Depending on your preference for Flash- or download-based casinos, and the amount of time you spend on online gambling, bandwidth may be a serious issue for you. And who needs to spend money on connecting to the internet when that cash could be in the forms of chips on the blackjack table, waiting to win you some dough?! Today we guide you through how to manage your bandwidth when playing online casino games.
Flash-Based vs Download Online Casinos Bandwidth Usage
There can be enormous differences between the bandwidth footprint of casinos played in your browser, and via software installed on your local machine. Download-based casinos will use far less bandwidth, although they require a small amount more to actually download the software. Additionally, they have far better graphics and the games are generally richer in personalisation and options. We always recommend download-based online casinos, unless you play from public or work computers.
Use Your Internet Connection Manager
Depending on your particular internet service provider, there may be the facility to monitor your usage in real-time via your account or a connection manager. Telstra Mobile Broadband Connection Manager will show you exactly how much you are downloading and uploading; other ISPs should do the same.
If you don’t have a real-time monitor inbuilt, you could test usage by playing for a set amount of time on a particular day, and not accessing any other sites for that day. However, there are plenty of third party tools you can use to make monitoring the bandwidth usage of online casinos a little easier!
Use a Browser Add-On
Both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome have add-ons created by third-party which can monitor your bandwidth usage in real time. These add-ons generally have a small footprint and are quick to install, but quite often cause browser instability. You may want to install, check your bandwidth while playing online casino games, and then disable it.
Use a Free Third-Party Application
There are also full stand-alone freeware programs which can help you monitor your bandwidth usage while playing online casino games. NetStat Live and PRTG Network Monitor are two of these, though we don’t endorse any particular application.
Which Games Use More Bandwidth?
Generally, the more graphically rich your online casino games are, the more bandwidth they’ll use. In general, online casino games come on a hierarchy from high to low which look a little like this:
- Video poker
- Online pokies
- Other card games
Don’t Use Your Tab Function
Are you one of the millions who have gotten into the habit of opening every new page in a new tab inside your browser? You’re not alone! However, this habit can be especially damaging to your bandwidth usage when every page you open has autoplay Flash animations or advertisements … and online casino sites often do. Get into the habit of using that back button a little more!
$7,159,773
$1,502,157
$5,288,206