View Full Version : Explain STM to me please.
Can someone explain STM to me please. I see the times and how much you can download, but I don't see what you get dropped to once you go over.
I am downloading the client for Conan on line as I got a beta key from them. The game comes in at just over 13gb. It's taken about 50 hours to download on my already mostly underused but still crippled service.
If I'm downloading at 485kbs which is the fastest I've seen this 4mb connection reach what should it or could it drop to but still continue to work. Or does it not work and you can't download anything else. I'm a bit confused.
How does this STM effect online games?
My BB connection is quite badly broken and has been since not too long after Virgin came one the scene. I know a lot of you harp on about how it was mostly just a name change thing, but it's funny how my BB worked flawlessly before they became involved and they seem incapable of fixing what they are calling a utilisation issue. Damn it if it didn't take them eight months just to admit that it was their fault and not mine.
If you're on a 4MB connection, you'll be limited to 1MB download and 128kb if you download more than 800MB or upload more than 125MB between 4PM and 9PM.
So that would kill World of warcraft then? I'm sure playing an online game would shift more that 1mb of data in five hours.
This seems totally screwed up. So if I download a gig of data they then throttle me for 5 hours making it impossible to do anything other than email and view pages, is that what you are saying ?
xspeedyx
09-05-2008, 16:06
1mb speed is still quick enough to play online
techyguy4
09-05-2008, 16:07
Size 2 meg: download 300MB
upload: 150 MB
D/L speed: 1Mb
Upload: 128kbps
Size 4 meg: Download 800MB
Upload: 325 MB
D/L speed: 1Mb
Upload: 128kbps
Size 20meg: Download 3GB
Upload: 1250 MB
D/L speed: 5Mb
Upload : 192kbps
These are the upload and download limits for all the three packages.If you exceed this limit, then the speed will be reduced to the mentioned upload and download speed.
e.g. if you are on 2meg connection, then the download speed would be reduced to 1 meg. and the upload speed would be 128kbps.
So that would kill World of warcraft then? I'm sure playing an online game would shift more that 1mb of data in five hours.
This seems totally screwed up. So if I download a gig of data they then throttle me for 5 hours making it impossible to do anything other than email and view pages, is that what you are saying ?
not 1mb of data, 1mb in terms of speed so your 4mb connection becomes a 1mb connection for 5 hours, playing games will be fine at that speed
Okay, that's fine. Now if only I could get them to fix it I'd be more than happy with a mighty 1mb connection. LOL.
1Mb is the speed it dropps dwn to AFTER you download 800MB of data, still OK for playing WoW though the upload will also drop to 128Kb which might be pushed via WoW.
13Gb should be doable overnight on a 4Mb connection and if you start it at 9pm you shouldn;t get STM'd unless you;re in one of the new trial areas. Also the 485Kbps (bits) is probably 485KBps (bytes) which is about right for a 4Mbps service.
Guys, can I just point out (in case there is any confusion), there appears to be a mixing of bits and Bytes in your posts (8 bits to the Byte)
L Broadband = 4Mb(its)/s, or 500KB(ytes)/s (snazzy, I am not sure if you meant 485KB/s or 485Kb/s -if you mean 485 KiloBytes/second, that is about right for 4Mb).
Yeah, I never noticed the bits and bytes, doh! The reason for all the questions is that my broadband is still knackered and Virgin seem unable to fix it, that's why it took over 50 hours to down load 13gb of data left over night twice and still hadn't done it, but there are other issues with the connection. It's just over subscribbed and Virgin just keep giving me new dates each time one passes and it's not fixed.
Graham M
09-05-2008, 17:58
Wow can be played reasonably with Voice Turned Off on a dialup connection.
May I ask how your connection is broken?
Sorry if you'e posted it elsewhere but I must have missed the thread.
It's broken in as much as at peak times, for example about 20 mins after 10 million kids get home from school, my BB speed drops to such a slow speed that most nights there's little use going on the net or down loading.
Virgin admitted it's a utilisation issue, but it took about a year for them to admit it. Also I have jumped through hoops with their inane tech support to get it sorted but it's still not fixed. They give me date after date for it to be done, but it's never sorted and they just give me a new date.
I never call tech support anymore 'cos there is nothing they can say that will get it fixed. They know exactly what it is. They either can't be bothered or are incapable to doing it. Going back to BT is too expansive and I really don't want to. I have all my services with Virgin.
