Bandwidth Scarcity, The Latest Excuse For Banning MySpace
from the doubt-it dept
There have been plenty of stories of schools worrying about MySpace and banning students from accessing the site. Their concerns are well documented, but a community college in Texas has come up with a new reason to ban it; they claim that MySpace is a bandwidth hog, slowing down the school’s network. This is the same reason given by universities for banning file trading, though that actually involves the transfer of large files. Most likely, bans on file trading have more to do with the legal liability, while the MySpace ban is more of a pedantic way of controlling what students do online. The fact that this is a community college, likely having many adult students, makes it absurd that the administration feels the need to regulate their internet use. The school may be bolstered in their claims that MySpace is a bandwidth hog by the fact that some Apple retail stores are also banning the site, using the same excuse. But again, there’s probably an ulterior motive — something to do with not wanting teenagers spending hours on end using their display computers.
Comments on “Bandwidth Scarcity, The Latest Excuse For Banning MySpace”
1st
So what? Any reason to ban myspace is a good one. Nothing but emos and cam whores.
Re: 1st
m0rd3r on Apr 24th, 2006 @ 3:37pm
So what? Any reason to ban myspace is a good one. Nothing but emos and cam whores.
Ummm, not really. I am neither emo or a cam whore. Yet I love it.
Methinks your fear is based on the unknown. All too typical.
Lee
Re: Re: 1st
umm well I personaly dont think myspace is a place for cam whores or emo people…all of my friends have myspaces and it doesnt have anything to do with my school. We only do it on the weekends and when we dont get to see our friends
Re: 1st
I don’t really like these e-friend type network. It’s a magnet for those people that want to appear to be different to others. People lie when they are using these types of networks. Hence it’s really some sort of game that’s eating up (like most internet applications) valuable bandwidth that could be better used when the wi-fi-enabled cities, for example, start to really work as they should.
Re: Re: Internet Personas
I’ll admit is is a bandwidth hog. To me, the whole site needs to be revamped. And some sort of payment to charge to place music, videos, animated graphics, etc.
on profile pages.
It seems like I read somewhere that Rupert Murdoch owns MySpace…if so, where is he for limited free and paid membership fees with faster servers? What about that “Tom” guy?
I have a Myspace account, but I have spent the last *5* years on LiveJournal…and gladly pay extra for premium services 🙂
Oh, and many people on Yahoo, AOL, MSN, ICQ, etc. cloak the “real them”. That will never end…
Re: 1st
i like cam whores, send them to me.
Re: 1st
Exactly.
I think the college is quite right in doing this, and for the first time in a while I disagree heavily with the Techdirt editorial.
Many myspace pages have horrible music blaring, even if you mute this it still downloads. That takes a lot of bandwidth, the same with videos and flash animations.
I can totally understand the bandwidth implications.
speaking of ulterior motives
could this be another reason?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2912
MySpace Banning
I’m probably not the only person who hasn’t gotten on the MySpace bandwagon but I refuse to give in. If a School/Business feels the need to ban MySpace so be it. The College I attend just recently banned MySpace and I agree with their assesment, too many people are spending time perusing myspace during class time. America’s school system is horrible as is, and with millions upon millions of highschool/college kids distracted from learning because of MySpace is only making the situation worse.
Re: MySpace Banning
My argument to this is, “So what?” It’s not a public school.
Those people paid to be there and if they choose to use the time they have paid for surfing the web instead of learning then I’m sure that will reflect in their grades. As long as they arent doing anything that would lessen your ability to learn, I say let them do what they will on the net during the time they have already paid for.
Re: Re: MySpace Banning
What you don’t seem to understand is that those using myspace are preventing others from using the internet for school work. So your statement of saying anything that keeps students from learning is a good reason to ban myspace. I manage a network of 30 users, with 2mb download and a 512kb upload. When just one person gets onto myspace it brings the network to a halt thus preventing the rest of us from using the internet. So who should suffer the 5 or the 25 of us.
Re: MySpace Banning
They are adults, who are you to tell them they can not waist there’s or there parents money while in college.
It is not your money, they are not your kids, and they are adults.
I mean damn I paid my own money to go to college and I utterly hated people like you who thought they needed to tell me how to attend classes, and what I could and could not do with my time on campus.
