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Can too many people streaming music slow down a network?

I am the IT Manager at my company of about 100 people. I'd say at any given time throughout any given day, at least 30 are streaming audio and/or video from the Internet to their workstations. Our Internet connection seems to REALLY slow down. My theory is that there's just too many people streaming. We are on a bonded T1. Advice? Suggestions? Is there any way to prove this? My network is setup like so (very vanilla):

Router----Firewall (SonicWall Pro 2040)-------Switch (connected to other switches with all servers and workstations attached to these switches.

Thanks in advance.

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splait

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SOLUTION

Tristan

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tenover

ASKER

Thanks, that is exactly what I was thinking. If I can actually PROVE that our Internet access would be a bit faster if people were not allowed to stream audio/video, I guarantee that I can get Executive backing/enforcement. My ISP provides bandwidth usage reports in realtime, but it's just a "bandwidth in" and "bandwidth out" report......No way of telling WHAT is using the bandwidth.....

splait

Use the test method I gave you along with that report and you should have the amunitiion you need.. Then, publish the rules as Dextertronic said,

Tristan

If you they insist on seeing stats and figures you can try one the of the free packet capture programs:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/xorg/nmtf/nmtf-tools.html#capture
They can analyze all the traffic that crosses your network.

Easier just to put your foot down and tell them what's what.

Tristan

This is a nice high level article from CIO world
http://www.cio.com/article/25790/Streaming_Video_Invades_Corporate_Networks

Johneil1

http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid7_gci1226099,00.html

this should help!!!!!