Gaming Useage

[#1]

On the....
http://portal.plus.net/view_my_broadband_usage/index.php (then click Internet Activities)
... page, does it not show "off peak" (free) gaming useage?
In the Gaming row, I see purple useage for peak time (paid-for), but no orange for off peak (free) useage.
I'm usually on my 360 til early morning so i'd expect to see some sort of off peak useage
As a side query, am I right in thinking that, all 360 games will automatically be sent on the priority traffic shaping due it only using the same three ports for xbox live?  Or is that not how it works?
Ta
Griff

[#2]

I'd have thought someone from plusnet may have known the answer to this. 

[#3]

Hi,
It will depend on a couple of factors as to whether it will display or not. Firstly, it depends on how much of your usage was gaming traffic, if for example your overnight usage (in total) was quite high and gaming was perhaps less than 1% of the total traffic it might not show up on the chart as it just isn't high enough.
There could be another reason for it, do you have a percentage showing or an amount?
All 360 games should get picked up automatically as gaming traffic and thus get the highest priority. Xbox games are relatively straight forward in design in that they don't tend to use different ports and so the set of signatures we've got for Xbox gaming tend to work fine with any new games that come out. The port is one of the things that is used in the detection but not the only part.

[#4]

Thanks for that Dave
Seems it's now showing some useage off-peak, and yes, it was as a percentage.
It may be all academic now though.
I didn't see any 'noticeable' difference in gaming speed/latency between my previous Premier package and the BBYWPro package, so I've just raised a ticket and asked to go back to my Premier package.
I just hope I now don't get any issues with my connection/worse gaming than I've got now. 

[#5]

To be fair there wouldn't be much noticeable difference between your premiere package and BBYWP, I changed from prem to pro a while back purely on the basis that it isn't restricted at any time for any reason.
So I guess that like everything on the web you'll only get whats available regardless of what you paid, I have give up with the squeeze every last drop out of my connection because of what I paid scenario and pay my money based on reliability and pain in the arse factor.
I think I lost some usage when switching to pro but I didn't use what I had to start with so horses for courses I guess.
Sorry for going off topic but it always makes me wonder why it concerns folk when they should be getting whatever mbps and they only get this mpbs when there are so many things out of their isp's control, i.e phone extensions,crap bt boxes,crap or badly set up routers even miles from the BT exchange with BT's crap maintenance of telegraph poles itself. I even have problems when there are too many birds roosting on the line or its raining 
BUT on the same thread it would be cool for PN to have a separate column in the members centre showing specifically what was your XBox or PS3 usage, this I guess wouldn't be too hard as they use only certain ports.

[#6]

Can we keep this conversation a little more "family friendly" please, or I shall be forced to get my soap and steel brush out to wash out a few potty mouths.
Thanks for your co-operation 

[#7]

Quote from: AverageWhiteBloke

To be fair there wouldn't be much noticeable difference between your premiere package and BBYWP, I changed from prem to pro a while back purely on the basis that it isn't restricted at any time for any reason. So I guess that like everything on the web you'll only get whats available regardless of what you paid, I have give up with the squeeze every last drop out of my connection because of what I paid scenario and pay my money based on reliability and pain in the [Censored] factor. I think I lost some usage when switching to pro but I didn't use what I had to start with so horses for courses I guess. Sorry for going off topic but it always makes me wonder why it concerns folk when they should be getting whatever mbps and they only get this mpbs when there are so many things out of their isp's control, i.e phone extensions,[Censored] bt boxes,[Censored] or badly set up routers even miles from the BT exchange with BT's [Censored] maintenance of telegraph poles itself. I even have problems when there are too many birds roosting on the line or its raining  BUT on the same thread it would be cool for PN to have a separate column in the members centre showing specifically what was your XBox or PS3 usage, this I guess wouldn't be too hard as they use only certain ports.

What's wrong with getting what you can for your money?
I get a 3mb line where I live (more than likely due to older wiring and being 1.8k from the exchange) and so no matter which ISP I go with, or what package I choose, the lines not going to be any quicker, without spending big bucks. So money isn't a factor.
I tried the Pro package to see if the plusnet traffic prioritising would help my gaming a little. If anyone has ever tried playing a FPS with a slower connection than the other players, they'll know it can make for a bad gaming experience.
After not seeing any noticeable difference I swapped back to Premier, because other than switching off interleaving (and risk a further problem on the line) I don't think there's anything else they could do. So why not get more for my pennies?
I know a lot of things are out the ISP's hands which is why I've not shouted like some people may do, and just accept my 3mb line. Oh, I've worked in IT/Network admin/support for 10 years and think my router and home setup is fine 
Roger, was this pleasent and family friendly enough 

