Mediacom → Halo 4 bandwidth usage

I was wondering if anyone knows how much bandwidth this game uses. My average had been about 120 gig a month for the whole family.(with 2 xbox 360's,5 laptops, 4 pc's plus netflix streaming devices. And like I said we were using around 120 gig a month. My son got halo 4 for christmas eve and my bandwidth meter says we have went through 51 gig in the 3 days since. That means at present cap we will hit it in 15 days and had never been close before.

So my question is does it use that much?

I am thinking we might be grandfathered in with no cap anyway. But just not sure if I should worry or if I should checking into something else.

I also thought about moving to a higher package but was told I am locked into a 2 year contract since they changed it about 6 months ago.

Maybe, half a gig a day? Not nearly what you are seeing there. Are you sure you are reading your meter correctly?

Yeah, the one on mediacom page. most the pc's have not even been running since everyone is busy with new toys. But both boys have been running both xboxes about 12 hours a day since christmas. I also sharted doing a search and seen a person saying they can eat 80 gig in a jam session weekend of playing Halo 4, but I even find that hard to believe. I know when we just had 1 i had to upgrade my router to handle 2 because they are hogs but 50 gig in 3 days seems insane.

Every since mediacom put in a bandwidth cap meter I check it alot. I also asked the boys if they were streaming youtube or something 24/7 on their laptops while they play and they said they were not. The other halo's were hogs but not enough to notice that much. Was just wondering if anyone knew for sure. I am sure it will not be as bad when they go back to school after break.

Unfortunately we do not have a way to monitor what programs or devices are using the most. You may want to check in your router for any connected devices that you don't recognize. It's possible someone has made their way into your wireless network and started downloading things.

Well if he just got an xbox. Maybe he's trying demo's of games, which can be 2 gigs or more each. Downloading maps can be few gigs for halo you could easily get to that if a person is brand new to xbox 360.

It's not Halo 3 game play that's doing it I can assure you that much. But all the other stuff combined could get you there to 50G quickly.

I say don't panic and just keep an eye on things.

Out of curiosity, even if you can't monitor which programs or devices are using the most, you would in theory be able to break it down day by day right? Hour by hour? Then the OP could at least compare that data with the hours he knows the Xboxes are in use.

Herein lies exactly the problems people are afraid of when it comes to caps. It's downright difficult to track all bandwidth usage at the router end, at least with some older models of router. You can custom flash them with firmware, but that's not something all of us are comfortable doing. So in the end, we're stuck just trusting that the ISP is measuring correctly, and we really have no way to verify that. Unlike the water or electric company, there's no oversight to make sure that things are being measured accurately.

Well, the xboxes are not new but Halo 4 is and they have been on vacation. But I have looked into it more also and there using custom maps and hosting games is supposed to use more also I guess. Normal usage without vacation would only be 1 to 2 hours a day. But both boys are gone this weekend and the girls do not play the xbox360's that much so I am going to try and see if there is a difference.
As far as others on my network I have that new cisco connect firmware that show me everyone who is online in my network so I think it would show someone unless they hide, lol.
But I do think you might be right about the new thing. I am sure my sons grabbed all the maps and anything or video they could get their hands on and had to do it twice for both boxes, So it might slow from that also.

Yep I won't do caps period. IT's nothing but BS to make more money. They are certainly a business and have a right to try and make money. However costumers have a right to leave as well. The biggest threat to America concerning catching up to the world in internet speed is caps and collision between companies to create a cap friendly environment. IT's mediacoms and other cable companies biggest fear that consumers will choose to drop video service and only use them as a isp to serve Netflix/hulu/amazon/roku/youtube/and soon redbox. Caps is a way to assert more control.

map packs and updates would do it but that should one off thing every now and then

the data rates needed for just playing are very low maybe 3 to 5Mbps if hosting and ~1-2Mbps if not

i wouldnt worry about it

we are on the 20mbps plan still keep meaning to switch to the faster but capped speeds and the 3 of us here are HEAVY users and dont come close to 250GB a month usage think our avg is around 175GB

edit just checked
most we have ever used ~220GB few months ago but 2 of us started playing MMOs again and had to up date them and that pulled around 100GB lol
so our avg is around 150GB

the new 30Mbps iirc is slightly higher cap but a hard cap where if your grandfathered in its a soft cap with no costs if you go over

The only other viable ISP option in this area, CenturyLink (and I use the term viable loosely, because 1.5mbit barely qualifies as broadband these days) also has caps. The problem is that once one person implements it, it's difficult to find someone that doesn't. At least in Canada some customers have access to TekSavvy, who offers cap-free choices at reasonable prices.

mediacoms caps are pretty reasonable too 350GB for 30Mbps and 1TB for 50Mbps and higher

Unless you changed your internet service after 08/01/12 don't worry about caps

I looked at my bill and think we change before 8/1/12 because it went to almost $170 a month and I was going to drop tv service. But I am pretty sure now its the boys. They have been gone for 27 hours and usage for that period has been 1 gig where it was 60 gig the 4 days before. So I do not think I worry to much because I would rather have them do what they want with their school vacation. I am sure numbers will go back down once they go back.
I too have never worried about the caps. They are pretty high just did not know I was going to have to wait 2 years if I wanted to upgrade from 20mbps line. Which has been plenty fast for having around 15 devices hooked to it has worked well.

Elios that's the point. They want people to say oh this won't effect me go ahead and do it. Then next year they roll out new packages and those caps are a little lower and the next year lower again with bigger penalties. Just look at how the telephone and cell companies went about there business. They advertised unlimited data when the iPhones came out. How long before they realized those customers had all the cash and found a way to get more money out of them?

As danawhitaker pointed out there isn't always even a competitor to choose from. IT's nothing but a attempt to decrease demand by heavily monetizing data. They say to themselves we can make more money, decrease demand, and control demand more by doing this. When there is lack of competition it causes a massive hit to internet deployment to rural areas and a slowing of better infrastructure development for everybody. When they can still get the same money and deplete demand why would they invest in better infrastructure? Consumers don't want caps and should vote with their wallets and complain to local franchise authorities, and even the fcc. Just look at Canada and how it's severely hurt there development.

IMHO Caps are a huge net neutrality issue and we should speak up to Mediacom. Even if it doesn't seem to effect us now. These type of controls are BS even if the data limits are reasonable at this point. IT's a critical internet development that has very dark future implications. Just look at Comcast and caps as a example. Use Netflix and it counts against your data limit but use one of the other video streaming services they own like a NBC or partner Hulu app and it NOT count against your cap.

halo 4 like most games uses very litle bandwidth, you could play litterally all day and use maby 500 megs.

i have to TRY to download 1TB of stuff in a month even on a 100Mbps connection

yes they COULD lower it but we have not seen that yet and if they do i think they know people start to leave

Not if they don't have competition in a region.

Not if later down the line they collude with completion to make caps standard business practice.

People should stand up to caps now! The only reason why those caps are reasonable now is so they can say to the FCC that our customers don't have a issue with it. They will argue that is saves the consumer money, and after it's a acceptable business practice BOOM rates go up. How much does your cable bill go up each year now for TV?????

People need to understand our deployment of high speed is horrible for the rural areas. The infrastructure as a whole compared to other first world countries is almost as bad. Instead of investing in bigger pipes they want to control the flow more. Thus slowing down the need for a bigger pipe. That means in 5 years you won't see that new high speed in ur area. They won't see the demand for it or the profit. Just go look at the crap Canadians have to deal with who have a cap system.