# Fake-pit all you Xbox360 and PS3 owners - For stealing my bandwidth. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 13, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471 "2008-02-13T18:51:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/1 "2008-02-13T18:51:52Z")
Due to the sudden explosion of you console junkies in my local Area my ADSL has been reduced from 2 meg to about 380k in the evenings. My ISP are working on the problem, and we may one day have 8Meg broadband, but 380k is slower than the OOOOLD 512k that was common for beginning broadband. Some people tell me that ‘contention’ (local heavy use effecting bandwidth) doesn’t have much of an effect. But the guy at the ISP reckons this is usually true, but loads and loads of new users have popped up with these consoles connecting to the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/2 "2008-02-13T18:57:27Z")
Well, if it makes you feel any better, if it’s truly online gaming that’s using all that bandwidth, then the ISP can fix things by installing more capacity in their network. Bandwidth requirements of online games are relatively predictable and stable. It’s P2P that causes real headaches for the ISPs – they can install as much capacity as they like, and the P2P applications will just keep increasing their bandwidth usage until the network is saturated again. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/3 "2008-02-13T19:06:41Z")
[QUOTE=Rysto] Well, if it makes you feel any better, if it’s truly online gaming that’s using all that bandwidth, then the ISP can fix things by installing more capacity in their network. Bandwidth requirements of online games are relatively predictable and stable. It’s P2P that causes real headaches for the ISPs – they can install as much capacity as they like, and the P2P applications will just keep increasing their bandwidth usage until the network is saturated again. [/QUOTE] Do Xboxes and PS3s use idle time to download anything? Free games, patches? ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/4 "2008-02-13T19:11:13Z")
Oh, good point. Games can get patches on the XBox 360 IIRC. I’m not sure if the patches are big enough to use any significant amount of bandwidth ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/5 "2008-02-13T19:22:09Z")
Eh, just bomb them back to the Atari 2600. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/6 "2008-02-13T20:04:03Z")
You have cable? That’s your problem right there. You’re sharing your connection with your block. Serves the Comcasts of the world right. They should get on their horse and get us all fiber optic, the sooner the better. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/7 "2008-02-13T20:05:55Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] You have cable? That’s your problem right there. You’re sharing your connection with your block. Serves the Comcasts of the world right. They should get on their horse and get us all fiber optic, the sooner the better. [/QUOTE] I’m not on cable. I’m on ADSL, which uses the telephone infrastructure (sp?) Normally, if I am within a certain distance from the nearest exchange (six miles I believe) I can expect to get the full 2 meg. And up until 2008 I was doing. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/8 "2008-02-13T20:21:14Z")
I thought the big selling point of DSL was it wasn’t affected by your neighbors’ usage the way cable is. That’s like cutting off your phone service because your neighbors are using their phones. What up with that? I’ve always had bad experiences with DSL. Cable isn’t perfect, but I’ve never noticed a degradation in speed because of my neighbors. The service goes down occasionally, but while it’s up, it’s up at full speed. I’ve used Comcast for years. No, I’m _not_ one of their fans. But they’re better than DSL. ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/9 "2008-02-13T20:22:13Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] You have cable? That’s your problem right there. You’re sharing your connection with your block. Serves the Comcasts of the world right. They should get on their horse and get us all fiber optic, the sooner the better. [/QUOTE] I did the ADSL thing for a long time because of this theory. My connection was down at least once a month and I never got the speed I was supposed to get. Meanwhile, everyone I knew was on cable and loved it. So I dumped my ADSL for cable and guess what? Never been down once, always been as fast as I ever needed, no problems whatsoever. And I’m in a neighborhood that loves their internet, judging by the fact that I can detect no less than five wireless networks besides my own. Go cable. It’s Comcastic©! ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/10 "2008-02-13T20:23:50Z")
Just to add: I’d probably do cable if I could (Doesn’t cable offer massively increased speed?) … But being surrounded by Sea, Cable isn’t available here. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/11 "2008-02-13T20:35:54Z")
[QUOTE=Leviosaurus] I did the ADSL thing for a long time because of this theory. My connection was down at least once a month and I never got the speed I was supposed to get. Meanwhile, everyone I knew was on cable and loved it. So I dumped my ADSL for cable and guess what? Never been down once, always been as fast as I ever needed, no problems whatsoever. And I’m in a neighborhood that loves their internet, judging by the fact that I can detect no less than five wireless networks besides my own. Go cable. It’s Comcastic©! [/QUOTE] Obviously your neighbors don’t download movies or porn. I’m guessing that this could be the real source of the problem, rather than gamers. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/12 "2008-02-13T20:37:07Z")
What’s up with FiOS? My Comcast is sorta slow here at the apt. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/13 "2008-02-13T21:01:58Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] I thought the big selling point of DSL was it wasn’t affected by your neighbors’ usage the way cable is. That’s like cutting off your phone service because your neighbors are using their phones. What up with that? [/QUOTE] To put it simply, with cable you and your neightbours all share a single connection with your cable provider’s network. That shared connection is the bottleneck. With DSL, you have a direct connection with your provider’s network. The network is the bottleneck. So with cable if your neighbours are using a lot of bandwidth you notice problems. With DSL, a lot more people in the surrounding area having to be using a lot of bandwidth before you notice problems. There are no guarantees on the Internet – it’s always best-effort service. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/14 "2008-02-13T21:27:16Z")
[QUOTE=Flander] What’s up with FiOS? My Comcast is sorta slow here at the apt. [/QUOTE] My buddy in DC has it, one of the lowest levels of it, and it’s filthy-fast. ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/15 "2008-02-13T22:09:16Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] Obviously your neighbors don’t download movies or porn. [/QUOTE] I’m having trouble composing a response to that statement without collapsing into a fit of laughter. If that statement were true, I must be surrounded by the last remaining Puritan colony. ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/16 "2008-02-13T22:12:12Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang] Just to add: I’d probably do cable if I could (Doesn’t cable offer massively increased speed?) … But being surrounded by Sea, Cable isn’t available here. [/QUOTE] Ah, fair point. I bet it’s tough to get anything out there, besides notoriously deadly motorcycle races. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/17 "2008-02-13T22:18:39Z")
[QUOTE=Leviosaurus] Ah, fair point. I bet it’s tough to get anything out there, besides notoriously deadly motorcycle races. [/QUOTE] We get by. Meat is expensive (It’s local Meat. I think there’s a ban on imported meat) We lack some of the fast food chain stores (but we have McD, KFC, subway) We have most high-street chain stores, M&S, Burtons etc. We have a Tesco store. We have a decent mobile phone network, good Broadband (until recently) We even have electricity! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/18 "2008-02-13T22:21:47Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang] We even have electricity! 😃 [/QUOTE] How are those indoor toilets coming along? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/19 "2008-02-13T22:44:01Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] My buddy in DC has it, one of the lowest levels of it, and it’s filthy-fast. [/QUOTE] Damnit! That just makes me jones for it even more. I’m in south Florida, the east coast at that (the popular side) and according to the availability map, FiOS is available in freaking Tampa?! Fuck Tampa! Fuck the west coast of Florida and their speedy download performance. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471/20 "2008-02-13T23:07:08Z")
[QUOTE=Leviosaurus] I’m having trouble composing a response to that statement without collapsing into a fit of laughter. If that statement were true, I must be surrounded by the last remaining Puritan colony. [/QUOTE] I was giggling furiously as I typed it myself. Maybe they’re undercover Amish? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-pit-all-you-xbox360-and-ps3-owners-for-stealing-my-bandwidth/437471.md?page=2)