Screw you man, I spent 10k a year on books, and classes.. I think I paid for my right to visit what ever site I wanted too (as long as it is legal).
After having a teacher threaten to fail me for not coming to class a couple times, I made it a point to miss up to the max amount of time I could, and I still maintained an A in her class, she tried to fail me anyway, I brought it to the Dean, when asked why I had missed so many days I told him, it is my money I pay them to teach me, if I want to keep paying them and not show up who are they to complain, they still get paid, also I showed them all my test and grades, he ruled in my favor.
The bad thing about it is that I went to college thinking it would be a place of adults, but instead I landed in 13th grade where I was treated no better than a child. Regardless of the fact that I by then had a full time job, and 2 kids.
IMHO if you pay for your own classes, and you make passing grades then you pass, regardless if you showed up everyday or just on test days.
And the same thing goes for Internet viewing. If you pay for it then by god you should be allowed to do with it as you see fit.
I view it just like a car. I buy a car, I can drive it all over, or I can take it home and let is rot in my garage, hell I can park it in my back yard and burn the damn thing if I want. It was my money, my car, my lose or gain, not yours so please STFU and sit down.
The sad thing is, I got out of college and landed my first job at a whole 8 bucks an hour.
I spent all that money just to get in the door.
College is important, but it is not the end all. I have found experience is the only thing that makes you money.
It really is hogging bandwidth
I live in Corpus Christi (where the community college is located) and I have friends that take courses over at Del Mar. They told me that prior to the banning of MySpace, the internet connection on campus was EXTREMELY sluggish and students were unable to get their work done. Because MySpace is so full of graphics and high resolution images, it takes a lot of BW to download that and I understand their complaint.
I run a proxy on my own web server for a few of my friends to access MySpace from school (eh, not exactly the right thing to do, but oh well) and I can only run about 5-10 users on there before my connection is saturated (5.0mbps/512kbps).
While Del Mar’s connection is a little faster than 512kbps, if you get a hundred people on there downloading pictures from MySpace, that fast connection quickly slows to dial-up speed.
One other note about Del Mar. Yes, the majority of the students there are adults, but when we say adults, we are talking 18-22 year olds, not 40-50 year olds and there are also a LOT of students from the 8 high schools in the area that take classes there as well.
Well, thats all I have to say about MySpace and why I think they are at least partially justified in blocking it on their campus.
Re: uhh no crap
High Resolution pictures? Are you kidding? Try the videos? There is a video on 1/3 pages in the myspace community. Now they have even added a section where you add your own videos.
Graphics and High Resolution images are no where near the problem. Mp3s and Videos are hogging the bandwidth
It really is hogging bandwidth
I live in Corpus Christi (where the community college is located) and I have friends that take courses over at Del Mar. They told me that prior to the banning of MySpace, the internet connection on campus was EXTREMELY sluggish and students were unable to get their work done. Because MySpace is so full of graphics and high resolution images, it takes a lot of BW to download that and I understand their complaint.
I run a proxy on my own web server for a few of my friends to access MySpace from school (eh, not exactly the right thing to do, but oh well) and I can only run about 5-10 users on there before my connection is saturated (5.0mbps/512kbps).
While Del Mar’s connection is a little faster than 512kbps, if you get a hundred people on there downloading pictures from MySpace, that fast connection quickly slows to dial-up speed.
One other note about Del Mar. Yes, the majority of the students there are adults, but when we say adults, we are talking 18-22 year olds, not 40-50 year olds and there are also a LOT of students from the 8 high schools in the area that take classes there as well.
Well, thats all I have to say about MySpace and why I think they are at least partially justified in blocking it on their campus.
MySpace
Any reason to Ban Myspace.com is a good reason!
Re: MySpace
banning myspace is not a good idea simply becausea after our work at school is done we may want to browse on myspace just for fun!
Horrid System Lag
I cannot stand MySpace due to the system resources that it does indeed drain. Some people have so many layers of graphics/colors/videos/etc. that just SCROLLING takes about a minute for the system to catch up. Also, people on the site don’t consider things such as bandwidth when designing it. They just think, “Oh, I like this VIDEO. I’ll stick it in.” Little do they realize most viewers (including myself) won’t be patient enough for it to load anyway.
