FAQs

Xbox and PCs using the Internet at the same time

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Written by Administrator

Many people ask what effect playing the Xbox on Xbox live has on the rest of their users of the Internet is. And also in the same light what effect does using accessing the Internet on PC's/MAC's/Wii etc etc have on your Xbox whilst your all online together?

Let me explain.

Gone are the days where you used to use one USB modem to access the Internet using one PC. These days many homes have many internet enabled devices. PC's MAC's. iPhones, BT Vision boxes, Wii's , DS's, PS3 etc etc you get the idea. Many homes are all sharing one Internet connection, so at times there can be a bit of a bun fight when it comes to bandwidth.

Your Internet connection is only so big, depending on what your doing on your devices depends on whether they'll affect others in your home.

For example. If you have multiple PC's and they are using MSN, Browsing and sending e-mails, you can certainly be on Xbox Live and not expect any issues like lagging out because of others on the network.

However if those other uses start using Youtube or torrents to start downloading/uploading lots of data, your Xbox gaming is going to take a serious hit. Unless your PC application has an option to limit how much bandwidth its using its basically going to grab as much as it can - and it will!

This won't really affect other PC's on the network if they are browsing or emailing as it will just lead to a delay of a few seconds, no big problem for browsing or emailing. But to Xbox Live gaming this IS a problem. Gaming is delay sensitive, just like voice is... if there's a delay of a few seconds when your talking to someone on the phone it doesn't sound right, if you get the same delay when gaming your going to lag out/miss your shot and your game ruined.

Xbox live gaming won't really impact other users on your network as its not bandwidth hungry compared to other applications, so don't worry about live impacting other users

Most routers in use in the home don't have any preference as to who is doing what, they will give out bandwidth to whoever asks for it and as much as they ask for. So if you start up a PC and start downloading lots of info the PC will take as much of the bandwidth as it can, no questions.

So please bear all this in mind when your sharing the Internet with others in your home.

Some routers (Like the Dlink DIR-655 and the Dlink DSL-2640B and others) have a QoS feature. Qos (Quality of Service) allows the router to be configured to ensure some types of traffic have more of a preference when it comes to bandwidth than others.

These routers can be configured always to give priority to traffic such as Xbox Live. Meaning that your gaming will be unaffected whilst others are using the Internet in your home. It won't stop others doing what they are doing it just means your traffic goes in the fast lane whilst they have to wait a little longer.