I don't know what you guys would think about this but this is a really good
time to think about bittorrent as an option. It's perfect for distributing
large files to a large audience. If many people chose to use BT, then people
would have no problem at downloading hl2 at 300KB/s and up, plus, this would
reduce valve's need for bandwidth more than half.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Whisper ." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 12:41 PM
Subject: Re: [hlds] 2 off the topic questions (apologies)
[ Converted text/html to text/plain ]
I should have also added that many ISP's will gladly mirror the file for
you
for their users, since it saves them downloading X Gigabytes worth of the
same
data across networks repeatedly.
Hello Valve are you listening?
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Whisper ." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [hlds] 2 off the topic questions (apologies)
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 16:34:49 +0000
[ Converted text/html to text/plain ]
Networking Maths for Dummies (Something you have to wonder about with
Valve)
Total Available Network Bandwidth for STEAM Content Servers: 8Gb/s
Total Number of Counter-Strike Players > 1,000,000 (Probably a lot higher
if
you consider actual STEAM Clients)
Total Size of HL2 = A Few Gigabytes (Lets say 2GB's compressed just to be
charitable, actually lets make it 1 Gigabyte to simplfy the maths)
Lets say only 25% of the people who want HL2 try to download it, thats
approximately 250,000 people ( I know that every man and his dog is
waiting
for HL2 from all the games on our service who would not touch
Counter-Strike
with a 10 foot pole, so any number I come up with is going to be worse!)
To keep things simple 8Gbps = 1,000,000,000 Bytes Per Seccond
250,000 people trying to download through 1,000,000,000 Bytes Per Seccond
total bandwidth = 4000 bytes per second per client or more or less 4KB/s
(Yay)
Time to take to download 1GigaByte at 4KiloBytes per Second = ??
4KB/s will get you 240KB a minute so lets be charitable and say you are
going
to get 15MB per hour
Thats means 360MB a day or just under 3 days to download 1 Gigabyte
through
STEAM content servers, and thats downloading 24 hours a day for the full
amount of time.
If they double the available bandwith then they halve the time for 250,000
users, but I'm making the assumption that its only going to be 250,000
users,
who here thinks its only going to be 250,000 people trying to download
HL2???
Who here thinks HL2 is only going to be 1 Gigabyte in Size?
Who here thinks only 250,000 people will be wanting access to Half-Life 2?
Can any of you see any of the problems I foreseen being resolved even if
Valve
double or triple or quaddruple their STEAM Content Servers Bandwidth??
Hell, Valve can barely keep up with with those people who have Condition
Zero
and ATI vouchers without their network falling into a heap!
I predict another disaster
I know how they can alleviate the problem though, but I do not know how
big a
deal it is, but Valve definitely did not have a problem preloading
Condition
Zero on my computer and its updates without my consent, I cannot even turn
off
the fact that its going to do this, which shits me to no end.
But in any case the way to help solve the bandwidth limitation problem
would
be to release the HL2 gcf file(s) to all the major file distributor sites
and
let people download it through there and pick up any pieces through the
STEAM
Content Servers, thats how it should be done until Valve have access to a
STEAM Content Network with at least 100Gbps worth of Bandwith which even
then
probably wouln't be enough, but at least it would not be a total disaster!
I couldn't get in at all last night. If you think this is a circus,
wait
until HL2 comes
out - it will be a friggin' zoo for weeks unless they actually do
something
different to ensure they have the bandwidth. I hate to be negative,
but
Valve has not yet been able to handle a major roll out without
serious
bandwidth problems. Bandwidth costs money - a lot of money - and
Valve may
be content to have us just wait our turn. They probably think we
want it
badly enough to put up with crap it takes to get updates during peak
bandwidth periods.
You do realize that they increased their bandwith to 8Gb/s for the CS:S
pre-load and only used one half of that. When Hl2 release approaches the
plan is to increase it another 4Gb/s.
_______________________________________________
To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives,
please
visit:
http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feeling spent? Apply here for emergency plastic surgery.
Virgincreditcard.com.au [1]
===References:===
1. http://g.msn.com/8HMAENAU/2737??PS=47575
_______________________________________________
To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives,
please
visit:
http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Searching for that dream home? Click here [1] for all your property needs.
===References:===
1. http://g.msn.com/8HMAENAU/2752??PS=47575
_______________________________________________
To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit:
http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
