Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Bandwidth Comparison Chart
kbps
56
128
256
384
512
768 1544
3Mbit
10Mbit
100Mbit
Dial-up
ISDN
IDSL
Cellphone Data
Satellite
DSL
Cable
T1
Ethernet
Wireless (802.11b)
Fast Ethernet
1
2
3
4
1 Mbit
6 Mbit
5
6
11 Mbit
1/2 Mbit
Broad band
300k video stream
192k “near CD-quality” mp3
160k fastest multi-player online games
150k video stream
Internet configuration
There are some obstacles to resolve before you can successfully host any kind of
Internet application. The solutions are influenced by the package that your ISP
provides to you, but almost every problem can be worked around.
ISP packages
Let's have a quick discussion on the two most popular packages supplied by ISP's.
Home packages
The most fundamental part of home packages is that you almost always have a
dynamic IP address. Some ISPs will allow you to upgrade to a static IP, but there
would still be some limitations. The problem with having a dynamic IP is that it may
change without notice. So, if you try to access your network from the Internet using
an IP, one day it will certainly stop working after a while. This lease time varies
from ISP to ISP, some are as short as a few hours and others can last for years. If you
don't know what your current Internet IP address is while you are in a remote place,
finding out what it is can be quite inconvenient.
