About Upload Rate

So, I actually do some Listen servers for some games, and I decided to do dedicated (not 24/7) since they're better for high amount of players or more complex games and all that shit, so to say, you know what I mean if you're a server hoster, I'm sure.

Now, there are some ways to increase speed and shit, but what I was wondering about is Upload Rate. The questions are;

What is exactly Upload Rate?
If I have a lot of Upload Rate, can I get better speed? Say, I got 1.20 MB of Upload Rate, is that enough for 12 players?
Do bots change server "speed"? (Bots are not NPCs, they're pretty much AIs playing as humans)
How can I increase/optimize my Upload Rate?

1) Your upload rate is the rate at which you can upload data.  That is, send out through your modem to anywhere else on the interwebs.

2) Usually, yes.  It depends on your situation.  Uploading a dozen1Kb files on a 10MB uptsream connection would take about the same time as on a 1MB upstream connection, since your latency will come from whatever transfer utility you're using's check routines as opposed to actual transfer time.

3) Depends on the game.  If you're running the game server yourself, then the game server is controlling the bots, which means it has to constantly stream the bot info out to each connected client.

4) Pay your ISP more for a faster upload rate.  You can't increase your actual rate without dealing with your ISP.  You can, however, shut down anything on your network (be it programs or physical devices) that connect to the internet.  Anything pulling in data is also using your upstream bandwidth to send as well.

I see, thanks for the answers, but another question, this one about what you said about bots...

For example, I have one PC and I run a Dedicated server with it, I also play on that dedicated server with this same PC. Do I get worse performance than using two PCs, one that is used as the server and the other to play?

yes you do. because the computer is hosting the game and playing the game seperately. also because playing on it would use up even more resources that could be used for the server on other players

That means the best performance I can get from a dedicated server is if I use it only purely for hosting and not for playing & hosting.

Shit, time to buy a dedicated server PC.

Thanks comrades.