Myspace.com
Thanks to all the close minded whom wish to destory our freedom! why don’t you just go somewhere other than the free world. Ban yourself from freedom, because i for one would die for it! Choose not to decide, you still have made that choice. Don’t participate, if you don’t like it, but for * sake don’t ban it. Or should we ban you saying that next!
Re: Myspace.com
We’re not the only close-minded ones here. You people who openly “express your freedom” on shared networks by browsing MySpace suck bandwidth and restrict our freedom to browse the REST OF THE FREAKIN’ INTERNET at a smooth rate.
Re: Myspace.com
Tool. You have no inherent right to browse myspace.com from a school’s computer – especially when it is doing harm to other’s ability to use the web for legitimate purposes (which on a college campus means for studying).
This is no different than speech. You have no inherent right to free speech when the exercise of that right does harm to other’s ability to do the same.
I browse the web on a network that has less than 5 mb of inbound connection from the outside world. That connection is shared by a few thousand people. (life in Iraq can be a bitch…)
when bandwidth is critical, all kinds of stites – personal finance, sports, shopping, et al.
myspace.com, however, goes into the bitbucket from the start (along with ebay.com) – because of the bandwidth used to get junk from them.
And you know what – the users survive.
Re: Re: Myspace.com
Re: Re: Myspace.com
The flaw in your argument is that it almost assuredly blocks those students who have there own computers in there own dorm rooms, that they paid big money to get into.
Logging in to Myspace at the library should not be allowed as there are other who need to use the computer.
In there dorm room, that they rent out for large sums of money. I think you should be allowed to browse anywhere you want.
O and one other thing, one person speech will never take away another persons right to free speech.
So you do have a right to free speech, regardless of how it makes other feel.
Re: Myspace.com
if the company/school pays for the bandwith, it’s there own to do what they want with it. Closed minded? I think not. Just because its freedom, it is not necessarily FREE.
Re: Myspace.com
” Ban yourself from freedom, because i for one would die for it! ”
If you’re willing to kill yourself for MySpace, I can show you an ungrounded electrical socket, free of charge.
“Choose not to decide, you still have made that choice”
Wow, so someone either just studied existentialism in English class, or has been listening to way too much Rush. Given the age of the MySpace crowd, I’m guessing English class.
“Don’t participate, if you don’t like it, but for * sake don’t ban it”
If it’s clogging bandwidth for everyone else, and I’m a school, I sure as hell will. I’m sure you’ll somehow manage an education without MySpace for a few hours.
By the way – no one’s talking about a governmental ban, little emo, it’s OK, you can still talk to all your depressed/depressing “friends.”
Why are people on Myspace at school anyway?
School/work isn’t for browsing around on Myspace, its for doing work. They have every right to ban it.
I do have a myspace though, and I like the site n all…
2 reasons
1: Myspace is a bandwidth hog, sometimes i will open a profile that has so many images, videos, songs, and other crap on it that it actually kills my network card and disconnects me. Using bittorrent is less stress on my system than myspace.
So if a school wants to ban it for that reason i think it is valid.
2: ITS A SCHOOL, people should be doing school related things at school.. not messing around on myspace.
School
my school banned myspace and suspended a kid for saying a teacher should F-ing die
Man...
LOL…and I actually took the time to read a couple of these useless posts…My Space? Who cares… 😐
Banning anything
When I was at school transistor radios were banned, my elder brother saw record players banned. My Mum 78’s .How stupid. School is about learning to be productive in the world. And if the teacher was saying something should be banned then the student had every right to say it. This is American land of the free and the brave – watch though here comes the Spanish Inquisition.
maybe myspace just sucks 4$$?
i dont know about you guys, but all i get off of myspace is people telling me i have no life, and then complaining about theirs! if i wanted that, i’d write the words “emo shoulder” on all my tee-shirts! the only reason i even have a myspace is the music, and that takes up a $#!7 load of bandwidth!
on a side note, my school recently banned gmail for the same reasons (bandwidth)
Re: maybe myspace just sucks 4$$?
