No matter how much bandwidth a company has, there has to be monitoring to provide equal access to it. WildBlue has monitoring systems which look at the amount of data that goes through the modem without looking at the content itself. Common causes of high bandwidth usage are many and WildBlue’s Fair Access Policy ensures that all users receive fair access to bandwidth. Basically, it looks out for certain patterns.
When a user sends large file attachments via email, large amounts of bandwidth are used, as is true when a user uses a web cam again and again or downloads movies and large quantities of music files or software. Other bandwidth bandits include playing online games, or other streaming content, including video and audio. In addition, there’s an entire category of Peer-to-Peer file-sharing programs (such as Kazaa, BitTorrent and eDonkey) that allow others to download music, movies, or other media from your computer, even when you’re completely unaware.
What about other red flag situations? If a user joins a network, disables the uploading features of the network or uses an unsecured computer, a bandwidth alert will go off. Examples include using a missing or out-of-date anti-virus or spyware program, an unsecured wireless network that connects to unknown computers or operating a file, mail or web cam server. All of these are not allowed by the Acceptable Use Policy. It might seem like a long list of internet actions under the lens, but in the end bandwidth monitoring means that all users can participate in the WildBlue network and share bandwidth fairly.
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