question about bandwidth

[mmenzie]

hello again, i forgot i have another question....... if i have my shoutcast server running and winamp playing and connected BUT i have zero (0) listeners am i still using bandwidth???

thanks again
mike

[Jay]

if your server is running on the same machine as winamp then no you are not using any bandwidth until listeners start connecting to the server. If your server is at a remote machine then you are using approximately one streams worth of bandwith from your source machine to your remote shoutcast server machine.

[mmenzie]

thank you very much for your quick reply. that was the answer i was hoping for. i just want this server for me and a "few" select friends and i need to keep my bandwidth usage "under the radar" of my ISP since they don't like servers.

thanks again
mike

[djmastermind]

Altough KXRM's reply will suffice and answered your question, I decided to post this anyhow:

To find out what rate to broadcast and how many listeners you can hold, use this listener calculator and this bandwidth calculator.

[Jay]

yea well I like this one better

www.radiotoolbox.com/online_tools/bandwidth.php

[djmastermind]

hm.. looks like more options. Good stuff.

[jackherer]

Originally posted by KXRM
if your server is running on the same machine as winamp then no you are not using any bandwidth until listeners start connecting to the server. If your server is at a remote machine then you are using approximately one streams worth of bandwith from your source machine to your remote shoutcast server machine.

In this instance you would only be using upstream bandwidth and you would not be using a noticable amount of the downstream bandwidth which is what is required to serve listeners. Remeber bandwidth goes two ways ;-)