[johnbryanpeters]

I occasionally fall into the game trap. For whatever reason, I'm thinking about getting Machinarium or Indigo Prophecy. Since I have a monthly bandwidth cap at home, I'm not too keen about downloading 400 MB here. I understand that once purchased you can play their games on any machine that you want. Is the download an installation package that I can sneaker-net to home?

 

[stinkyboy]

 

[DRB]

Cut him a break. He's old and is easily confused with the whole interaweb thingy.

 

[syadasti]

He's talking about a popular online game distribution system - http://store.steampowered.com/about/

I haven't used my account in years and not often then even so I don't recall but I think you can install the client on any machine you want and install titles you own but I never tried transferring them elsewhere as I don't mind just downloading them again (if I ever actually would)...

Your cap is so small that 400MB DL would put a big dent in it? These days updates and add-ons to games can easily be that big...

 

[SkaredShtles]

Come on, man... you KNOW his cap is 500MB.

 

[syadasti]

Come on, man... you KNOW his cap is 500MB.

It doesn't happen often, but now that I have a HTPC I think I'll do at least 5GB in downloads this month and my connection is provided for free at my new place...

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

Is this your set up JBP ?

 

[Ciaran]

Is this your set up JBP ?

Ugh. I can't stand steampunk stuff.

 

[KillerSloth]

You can download it somewhere else then make a backup of the game (using Steam) and burn that to a CD or put it on a flash drive/external hard drive and install it at home using Steam.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

You can download it somewhere else then make a backup of the game (using Steam) and burn that to a CD or put it on a flash drive/external hard drive and install it at home using Steam.

Thank you for the actual answer.

My cap's 5 gigabytes/month and the last time I checked I used 4.9, so yes, it would be an issue. I have not tried to measure it, but I think that my work from home, which is significant, uses a lot of my available bandwidth.

 

[syadasti]

My cap's 5 gigabytes/month and the last time I checked I used 4.9, so yes, it would be an issue. I have not tried to measure it, but I think that my work from home, which is significant, uses a lot of my available bandwidth.

If you have the right model, there might be some third party firmware for your router that has traffic meter functions going forward. Some newer consumer routers have traffic meters functionality built in.

 

[Sandwich]

I don't know nothin bout no sneaker net, but steam has been one of the most satisfying applications on my computer. Games are easy to download and install. I built up a new computer, installed steam, and could download/install all of my games without having to find my CDs or game keys. You can also log onto your account on another computer and access the same games there. The key is remembering your user account and password!

 

[johnbryanpeters]

If you have the right model, there might be some third party firmware for your router that has traffic meter functions going forward. Some newer consumer routers have traffic meters functionality built in.

I'm using a Verizon MiFi 2200 intelligent mobile hotspot - the data feed options in the hinterlands are pretty bleak. I think I could cut down on monthly traffic by never firing up Outlook pointed at the Exchange server at work.

 

[syadasti]

I'm using a Verizon MiFi 2200 intelligent mobile hotspot - the data feed options in the hinterlands are pretty bleak. I think I could cut down on monthly traffic by never firing up Outlook pointed at the Exchange server at work.

OWA is pretty good 2003 onward, that should cut down a bit on traffic compared to the full client.

You can also install traffic monitor apps on each machine you use too.