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Private
Average monthly bandwidth usage for a WoW server
My findings on:
How much bandwidth does wow actually use ?
Having looked all over the internet for a accurate number i soon realized that most related topics on the internet were either outdated or were mere assumptions or badly executed tests.
Perhaps i missed a few good ones and i apoligize if im posting old data.
For anyone who is serious about hosting a WoW server knowing exactly what your bandwidth expenses will be is vital.
Unless your hosting from home ofcourse. Still, the information here can be quite educational.
How did i get my numbers ?
Its vital to understand that the bandwidth used constantly changes. A rule of thumb is:
The more crowded the area with player activity the more bandwidth is used.
Some examples. (all rates are download rates. Meaning, what the server sends you)
Sitting in goldshire shows a transfer of 2-5Kb/s
Sitting in a empty world area (no npc's/players) shows a transfer rate of 1-3kb/sec
Sitting in SW at the AH with 80 players jumping around shows a transfer rate of 14-16kb/s
I joined a trinitycore based WoW private server which is very popular and hosts thousands of players.
I took my toon to stormwind and sat it there at the AH between 80 players running around. This allowed me to test the usage where its safe to say:
"It wont get much higher then this!"
Which seems a safe starting point if your calculating expenses.
Following test was done for EXACATLY 1 hour.
Results total Mb transfered after 1 hours of standing between 80 players in SW:
38,33Mb (rounded 40Mb)
Conclusion :
1 single player standing in Stormwind for an hour on a crowded server will have downloaded 40,00 Mb off your wow server.
So how much does a crowded server use (ballpark figure) ?
Say you have a server that holds 1000 players and on avg has 500 players online day and night.
After 1 month those 500 players will have used :
14400000Mb = 14062.5GB
Notes :
*Tested on a trinitycore server. But i imagine all the more popular emulators use around the same bandwidth.
*Not taken into account worldserver settings. But its safe to say the server i tested does not bottleneck bandwidth using the configuration options in worldserver.config
*For testing we used a extremely crowded area which resulted in allot more bandwidth being used then less crowded areas. Its safe to say actual bandwidth usage will be allot lower seeing not all your players will be standing in SW 24/7
For closing,
I've been a leecher way to long. I cant count the times ive been on this website and found something useful trough Google.
Seeing i recently got into wow emulators and have found that allot of basic information is no where to be found i figured this would be a good moment to start giving something back.
Iliana
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Post Thanks / Like - 2 Thanks
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Active Member
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Private
Thank you for helping me, I am sure this helped alot of other people too
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Knight
This should definitely be stickied. Very useful to those of us who have bandwidth limits. Personally I'd rather pay the extra 40$ a month and have no limit ;P.
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A good guide, clear and concise. Something original and helpful to all those wishing to start a server as well, stickied.
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Legendary
Agreed, very interesting post! +rep
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Private
Thank you for your kind comments and making it a sticky.
An honor for me as this is the first time i have posted on forums in years.
Hopefully my future contributions will be as worthwhile.
Iliana
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Private
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Banned
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