I'llstillmaintainitwon'tgetyounearthelimit-ifthiscolumnistreallydidhavea25gblimit,the2gbdownloadwasstilljustafraction(he'sbeendownloadingalotofotherstuff,seemstome).Soit'snottimetostartworryingyet-ifyourISPdoessendyoualetter,thenyoucanlookatyourinternetusage,andsee,iflikethiscolumnist,it'stimetoswitchISPs.
Buthe'sgotanotherpoint,andthatisthatgamingisclearlyhavingalargeeffectoncomputersandtechnologyingeneral.WouldwebefulfillingMoore'sLaweverytwoyearsifwedidn'thave3Dgraphicsthatneededupgrading?Wouldhighbandwidthconnectionsbeasprevalenttodayaroundtheworldifitwasn'tforgameslikeWoWthatrequiredahighbandwithhookup?GamingisaffectingthebasictechnologiesandeconomiesoftheInternetthesedays,forbetterorworse.
HereinLatviathereisonlyacoupleoldISPsthathaveabandwidthcapforinternationaltraffic-themajorityofISPandallhighspeedISPhavenotrafficcaps.Mostofthemalsoprovide100Mbitconnectionswithinthecountry.ItisreallysadthatinsomecountriescustomersaresoweakthatISPstillfeelthattheycanimposeabandwidthcaponpeople.Asanexample-Iwenttoaconferenceandtook4Gbofphotos,afterthatIcontacted3otherpeoplefromtheconferenceandwesynchronizedourphotos,didsomeeditingandadjustmentsafewtimes,synchronizedagainandagain-thatweekaloneusedaround80Gbdownloadand100Gbuploadtraffic(lowprioritybulktransfers).Andimagineifwedidvideo.Bandwidthcapsarerestrictionsoncreativity,especiallyuploadcaps.
FromtheBBC,weknowthatWoW'spatchesmaypushsomeoverthebandwidthlimit.We'vepostedafewtimesalreadyonthebandwidthlimitsrecentlyintroducedbysomeISPs,andingeneralwe'vedecidedthatWoWdoesn'tusenearlyenoughbandwidthtogetyouintroublewithyourInternetServiceProvider.That'slikelystilltrue,butasthiscolumnistattheBBCfoundout,ifyou'reclosetothelimit,thismonth's2gbpatchmighthavebeenenoughtoputyouoverthetop.Generally,whiletheWoWconnectiondoesrequireastrongbandwidthhookup,itwon'tusetoomuchbandwidthsendingdatabackandforth.Butpatchesandotherdownloadsdefinitelyaddtothetotal,andonapatchlike3.0.2,you'relookingatalotofdataflyingbackandforth.