Banning gmail for the same reason as myspace? Lets get real here. Besides, you shouldn’t be looking at those sites at school.
its not myspace’s fualt it’s the user’s and its not so about it slowing the internet.. i have ran meny tests and have checked into this emo and cam whores and there are 1000’s of decsent people on there even some tv stars are on there but i say fuck the schools and bussnisess who are doing this do not ban some thing for the users are at fault
not every one is at fault and the schools need new computers any ways there like 5 years behind
but the saying gose “its not the car’s fault its the idiot driveing it”
Re: Re:
You need to focus on that class called ENG101. One thing myspace, as well as IM’s and text msgs are helping is the lack of proper internet hygiene. AKA: Spelling, clean up your text and people are more likely to listen to what you have to say.
otay u fraeknig idts? LOLZ LOLZ LOLZ…..frackers…..
Re: Re:
It’s good that you chose to remain anonymous. Take a good look at your spelling and grammer. This is why you shouldn’t be allowed to use sites such as this at school. Spend more time learning and less screwing off…the only legit use of school computers SHOULD be for school related uses.
Re: banning my spave
As I read many of the posts, I am amazed that so many need to do the things which school are supposed to teach, spelling, grammar, and sentence structures. Many are mising the ability, or so it seems. Less time on myspace, more learning.
Do something
People, just get firefox with the noscript plugin and watch all of that business fade away like hanson.
It stops most movies/music/silly apps from loading and also has some fun security benefits. Stop your bitching about how bad it is and do something.
And so what, if people decide to waste $xxxx amount of money on myspace ‘stead of a education let them. It will teach them money management!
duh..
are you forgetting all the other resons that they have myspace banned besides this??
sure it may not be the MOST legit reason, but you also have to play in factors of: graphic images/text, games, music, “chatting”, all of which are not aloud at my school
although their are easily ways to get past this/
its not the users fault they dont wanna spend their own time learning about stuf flike bandwith and html, i bet 97% of al myspace pages have over 100html errors on them..even the html/css generators are POS’s!
u R nOoBs
mYsPaCe iS tEh PwNaGe
Fuck all you Haters
nigga this is M-lo from tha Yay yall dont kno what you is even talkin bout…fuck school and erryone that wants myspace banned fuck yall…
Finally
Finally, Myspace is the worst use of internet bandwidth since well ever. Yeah u get to meet people, but how many of those people do u actually care about? Guess what it is just another place for petifiles to find you. Im Glad that many schools and colleges are banning it. I normally would take the side of the site because i dont like web for me or other people to be a “web nazi” but in this case myspace is a place for u to get into a lot of trouble. (3 kids suspended in 1 day for a single myspace)
Re: Finally
Re: Finally
Hello my name Jason Taylor and I like to suck on e
Yes my name is Jason Taylor and I am a stupid ass grandmotherfucker. First why don’t all the wealthy cracker motherfuckers give our schools more money to get some decent ass teachers so that I actually want to learn. Fuck those boring ass teachers that don’t give a fuck about the students and their future. Again, my name Jason Taylor and I like to suck on elephant dick.
Here’s a thought… it’s an idea called “personal responsibility”. For instance, I’m wasting time on this tech dirt instead of starting early on my research project. So if I do poorly on my presentation tomorrow, it’s MY freakin’ fault. And hopefully something I’ll learn from. Most higher institutions consider their job to be introducing a “well-rounded” person into the workforce/academic community. At least in the traditions I am familiar with, the idea is very much NOT to babysit. You’ve got to be an adult sometime, and adults manage their time, or lose out. If bandwidth is being seriously compromised, then perhaps the measures are reasonable, I don’t really know. But as a matter of hand-holding person into responsible internet use, it’s just stupid at a level higher than junior high or (maybe) high school.
Relax, banning is so easy to get around, if its important to you’ll find 1 of the 20 ways to go to the banned website, but im not helping you, that website hurts my brain.
myspace
myspace is the best way i have found to stay in touch with friends and check bands i haven’t heard of. i’m not on the bandwidth committee. i’ll take all you will give me, if i need it. if it is a problem, i’m sure myspace can limit page data.
Why not us traffic shaping
I goto a fiarly large University (Cal State Univ, Northridge) an d myspace has made the network there sluggish. There are about 300 computers in the library alone and when I walk through the lab looking for an open computer about 3/4 of the user a surfing myspace. If there school would employ traffic shaping or bandwidth throttling on myspace.com and the common sites that have content linked into myspace pages (youtube.com), then people wouldn’t be so attached to myspace.com. at school at least.
