Originally posted by Fortress - XBOX forums
UL and DL - What they really mean.........
Posted: 12-06-2002 02:37 PM
Yes, the "UL" and "DL" values do mean "upload" and "download", just in case there was any doubt remaining.
However, it should be stressed that this screen is a diagnostic tool intended for our support staff to troubleshoot connection problems. As with *any* tool, you must understand that tool's limitations if you are to use it effectively.
Firstly and most importantly – the Xbox measures bandwidth using a completely different method than a tool like this one:
http://www.dslreports.com/stest/0.
The dslreports tool works by uploading and downloading hard to compress data to and from their servers. The tool on dslreports.com provides a reasonably accurate bandwidth estimate, but it takes about 40 seconds to do so.
This method is simply not suitable for in-game applications. Think about the Optimatch screen in Unreal Championship. It displays 20 sessions, along with a speed rating for each of them. If it took 40 seconds to check the speed of each session, it would take over 13 minutes to display this screen! Therefore the Xbox uses a much faster, but also less accurate method to test the upload and download speed. But you'll notice that games like Unreal Championship don't tell you what the actual measurement was, they simply say "one star" or "four stars". The measurement is accurate enough to categorize these connections as "good" or "bad", which is all we really need.
This is the measurement that is being displayed in the Xbox Dashboard diagnostic screen. It is not at all surprising that these values differ widely from the results you might obtain from a tool such as the one on dslreports.com.
Second, rest assured that your Xbox is able to use all the bandwidth you've available to you on your network connection. Just because the Xbox Dashboard displays a number that is lower than the value displayed by dslreports.com does not mean that the Xbox will only use that much bandwidth. Each game will try to use whatever bandwidth it needs for the number of players in the session. If you push your connection to far, for example by trying to host a 16 player Unreal Championship session on a slow connection, then you or the people playing with you may experience lag or disconnection, but that is not because of this measurement value. The game will try to use every last bit of bandwidth, if it needs to.
Third, be aware that all the devices connected to your high speed internet connection via a home network *share* that bandwidth. There have been forum posts where people ask "why does the Xbox say I have less bandwidth if I am downloading a big file on my PC?" This is simply because you are sharing the available bandwidth between the PC and the Xbox, and if the PC is using more of that bandwidth, then there is less left over for the Xbox to use.
Hopefully this has cleared up some misconceptions about the "UL" and "DL" values displayed in the diagnostic screen of the Xbox Dashboard.
Remember:
- the values are simply an estimate, and are not completely accurate
- your Xbox games can use all the bandwidth available to you no matter what these values say
- if you use your PC at the same time as your Xbox, there will be less network bandwidth left over for your Xbox
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