How much bandwidth does a Minecraft client use in SMP?

Question

How much bandwidth does a single Minecraft client use in SMP (up and down, in KB/sec)?

I'm asking this question for two reasons: 1) I plan on running a small MC dedicated server on my VPS, and want to make sure it won't obliterate my (currently barely used) monthly bandwidth cap, and 2) I'm looking at getting a mobile hotspot to play a little SMP on the go... I wouldn't be doing this much (and know it will be laggy) but I was wondering whether it would even be feasible.

Asked by Doktor J

Answer

Well, according to this discussion:

Over a 100second test window, I recorded a mean of 31,630 bytes/sec and a max of 159,371 bytes/sec. That works out to an average of 0.1Gb/hr/user

As a rough ballpark measure that seems fairly believable (this was posted just under a year ago however, so SPM network performance could have changed since then).

Of course it depends a lot on what the users are doing, for example if a player moves around a lot then I imagine that the network use may be greater as the server needs to send more environment data to the client, similarly whenever users connect and disconnect network use will probably spike.

My advice would be to have a go yourself using 100 Mb / hr / user as an initial guess. You should also take into account the distinction between upload and download bandwidth, as many ISPs have a much smaller limit on upload bandwidth.

Answered by Justin

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What ports need to be opened to play multiplayer reliably?

Question

So I'm trying to configure my firewall to open the right ports needed to play multiplayer.

According to Ubisoft's Support page:

...you will need to configure your router or firewall to allow the following 
network ports for the best possible connection:ACR Ports:
UDP: 21200, 7959, 3074Uplay Launcher:
TCP: 80, 443, 13000, 13005, 13200Achievements
UDP & TCP: 14001

But it isn't clear in what direction and which applications need the ports.

I allowed all outgoing and those incoming UDP ports for ACR but I'm still getting BAD upload and STRICT NAT classification.

I temporarily enabled DMZ on my firewall and inspecting my connections when refreshing my online status, I'm seeing these requests for multiplayer:

0.0.0.0:54466 -> 127.0.0.1:45301 (UDP)
localhost:21200 -> 216.98.51.139:28783 (UDP) //ubisoft servers
localhost:21200 -> 216.98.51.140:28783 (UDP)

And these active connections:

localhost:12001 -> 216.240.146.139:12001 (UDP)
localhost:3074 -> 216.240.146.139:12001 (UDP)
localhost:3074 -> 216.240.146.139:12011 (UDP)

(nothing is coming in or out from UPlay at this point)

I want to hold off on playing until I can get the right ports set up so I won't have to worry about it later. AFAIK, I'm going to have to open something incoming if I want to/end up playing as host but I don't know what yet. No chance of dedicated servers here.

What am I missing here? Do I even need to open any incoming ports?

Answer

Well for any help to be gained from this you need to specify your PC specs, what modem, and what router you are using. Also are you the sole owner of the network your using? Do you use a static IP or is it auto generated? Also how many other PC's share the network and do they use static or auto generated IP addresses?

Basic troubleshooting: Reset router and firewall settings to factory then try to connect to the games you would like to use. Power off the modem for a few minutes then plug it back in. Get all the latest Firmware updates for Modem/routers.

Sorry I can't do much more for you without some more info on your end.

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Can I use 4 Xbox 360 consoles in System Link mode on the same wireless network?

Question

I was looking to have a Halo: Reach party with 16 people (4 Xbox 360s) at my house, but in talking to a friend, I became worried when he said he was not able to connect through the (Existing) wireless network to play vs other XBox 360s. Can you run 4 xBoxes off the same wireless network and have them connect to (local) network games or can this only be done with a wired hub? If so, is there any special setup I need to do first?

Answer

Wireless works fine for Xbox System Link. Microsoft's help page for system link states:

A system link cable or crossover cable for each console, an Ethernet hub or switch with enough open ports to connect the consoles together, or a wireless networking adapter for every console.

