very little. If you and your roommates download alot then you might want to consider switching to teksavvy the have very high bandwidth caps for low prices.

>_< That's outrageous. Do you know how much bandwidth streaming videos takes? Or a general formula/rule to follow.

And my roomates aren't interested in changing companies, apparently it's "too much work."

Originally Posted by lawleypop

>_< That's outrageous. Do you know how much bandwidth streaming videos takes? Or a general formula/rule to follow.

And my roomates aren't interested in changing companies, apparently it's "too much work."

It depends on the stream quality and the length of time you're watching it. I watch videos online which streams at 1080p and it's a lot.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

>_< That's outrageous. Do you know how much bandwidth streaming videos takes? Or a general formula/rule to follow.

And my roomates aren't interested in changing companies, apparently it's "too much work."

It depends on the site if your watching a 10 min youtube vid then i think about 45mb. If your streaming from divx/xvd like form ninjavid then about 350 for a tv show and 700 for a movie.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

>_< That's outrageous. Do you know how much bandwidth streaming videos takes? Or a general formula/rule to follow.

And my roomates aren't interested in changing companies, apparently it's "too much work."

YouTube videos probably take between 10 to 50 MB on average depending on whether or not they're HD. PDFs usually 1 to 10 MB.

Six people on a 60 GB cap is pretty bad. Bell, Cogeco and Rogers really need to learn that this is the friggin 21st century and you can get more than just email on the internet.

I would try to switch to TekSavvy if I were you. The 200 GB or unlimited bandwidth plans are probably cheaper than whatever you have now (although at only 5 Mb/s) and you get awesome customer support.

Originally Posted by VastHorizon

It depends on the stream quality and the length of time you're watching it. I watch videos online which streams at 1080p and it's a lot.

Wow 1080p. Send me some links.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

>_< That's outrageous. Do you know how much bandwidth streaming videos takes? Or a general formula/rule to follow.

And my roomates aren't interested in changing companies, apparently it's "too much work."

If youre with Cogeco, they send you emails when you get close to your limit, when you hit it, and when you exceed it. so you get lots of warning. At my old place, me and my roommate went over the limit literally every month, and never had to pay. just had to slow down or stop downloading at the end of the month.

Originally Posted by reeves

At my old place, me and my roommate went over the limit literally every month, and never had to pay. just had to slow down or stop downloading at the end of the month.

I think they're becoming more strict about enforcing things like this. I had Cogeco last year with my house mates, and we got quite a few "overage" charges.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

I think they're becoming more strict about enforcing things like this. I had Cogeco last year with my house mates, and we got quite a few "overage" charges.

That makes me feel sorry for my landlord. Our internet is included in our rent and I think hes gonna be seeing a huge ass bill this month cause we probably already went over the limit.

Originally Posted by syaseen

That makes me feel sorry for my landlord. Our internet is included in our rent and I think hes gonna be seeing a huge ass bill this month cause we probably already went over the limit.

Im pretty sure I alone have gone over the limit, and theres 6 people living in my place lol

You probably won't notive a different in speed with Teksavvy. I don't anyways. It's important to remember that Teksavvy's bandwidth include downloads AND uploads.

Originally Posted by reeves

Im pretty sure I alone have gone over the limit, and theres 6 people living in my place lol

Im in a house of 5 and we all download like crazy. So Im thinking at the end of the month when we'll probably have atleast 200gb at the end of the month.

Originally Posted by VastHorizon

It depends on the stream quality and the length of time you're watching it. I watch videos online which streams at 1080p and it's a lot.

Hmm... I generally don't believe in streaming things longer than 10 to 20 minutes. It's a big waste of bandwidth since your computer literally needs to redownload the file multiple times if you keep closing your browser or open the link on another computer using the same internet connection.

I generally store most of what I download, so that I can always come back to it later without using more bandwidth.

If your landlord is on Cogeco, you could suggest to him / her that they switch to the business package from Cogeco. The business starter package is only +$15 / month more and doubles the monthly data transfer limit to 120 GB. The SOHO standard package is +$50 / month and gets you 200 GB of data transfer per month plus and increase in download/upload speed as well.

If you do rack up big internet bills don't be surprised if your landlord asks that you and your roommates split up the overuse charge. Typically landlords would argue that the over data transfer charge is not part of normal use, etc etc.

The Cogeco business packages are here:

http://www.cogeco.ca/cable/on/en/bus.../forfaits.html