One day I'll get up and totally see my backside with it. That's the day I just say. " Virgin, you are taking the proverbial. Come and get this crap outta my house."
Wild Oscar
09-05-2008, 21:41
Why is going back to BT too expensive?
If your BT socket is still live (still got a dial tone) all you need is a BT line rental .. you could get other services to suit what you need after that .. that's what I'd do I think.
gothicdraconian
09-05-2008, 22:10
Wow can be played reasonably with Voice Turned Off on a dialup connection.
Yes, it uses no more than 1-2 KB/s in each direction. I think the most i ever used during a WoW session was 40MB downloaded.
We have a freight terminal a few 100 yards from our house. This means No TV unless its cable or Sat' I have holes on the front of my house from 4 dishes over 16 years. Everytime I need new gear it had new brackets or fittings. So that's a no no on that.
My BT wire is coiled up outside doing nothing. No box inside. On virgin my phone is free is it not?
If I go to BT don't I have to pay for the phone line and the BB? surely that works out way more expensive.
---------- Post added at 23:24 ---------- Previous post was at 23:19 ----------
Just had a look. £24.99 is the cheapest BT with no limits. That's way too much. They give you all kinds of stuff you don't need. All I want is BB with no limits. I don't care what speed it is, just as long as it works.
---------- Post added at 23:25 ---------- Previous post was at 23:24 ----------
I can't use their digi box either as I can't get any TV at all unless it's as stated above.
mcgeezer
10-05-2008, 00:32
Snazzy,
The chances are you are using a server that is not capable of supplying your download bandwidth... or in otherwords it can't upload at 4mb/s.
Now lets clear up this bits and bytes *****.
Basically, what it boils down to is that computers are a thick is *****, or perhaps think in black and white, on or off, or the technical term for it is binary (0/1). Now computers are made up of what's called transistors... millions of them actually, and if you supply a transistor with 0.6volts lecky, it's regaurded as charged...or on or 1 or powered up or buzzing like a fridge, if it's got less than 0.6 v then well.. it's regarded as 0, off, lights out... now back in the 40's this might have had all the hippies parents starting a binary revolution but in reality terms of computing, it meant a load of arse. So some idiot, came up with the octet which is like 8 transisitors all lines up together with anyone of them being either on or off at any one time... (well they came up with the Nibble first which is actually 4 bits - 68000 Atari ST programmers raise your hands and rejoice)... these 8 transistors...which these days they call bits, make up what we call a byte, from then on you have a kilobyte which is'nt like just 1000 bytes... but actually 1024 bytes because computers really don't like odd number but appreciate anything that's divisible by 8 which infact in the example here... anything below 1000 would'nt be a kilo so the next number on the factory line is 1024... you'll find that if you divide 1024 by our 8 it will give you a few of the binary digits in the bytes which might be any of the bits in the byte...such as 0,1,2,4,8,16,32,64 or 128.
Well roll forward a few year after the ZX spectrum days and things started getting a bit more weirder... because... we then had megabytes to deal with, which is... would you believe it 1000 * 1 Kilobytes.... or 1,000,000 bytes a Megabyte!!! hirrahhh!... getting closer to your 13Gb download!. basically for megabytes you apply the same sort of ***** you had for bytes and kilobytes to kilobytes and you get megabytes. Megabytes were great, I remember getting my Amiga 500 memory expansion module to make it have 1Mb..... (not 1mb...mind you... that would only be 1Mb/8 which would be 128Kb... which the ZXSpectrum Plus 2 had.. and was.. actually a decent machine).. anyway... and I once again... was buzzing like a fridge with my 1 Megabyte of memory in my Amiga.
Well... after a while... like obesity in America, it multiplied again a thousand times and Microsoft with their operating system needed 1000 times more memory to hold its operating systems... which is... where wer are today, yes Snazzy we need a Gigabyte.... and infact you've just downloaded 13 of them... over 50 Hours which is hilarious as most people on 20Mb can download 13 Gb (Gigabytes....not Gigabits), in about an hour and 10 mins... so given that your bandwidth should be about 5 times slower than mine... you'd expect to download the same amount in 6 hours (during the night ofcou...bollix to it.. am off to bed.. av had to much lager down the bar.
Bits and bytes have already been explained in a much simpler way already.
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