Upload usage - what's it consist of?

Factual Questions
1

My ISP provides a day-to-day breakdown of my internet usage, dividing it into “download usage” and “upload usage”.

I’m pretty sure I understand what’s meant by “download usage”. It’s also straightforward how I can reduce it - simply reduce what I download from the net (and not just music, movies, etc., but also whenever I view even a plain old web page, its content adds to my download total; so visiting fewer sites would also reduce it).

I am less clear about what’s meant by “upload usage”. More to the point, what kind of stuff is being uploaded, by whom or what, and what, if anything, can I do to reduce it?

So, my questions:
How is “upload usage” defined, or equivalently (I think), what does “upload usage” consist of?
What can you do, if anything, to reduce “upload usage” (short of not going on the net!)

Thanks!

2

I don’t know how your ISP defines upload usage, but the technical definition would be data sent from your computer to some place on the internet.

As for what it consists of, here are some of the most common uses (aside from the obvious things like uploading a video/file, torrenting, sending an email, etc.):
[ul]
[li]any type of chat or messaging (including aim, skype, facebook chat, etc.)[/li][li]online gaming (even stuff done through your browser)[/li][li]posting comments[/li][li]torrenting[/li][li]downloading (to tell the server each chunk of data (referred to as a receive window) was successfully received[/li][li]even basic web browsing involves some upload in the form of http requests to a web server.[/li][/ul]

3

Your upload usage is everything you send from your computer to the Internet. For example:

  • Every time you load a web page, you have to send data to make that request
  • When you post on a message board, you have to send your post to the board
  • If you watch a streaming video, you have to send a request to the server asking for the specific video you want
  • If you are video chatting you have to send a stream from your camera/microphone to the other person.
  • Every email you send is an upload
  • Every IM you send is an upload
  • If you maintain a website you have to upload files to it
  • Every time you post on Facebook or Twitter, etc.

To reduce your upload usage:

  1. Use the Internet less,
  2. Shut down your sexy webcam business.
  3. Don’t use peer-to-peer filesharing programs.
4

Excellent! I didn’t know about some of those contributors.

Thanks for your helpful and very prompt (!) responses.

Do you know of any rules of thumb regarding either typical upload “cost” per webpage visited or even the expected ratio of UL/DL for “typical” browsing, i.e. no overt downloads like music or movies, or and now overt uploads like putting up a video on YouTube or posting on the SDMB?

Thanks!

5

Requests that your browser (or other web-enabled program) sends out are typically itty-bitty, relatively speaking – in the low hundreds of bytes each. Note that a request for a web page or just about anything else may actually consists of several requests. And if the web page contains a bunch of links to other stuff (typically, every advertisement, every picture, and lots of other little pieces of the page), then every one of those requires a separate outgoing request from your browser to get it.

That said, though, I think browser requests, all total, are probably insignificant. The real bulk comes wherever there is actual, you know, data (other than just requests and headers) getting moved around. The vast bulk of that data is coming from web sites to your machine.

Any actual chunks of data would be the things you need to look at. That would include any files you upload to anywhere; outgoing e-mails (including any attached files); any on-line web forms where you fill lots of data into little boxes; etc.

If you want to take the time to play with this and learn more, look into WireShark. This is a free program you can download that will spy on all data moving in and out through your network interface, and display it to you. I think it includes data analysis tools too. Sit and watch this for a while, and you will see that the network is a busy place!

6

Another thing you’ve surely noticed: If you have your DSL modem or cable modem or router sitting someplace where you can see it, you’ve certainly noticed that the blinkin’ lights blink a lot. Even when you don’t think you’re doing anything on-line.

There’s a whole infrastructure of data protocols going on behind-the-scenes on the internet, with all the nodes that make it work continually keeping in contact with each other and talking to each other. Your very own modem or router, right in your house, is part of that. Your computer is even part of that. You can see all that with WireShark too.