Security Basics mailing list archives
Re: Broadband usage statistics
From: Steve Frank <stevefrankrit () yahoo com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 10:37:57 -0700 (PDT)
Keenan, I wish I had some good statistics to show you about network utilization compared to bandwidth size... but I do have some interesting stories nonetheless. First off, I'd say the average user doesnt do much when it comes to network traffic/bandwidth usage. From my somewhat limited experience, most users I've watched run email clients, 1-5 web browsers, occasional streaming audio programs like shoutcast or winamp, various chat programs, or "weather bug" applications. Most of these users don't cause much of a problem for network bandwidth in my experience. On the other hand, I have witnessed some less typical "power users" totally eating up their bandwidth by transfering/downloading/uploading files with sharing tools such as kazaa. These users sometimes play online games like everquest which can create alot of traffic at the same time. On a related note, users who host files or have their workstation configured as a server can cause all sorts of havoc on a network. Case in point, last year at RIT, a student who operated a ?hotline? Macintosh file server took up 94% of the total Dual-OC3 connection. Needless to say the network administrators found out and shut it down. But on an open network, those kind of situations wouldn't surprise me. Thanks, Steve Frank ------------------- President of SPARSA Security Practices and Research Student Association Rochester Institute of Technology --- Keenan Smith <kc_smith () clark net> wrote:
All, Is anybody aware of a survey or study of some sort that details a typical user's broadband usage relative to the size of the pipe? I'm trying to roll out a remote access solution using VPN as a secure transport into our LAN. So far in all cases, there has not been a problem with system or pipe load. However, it was suggested the other day that some users may have maxed-out connections (hard to imagine for a single broadband user doing mainly email and other typical office-related work maxing out their pipe) that would make VPN an unusable solution given the extra overhead. Rather than waiting to find out and having to explain to my boss with a red-faced "Duh" that I didn't know, I'd like to find out what percentage of users regularly max-out their connection so I know if I'll have to come up with some other way to secure a connection into our backoffice or if I'll have to budget for extra bandwidth on the user's end. What I need is how many people or companies, on average, max-out their connections? I don't believe that a single user with a cable modem or DSL would ever have this problem, but how about a small organization of 5 or 10 people? Some basic measurements at the last company I worked for indicated that despite 50 users sharing a single T1 and many of them doing streaming audio/video as well as large downloads, never went above an average 15% utilization of a T1. Is that typical or was that company particularly efficient in their network usage? Most of my info is not quantifiable so I'm looking for some hard facts and figures. Thanks in advance for any advice/info. KC Smith
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Current thread:
- Broadband usage statistics Keenan Smith (Jun 23)
- Re: Broadband usage statistics Mitch Pirtle (Jun 24)
- RE: Broadband usage statistics Kurt (Jun 24)
- Re: Broadband usage statistics Steve Frank (Jun 24)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Broadband usage statistics chris (Jun 24)