The more recent version of the Xbox 360 has a wireless adapter built-in. It's safe to assume that if you can play on Xbox Live wirelessly at home, that it has the correct hardware to play in a wireless system link setup with other Xbox 360s.

If you have a wireless network already in place where you plan to play, you'll have to configure the wireless settings on the Xbox 360s to connect to the wireless network wherever you're getting together, but otherwise no additional setup should be required. You can also mix and match using the wireless adapters on some consoles and connecting via an ethernet cable on other consoles, so long as they're all connecting to the same router/network. For instance, you might put one Xbox near the wireless router and use an ethernet cable for that one, and then have 3 others spread out in the area connecting to the router via wireless.

The Xbox 360 also supports an "ad-hoc" wireless mode where you don't need a wireless router, but in this configuration you'll only be able to play with 4 Xbox 360s if they all have wireless adapters.

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Why would a non-network issue like an inadequate video card cause me to lag out of Starcraft II games

Question

I keep lagging out of Starcraft II games, even though I am (moderately) certain my network is just fine, I'm on a university campus.

I am however lacking in system specs, specifically my graphics card. I'm not sure how or why this would affect my game connection. My motive is two fold, I'm curious as to how this works and also I would really love to play some freaking Starcraft.

Some details: Macbook pro. 2.16GHz intel core 2 duo. 3GB DDR2 ram. ATY Radeon X1600 128mb

EDIT: I thought about posting this on Superuser but their FAQ told me not to post a question about video games so hopefully this was the right place to come

Answer

POTENTIAL REASONING:

In my experience with Modern Warfare 2, the program behind the game waits for certain conditions to be met before it sends off a packet across the network. For example, if your graphics card is taking too long to draw a frame, the program may wait for that frame to be finished before it sends or reads the next network packet. In addition, some drivers may choose to offload processing to the CPU if it detects that it is too much to finish in the allotted time.

I would ask: Are you the only one experiencing the lag or do others see you lag as well?

When my external harddisk takes a long time to write data, my network card stops transmitting until the other synchronized processes are finished.

This is best explained if you consider the case in which you are the host: as host, it is your responsibility to synchronize all the other players. However, if you are taking a long time to finish the computation processes, you will create lag even though your network connection is not being overloaded.

Ping is calculated not by the congestion on the network, but by how long it takes for you to respond to a packet. While the most noticeable source of intermittent delay is network congestion (bad connection), in your case it is probably processing delay, that is, your computer just can't keep up with the frequency of messages.

Hope this helps.

POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS:

If you are playing the native version of Starcraft II, I would suggest that you make sure your OSX is at version 10.6.3 (roll back or update as necessary) and try playing on the minimum settings. If you are playing on bootcamp with the PC version, I would suggest looking into overclocking your gfx card or updating the drivers. Bootcamp is known to underclock gpu's in order to maximize battery life.

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Does Steam work through Tor or a VPN?

Question

I talked to Steam Support about Steam Offline. I have been told:

You can set up your Steam account to run in offline mode prior to connecting to your school's network […] you must allow Steam to complete necessary updates in order to enable Offline mode (you must establish a temporary connection to the internet for this reason).

So, I can't go offline while offline. I must remember to go offline while online, or I'm gently caressed. I don't always have this luxury, however.

I've tried using my mobile's internet connection for this purpose. However, much to my surprise, Steam now fails to connect through that as well. Why, thank you so much, Wind.

I'm thus left with two possibilities to enable offline mode while offline:

• A VPN, or
• The Tor network.

Does Steam work through either them? I just need it to connect to the network for long enough to realize that there are no updates, after all, and that it's okay to let me play my games.

Answer

A VPN takes over the entire OS' connection. It is program-independent. As such, a VPN will work.

Tor is more doubtful, because I don't think Steam supports a SOCKS proxy out of the box. There are programs out there that force a certain program to go through a SOCKS proxy though (which I couldn't find on a quick Google. I'll have a look around).

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