Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously?

From: Thomas Leavitt (no email)
Date: Sat Jan 06 2007 - 01:52:20 EST

  • Next message: Robert Boyle: "Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously?"

    If this application takes off, I have to presume that everyone's
    baseline network usage metrics can be tossed out the window...

    Thomas

    From: David Farber <>
    Subject: Using Venice Project? Better get yourself a non-capping ISP...
    Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 11:11:46 -0500

    Begin forwarded message:

    From: "D.H. van der Woude" <>
    Date: January 5, 2007 11:06:31 AM EST
    To:
    Subject: Using Venice Project? Better get yourself a non-capping ISP...

    I am one of Venice' beta testers. Works like a charm,
    admittedly with a 20/1 Mbs ADSL2+ connection and
    a unlimited use ISP.

    Even at sub-DVD quality the data use is staggering...

    Venice Project would break many users' ISP conditions
    http://www.out-law.com/page-7604
    OUT-LAW News, 03/01/2007

    Internet television system The Venice Project could break users'
    monthly internet bandwith limits in hours, according to the team
    behind it.

    It downloads 320 megabytes (MB) per hour from users' computers,
    meaning that users could reach their monthly download limits in hours
    and that it could be unusable for bandwidth-capped users.

    The Venice Project is the new system being developed by Janus Friis
    and Niklas Zennström, the Scandinavian entrepreneurs behind the
    revolutionary services Kazaa and Skype. It is currently being used by
    6,000 beta testers and is due to be launched next year.

    The data transfer rate is revealed in the documentation sent to beta
    testers and the instructions make it very clear what the bandwidth
    requirements are so that users are not caught out.

    Under a banner saying 'Important notice for users with limits on
    their internet usage', the document says: "The Venice Project is a
    streaming video application, and so uses a relatively high amount of
    bandwidth per hour. One hour of viewing is 320MB downloaded and 105
    Megabytes uploaded, which means that it will exhaust a 1 Gigabyte cap
    in 10 hours. Also, the application continues to run in the background
    after you close the main window."

    "For this reason, if you pay for your bandwidth usage per megabyte or
    have your usage capped by your ISP, you should be careful to always
    exit the Venice Project client completely when you are finished
    watching it," says the document

    Many ISPs offer broadband connections which are unlimited to use by
    time, but have limits on the amount of data that can be transferred
    over the connection each month. Though limits are 'advisory' and not
    strict, users who regularly far exceed the limits break the terms of
    their deals.

    BT's most basic broadband package BT Total Broadband Package 1, for
    example, has a 2GB monthly 'usage guideline'. This would be reached
    after 20 hours of viewing.

    The software is also likely to transfer data even when not being
    used. The Venice system is going to run on a peer-to-peer (P2P)
    network, which means that users host and send the programmes to other
    users in an automated system.

    OUT-LAW has seen screenshots from the system and talked to one of the
    testers of it, who reports very favourably on its use. "This is going
    to be the one. I've used some of the other software out there and
    it's fine, but my dad could use this, they've just got it right," he
    said. "It looks great, you fire it up and in two minutes you're live,
    you're watching television."

    The source said that claims being made for the system being "near
    high definition" in terms of picture quality are wide of the mark.
    "It's not high definition. It's the same as normal television," he said.

    -- "Private where private belongs, public where it's needed, and an
    admission that circumstances alter cases." Robert A. Heinlein, 1969 

    -- 
Thomas Leavitt -  - 831-295-3917 (cell)
*** Independent Systems and Network Consultant, Santa Cruz, CA ***

  • Next message: Robert Boyle: "Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously?"





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