Multiple computers on one connection

I have a friend who runs a small game store. He started out with 4 Gateway 800EB's and a dialup connection.

He recently got a wireless connection though the local upstream provider (provides upstream for the local ISP's) it is supposed to be a 256/256 connection but since we are good friends with one of the telcos employees he managed to not have his conneciton throttled. He is using a Wi-Lan 4.5mb radio to hit a base station that is running a 10mb Sunami to the telco.

I know this is a bit long winded, bare with me.

I recently built him (with suggestions from people here) 4 new Duron 900 rigs for a total of 8 computers that are sharing the same conneciton each with their own indibidule IP address.

I, we have a CS server "PCGS" located at the telco "Northwest Telephone". I found that If only 3 computers at Sanctuary (game store) are connected to our local server (PCGS) the latenc is very low around 25. If a 4th computer is connected pings take a dramatic jump to 150 and as more computers are added things get worse from there. I found that changing the rate command "cl_rate" to 1000 (low as I can set it) it on all of the machines will allow up to 6 to computers to connect before pings go south.


To my question: I can download things locally at 3500kbps "not a typo". I am assuming that games are not that bandwidth intensive since the can be played acceptably over a 56k modem, but seem to chew up most of the available bandwith at the store. One would reason that if a game used the entire amount 56k X 8 then 500kpbs sould be sufficient for 8. I see that my understanding of how games utilize bandwith is lacking and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on the subject.

I have been searching aroung the net but have not been able to find much.