Band Width

[Scribner]

Though I have some knowledge about setting up home networking systems, I
know scant little about "servers" and how they're set up for large
business/government networking.

With that said, my wife works in a small municipality with approximately
1000 people - school/fire/police/city hall. All departments are on the same
network. My wife recently began listening to an internet radio channel.
(She's in her own office) Recently, she was selectively "emailed", by a
not-so-diplomatic head of MIS, "Get off the radio; you're hogging
bandwidth."

How probable is this? Is this truly a "bandwidth" concern? Or, is it a
"software" concern?

I have four computers at home networked to a wireless router: two wireless
laptops; two towers hard-wired to the router, which router is connected via
Cox broadband. All machines are running WindowsXP Professional. I've
tweaked the XP on the towers - through "Kelly's Korner" - to be able to
download multiple, large files at the same time from the internet, which
have had no noticeable effect on my home bandwidth. And, I'm thinking a
municipality's bandwidth must be greater than what I have at home.

What am I not understanding here? And, any explanation advanced to cure my
ignorance would be most appreciated. )

Thank you for your help.

Ernie

 

[Brian Cryer]

Though I have some knowledge about setting up home networking systems, I
know scant little about "servers" and how they're set up for large
business/government networking.

With that said, my wife works in a small municipality with approximately
1000 people - school/fire/police/city hall. All departments are on the
same network. My wife recently began listening to an internet radio
channel. (She's in her own office) Recently, she was selectively
"emailed", by a not-so-diplomatic head of MIS, "Get off the radio; you're
hogging bandwidth."

How probable is this? Is this truly a "bandwidth" concern? Or, is it a
"software" concern?

I have four computers at home networked to a wireless router: two
wireless laptops; two towers hard-wired to the router, which router is
connected via Cox broadband. All machines are running WindowsXP
Professional. I've tweaked the XP on the towers - through "Kelly's
Korner" - to be able to download multiple, large files at the same time
from the internet, which have had no noticeable effect on my home
bandwidth. And, I'm thinking a municipality's bandwidth must be greater
than what I have at home.

What am I not understanding here? And, any explanation advanced to cure
my ignorance would be most appreciated. )

Thank you for your help.

Ernie

Its certainly not a software issue, and doesn't sound like a bandwidth
problem ...

If she is listening to radio at 32kbps and their LAN is a 100mbps network
then in theory it shouldn't be an issue. Given that they have 1000 people
then if their network is arranged badly, i.e. lots of hubs and no switches,
then they could suffer from all sorts of bandwidth problems. Really that
comes down to their IT infrastructure. Listening to radio at 32kbps
shouldn't be a problem - but will add to an existing problem if their
infrastructure is poor.

At home, the scenario is different. If you have a 100mbps network and your
broadband connection is say 10mbps (about the fastest currently available
for domestic customers in the UK), and your download is maxing out your
internet connection, then on paper that still leaves 90% of your LAN
bandwidth unused. 90% is a bit of an imaginary figure because (i.) you
rarely see network utilisation above 50% and (ii.) you'll have a router
which means that the pcs not downloading will still have the full bandwidth
available to them.

I suppose the other consideration is the company's internet connection. If
they have a 1mbps internet connection, then 32kbps radio would occupy a
little over 3% of that connection. That may not seem like much but if you
get 30 people listening to the radio then you've maxed out your connection.
So I could believe they might have a policy in place to stop people from
listening to the radio via the internet. Although again, it probably points
to poor IT because they could always block the site at the router.

Sorry, rather a round-the-houses response. Does it help?

 

[Scribner]

Sorry it took me so long to get back in touch with you, Brian.

First off, thank you for your reply. It is much appreciated. Now I realize
it's hardware, not software, that matters in this situation.

My wife came home with a complete schematic of the Network setup where she
works, along with a breakdown of diagrams for each department. From what I
can see, each building has at least one T1 line. And, there doesn't appear
on the diagram to be a great many hubs and switches indicated. From my
"untrained" eye, it appears to be a fairly clean, straight-forward setup.
But, I am NOT an IT engineer; so, my "eyeballing" these specs and your
review of them may be totally at odds. (Hmmmm, now THERE'S an
understatement) )

I want you to know,again, thank you for the time it took you to respond. It
is deeply appreciated. It's because of people like you, with your
expertise, taking time out of your busy life to respond to inquiries from
people like me that makes these newsgroups such a wellspring of information.

My very best wishes to you and your family,

Ernie

 

[James Blair]

I'm willing to bet that the issue isn't technical at all, but plain old
office politics. Companies nowadays are fairly specific about what
constitutes as legimate use of company resources, and generally speaking,
internet radio is not one of those things. The actual bandwidth utilized is
not the key here, it's the bandwidth being utilized by a potentially
unsanctioned activity. Assuming your wife doesn't work/associate with the
gentleman who sent her the email, it becomes readily apparent that there is
a policy in place for the IT guys to watch for this thing and to notify
policy violators of their violations.

Now, while the MIS manager did a poor job in communicating this by the
sounds of it, if this is indeed the situation, there is really nothing to be
done. She has to stop.

If there is some serious question as to the motives of the email,
personally, and calmly, I would ask for clarification or a hard copy of the
policy in question for my own "reference".

 

[Scribner]

There is office politics to this, Jim. You hit the nail on the head.

Thank you for your input. I'll be showing my wife your email. I know
she'll smile.

Take care,

Ernie