hello im planning to change my isp and get adsl with a download limit of 20gb. so does playing online on the ps3 use up any of that download limit? if so, how much?

i won't be downloading movies or demos, only the firmware updates.

10 points!!
20gb download limit per month

Online gaming uses a combination of download and upload. what you do is uploaded, and what others do is downloaded. that said, online gaming shouldn't take up a lot of bandwidth and I would be surprised if you even use half a gig.

check out this site, they give you a playstation 3 FOR FREE!! i got mine last week and i'm luuuuvin' it!

Sorry if this is confusing but:

Online gaming, for 3d games, typically uses around 60kbits/s of download bandwidth and about 10kbits/s of upload bandwidth.

UNLESS

you're running a server or hosting a room, in which case everyone who connects uses about 60kbits/s of your upload bandwidth, but only sends you 10kbits/s download.

In any case you'll be downloading no more than 200 kbits/s even if you are hosting a large game.

So you get what, only 20gb per what, day, week, month? Well let's see, worst case scenario, you are hosting a big game all the time, figure

200 kbits/s = 25 kB/s

25 kB/s (3600s/hr) = 90,000 kB/hr or approximately 90 mB/hr

So there you go, using one hour of hosting would use about about 90mb of your download limit. About 220 hours of gaming would use up that 20gb, whatever time period it is for.

Remember that's assuming you average 200kbits/s download, which is conservative. More likely that you'd average 60, if you're not hosting. That would give you more like 700 hours.

If you have a pc connected to the same router as your ps3, get a "bandwidth monitor." Google and download a free one. They will sit in a little window on your screen and tell you exactly what your upload and download bandwidth is at all times from the ps3.

The firmware updates contain usually well under 1 gb of data, and happen maybe once a month or so.

Keep in mind that the PSN network things like RSS feeds, messages, and chat rooms may count as downloading also. Ax your adsl provider about it.

<more> 20gb a month, that would give you at least 220 hours of solid video gaming then, maybe much more. That's 55 hours a week, or almost 8 hours a day. Looks good. Depends on how much non-game stuff you download though

Even if you can't bandwidth-monitor your ps3, you should still monitor your pc's bandwidth usage so you can figure out how much it's cutting into your 220 + hours for the ps3.