Idle Connections

Does it use bandwidth if people are connected to my KDX Server but idle?

Almost none. It is not worth disconnecting people only because they are idle -- you will not save a significant amount of bandwidth that way. As you can imagine, an idle connection is exactly that -- idle. And that means that its bandwidth consumption will also be idle (negligible).

To be precise, it would NOT be true to say that an idle connection uses absolutely no bandwidth. Some bandwidth IS used for an idle connection, but we really are talking about a tiny negligible amount.

But what if there are many idle connections? Won't it all add up?

You might think that despite it being a tiny amount, if there are enough idle connections, it will add up to a significant amount. Yes, it is possible for this to happen, but you would need hundreds of idle connections to make it significant, and even if it were significant, it is not necessarily a cause for alarm.

How much bandwidth does an idle connection use?

If you are familiar with bytes per second speed ratings, you might want to know how much an idle connection uses. For comparison, remember dial-up modems? Hopefully you have "cable" or DSL now and are not using that old obsolete dial-up modem technology anymore, but if you are, then the maximum possible speed that your dial-up modem can download is approximately 6 kilobytes per second, which is quite slow compared to the more recent "cable" or DSL technology. An idle connection uses approximately 0.001 kilobytes per second (an average).

If you are checking how fast your Internet connection is, remember the difference between kilobits and kilobytes (or megabits and megabytes). ISPs like to tell you the speed in bits because it sounds more impressive to naive people -- a bigger number; would you like 5 dollars or 500 cents? However, bytes is more useful because generally speaking, 1 byte = 1 English/Latin character. To convert bits to bytes, 1 byte = 8 bits.

What IS this tiny amount of bandwidth?

Firstly, it is intermittent not continuous. At regular intervals (for example, 5-10 minutes), one computer will transmit a tiny amount of data to the other computer, which is in effect the question, "Hey buddy, are you still there and listening?". Then the computer receiving that question will respond with a packet of data in effect saying, "Yeah, 'course I am". If no response to the question is received, then the computer asking the question might presume that the other computer is no longer contactable for whatever reason and the connection should be considered terminated.

As you can imagine, it does not use much bandwidth to occasionally ask the other computer a simple question like whether it is still alive, and to receive a "Yes" acknowledgement.

Please note that NO OTHER DATA sent or received is necessary to maintain the idle connection.

What about using resources on the computer?

An idle connection does use a tiny amount of RAM (memory) and occasionally a miniscule amount of processing power, but this is even less significant than the bandwidth and is not any cause for concern. KDX Server is designed to be efficient and not waste memory or processing power unnecessarily. Unless you have hundreds of idle connections, an idle connection uses so little resources that if you do worry about it, then you must be a real tightass. Do yourself a favor: Don't be a tightass.

Does this information apply to non-Haxial products?

No, not necessarily. Products made by other companies may be designed to behave differently.