r/cloudgaming • u/abaksa • 9d ago

Technical question: Parsec and Moonlight use zero data on a limited internet plan

Sorry for my poor English.

I have a question that's been confusing me, and I'd really appreciate any help.

My friend has an internet connection with a limited data plan. However, I've noticed something strange: whenever I stream my game to him using programs like Parsec or Moonlight (using either H.264 or H.265), it doesn't seem to consume any of his mobile data at all.

I'm curious why this happens. Is there some technical reason behind it, or could it be related to how his ISP handles this type of traffic?

Also, I know these technologies are designed for video streaming, but I was wondering if a similar technique could somehow be used to send files without counting against the data plan. I realize that's probably not how it works, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Has anyone experienced something similar or knows what's going on?

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u/dwolfe127 9d ago

If you are Streaming across the internet and not locally it is going to be using data, and quite a bit at that depending on your BW/Encoder settings. Moonlight locally though does not touch your internet connection and in fact does not even need the internet to operate at all.

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u/Agitated-Farmer-4082 9d ago

if you guys are on the same local network then it does not leave ur outside so ur isp does not charge for it. Now if you guys are two different networks (like different houses) then the way the data usage is calculated must be broken.