How to manage Internet Bandwidth Usage for Power Users

[JE J]

Hi all,

I'd be interested in hearing how others manage Internet Bandwidth usage for power users. Specifically users who do heavy downloading and uploading of large files, or video editing that takes up a significant amount of bandwidth. We have a number of users who fall into this category and can use almost 100% of the 20M of upload bandwidth available as an example. We currently use Unifi and have bandwidth limits in place, however there are complaints about slow internet speeds as a result. I'd be interested in any feedback. 

[James Gifford]

What i’ve done (similar scenario) is to politely ask the people who are video editing to do it after peak hours, or over lunch. They’ve all been super nice and understanding, and complaints more or less stopped.

The other thing you can do (I believe) is bandwidth limit specific users in the Unifi, so most people won’t notice. But in general, you need to solve this people problem with people, not tech.

- James

On Jul 12, 2016, at 8:30 PM, JE J <jeja...@comcast.net> wrote:

Hi all,

I'd be interested in hearing how others manage Internet Bandwidth usage for power users. Specifically users who do heavy downloading and uploading of large files, or video editing that takes up a significant amount of bandwidth. We have a number of users who fall into this category and can use almost 100% of the 20M of upload bandwidth available as an example. We currently use Unifi and have bandwidth limits in place, however there are complaints about slow internet speeds as a result. I'd be interested in any feedback. 

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[Alex Hillman]

+1 to James' approach, we've been down this road as well and having a conversation has always worked better than any kind of "prevention" based approach.

Another option we haven't taken (but would consider if it came down to it) would be to add a dedicated "high usage" connection that people can plug into using ethernet instead of wifi to ensure they're connected to the right system during specific high bandwidth needs operations. 

Personally, I'd look for ways to tie usage of that service to other behaviors, similar to how placing a kitchen or bathrooms can influence how people move through the space, or how mixing full time and flex desks can encourage more mixing and meeting new people. Turn a problem into a solution :)

-Alex

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[Alex Linsker]

What we do is our internet provider automatically caps the bandwidth per device, and after 5 minutes of high continuous usage that bandwidth is then halved (but still enough for reliable Google chat). People are super-happy with it. 99% of the time it's super-fast for everybody and 1% of the time it's fast but not super-fast. 

[Сергей Петренко]

First, if you can identify these power users, try to provide them with Ethernet connection. This will reduce significantly wi-fi load. And, obviously, it is much easier to manage bandwidth on a wired connection.

Also, if you have a number of users who generate such legitimate traffic, maybe you need to expand your connection?

—
Sergey Petrenko

> 16 июля 2016 г., в 13:09, Alex Linsker <alexl...@gmail.com> написал(а):

[eba...@greentownlabs.com]

Hi, 

We have experienced the same issues in the past, so our IT firm "throttled" the amount of bandwidth that any one device could pull. z

Liz