[#8]

i know this is way of topic but wanted to reply to griff's post.
Your on a 3mb line well im on 2.5 but with dmt tool set my snr to 6db can get 3.5mb profile but since getting in to gaming i switched tatics on the approach to my line setup and have brillant ping times.
switch of interleaving(who dosent wen there a gamer) but this can cause dc and errors.
i found that i was syncing at jus over 3600kbps so this would put my profile at 3mb which when this happens i get dc once or twice aday.
so with the dmt tool i raise my snr up alittle to get it to sync at 3400kbps meaning my profile drops to 2.5mb now wen my line syncs at 3400kbps with a profile of 2.5mb at this current time i have not had a dc in a week and ping times are stable.
so what im saying is it seems on my line anyway if u get your line to sync just below limit for the next rise in your profile and keep your profile 1mb under what your line is sync at seems  with data thoughput not maxing the sync rate out gives a stable line with interleaving off.
if any one else reads this and has aa diffrent approach of getting a gd interleaving off long line to stay stable would like to hear that approach.
o and i use a netgear dg834g v4 which holds on to my long line good as well.
currently play a game called project torque and the server is on the west coast of u.s.a and get a stable ping of 120ms to it. asked some one from texas usa to do a ping to the server and they got 105ms so big up to plus net's traffic mangment and adding games to the titanium priotity in under a week from me finding these little gems know one else has come across yet.

[#9]

Quote

What's wrong with getting what you can for your money?

Like I said its horses for courses, for me less is more if you get what I mean? Obviously this isn't in your case as you have not noticed enough difference to justify losing your usage, as for me I work away through the week and my daughter has a little HTTP use hardly worth noting, I predominantly game at the weekends and usually late on when everyone's gone to bed so I was using nowhere near my limits.
The Pro package has no traffic restricted at any time so in theory its tailored for the way I personally use my broadband connection so I guess there is nothing wrong with getting the most for your money, thats exactly what I am doing 
To be fair I'm not griping about folk who try to optimise their connection to get good stable speeds,I have even tried some basic tweaks myself 
To answer your question I have played delta force on my first system which I guess would not have been a high spec as I was on a budget, in the hands of a salesman who had an idea I didn't have a clue and on a 56k connection and I still seemed to do pretty well with most ppl on 512 by then.
That being the case I struggle to see how much advantage if any in having a slightly quicker ping time and generally while PC gaming anyway every1 has suffered from lag and we have all left the server even though were all on different speeds.
This I admit is just a bloke who plays games opinion and not an I.T anything, I don't even understand ASBO's post    I just think life's too short for that sort of tweaking.
Back to the topic though... PS3 traffic other than gaming like your downloads and demos are classed as HTTP and it would be cool to be able to go into member centre and differentiate between the traffic, I know naming the console would be a bit of a pain as newer consoles were released but just a tab for consoles grouping the ports together would be handy so you know how much of your band with was console related.
How about that for a wholesome family post? I was picturing us all sat in front of a roaring fire there toasting on forks 

[#10]

i find ping times do matter with gaming and bing on a very long line that with interleaving off and the dslam left to do what it wants wen u turn your router on off i get dc loads of times aday.
But by using the dmt tool to raise my snr slightly to keep my sync speed from going over the point that my line profile would increase to being just under 0.5mb of what im syncing at i keep my sync speed below what would give me a 3mb profile so that actual data thought put on my line is under 1mb of what im syncing at.
And this gives me a stable interleaving off line and is very easy tweak actualy all u do is move the slider bar on the dmt toll up a notch or two.
I posted what i did because people on long lines have problems with gaming and this tatic to my line has worked a treat.
and as to getting more for what u pay i get alot more usage than u and the only dwn side is i have to wait 5 days for pn to test any new game thats not on the titanium level. but thats not a problem as once i get a new game i hammer it for ages before moving on to a new game.

[#11]

Quote

once i get a new game i hammer it for ages before moving on to a new game

Like me still banging away at Battlefield 2 and COD4  bad company looks a real teaser though probably gonna be my next puchase 
I downloaded DMtoll just out of curiosity but I'm afraid it was well out of my depth  I couldn't work out which port I was meant to be testing 
The only app I have ever used is TCP optimiser http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php but I never really analysed the results everything seemed to be fine though.

[#12]

it could be akward to seperate ps2 and ps3 traffic as ps games don't all use the same ports,it would be easier for xbox as they all use the same ports

[#13]

Don't they? I can't be 100% pn the PS2 but I have never had to open any other ports on the PS3 other than the standard listed ports  Maybe I just never played a game that used any other ports yet. I play Gt prologue, COD4 and bad company all just list the same port numbers unless running a server, if this is the case it could be possible to list xbox,wi and PS3 ports and put them all under the heading consoles. BTW can PS2's go online?

[#14]

Quote from: AverageWhiteBloke

BTW can PS2's go online?

Uh Yes.
SW.