Just a quick question about how Steam works.

The home broadband / network (in the middle of nowhere) pootles about 1-2 MB which is enough for most things

When the Boy logs onto steam to play games it seems to go pants for the rest of us on the home wireless

Does Steam steal bandwidth by some stealty means ? I've had to go upstairs to unplug the router (wait 15 mins) and plug it back in again to get back online !!

Cheers

Shaun

 

I think steams works in the same sort of way as a torrent client. Because there is so much happening in real time ie the chat and game it slowly kills your bandwidth, just as if you were downloading a movie.

 

Is it downloading updates?

I've noticed that Steam will sometimes start downloading updates as soon as it launches and it really hammers the net connection until it's finished downloading.

 

If its downloading updates/games then it can max out your connection (mine does) but if he is just playing multiplayer games it should not have much effect.

It also has a singleplayer offline mode, but i found that it will not enable unless the internet really is not switched on (ie cable pulled out) you cant seam to just select offline mode when it knows an online connection is available.

Are all the computers in the household using wireless?

 

check ya games area in steam see if any are updateing,

As Sticky said are u all wireless and which verion G ? N

 

Looks like it's been behaving itself tonight !! The boy has been on Steam so I guess it's just one of the problems living in the countryside



Shaun

 

Damn, do you not have a data package on your phone?

I cancelled my broadband account at work (im posting from my laptop now) and now i use my phone tethered, and i get better speeds than that!