Yes, i agree
It does hog bandwith
I go to Liberty University. Most of the students here use FaceBook. Facebook (untill recently) didn’t have anything but text and one image per profile. They now have complete photo albums. Even before this, people i know in the network told me that in the evenings, 70% of the network traffic was from facebook! People do use myspace as well here, but it is slow (my guess it is bandwith throttled). THe school recently has been doing alot to upgrade the network, so this year the myspace traffic hasn’t really affected anyone, but before it was a major problem.
Since FaceBook uses subdomains for each school, my suggestion would be to offer to host the one for our school on campus. That way, although there would still be alot of network traffic, it would be mostly internal. Yes i know this poses many legal issues, but it would solve the bandwith problems
Bwahahahahahaha
Ok, as someone who’s been working in the IT industry before the buzz phrase Information Technology even existed , the notion that the browsing of any one site could hog bandwidth on a ;arge network is….in a word….Addlepated. (Stupid for those of you that don’t want to use dictionary.com)
This is SPECIFCALY censorship, and at a community college, Illegal. Taxes pay for that computer access, therefore they can’t censor ANY of it. Same goes for public libraries. Censorship of services paid for by public taxes is illegal. Doesn’t mean some backwoods ignorant self-rightious individuals won’t try anyway, but no matter how you cut it, it is against the law, and they WILL lose if it goes to court.
Everyone who posted a comment in support of myspace being a bandwidth hog has NO CLUE as to the manner of, or speed at which data transfers across a network. I’m not explaining it here, it’s YOUR responsiblty to cure your own ignorance.
This is America, any restriction or censorship of information that exists in the public domain, and is accessable though public resources is a violation of the First Amendment……period. You can’t cut it any other way.
Private companies can do whatever they want with their own services, but public ones cannot. Public facilities must meet the will of the public, not their own personal ideals.
Please, someone try to argue with me on this one.
Re: Bwahahahahahaha
On the issue of network usage, I think you are a little mistaken on how much bandwidth MySpace can actually take up. Lets say the school has a T1x3, i.e. 4.5mbps each way. Put 50 users on that network. You now have about 100 kbps per user minus overhead, so about 50-75 effective kbps download speed. Then, we take an average my space page at a total download size of about a meg and a half and the average download time on a school network of about 5 seconds.
Now, if you find the ratio between the bandwidth the user should be using and the bandwidth they are using you find that the users are using 3 times the bandwidth they have available. That means for every user on MySpace, 2 more users have lost internet access. Thats 33% taking away access from 66%. And last time I checked, 66% rounded to 70%.
Now, most schools do not have a T1x3. For my high school, they have a single T1 and at least 100 users on at a time. As you can see, MySpace can easily slow any large groups internet connection to a crawl.
On another, more accurately tested note, I have 5mbps down on my internet connection (faster than the example above, which only had 4.5). Now, if I am trying to load a page on MySpace from 3 different computers at the same time, my internet connection slows down so much that I am unable to stream audio at even 96kbps.
So, if you say MySpace does not cause bandwidth issues, I’m not sure what will in your eyes. Thank you and have a nice day.
Michael, CCNA
Re: Re: Bwahahahahahaha
I don’t think that BANDWIDTH USAGE is really the issue here in the first place. Whether Myspace, MyDumbSite.com, or Porno.com, that still does not excuse a university or college from banning its usage [if it’s legal.]
Public Libraries, Computer Labs are one thing, but I’ll be damned if some IT guy from a College decides to disallow ANY certain access to a student, no matter how “adult” they are.
Why? Because they are the ones footing the costs to live in dorms, pay tuition, pass classes, and get a degree.
If colleges are so desparate for bandwidth, they should GET MORE. Since when is the IT department at a College the “Internet Police?”
Once again, it would be different if college were free, but IT IS NOT.
Students pay outragous sums of money to live in cramped dorms all over the place, along with their rip off “food plans” from Marriot or Sodexho, and end up with plenty of money to pay back for all of that. And as someone said, what if one is a returning “Adult” Student?” Do you really think that their internet access should be governed over by some IT personnel? They have to PAY “out the ass” as well.
The point is not whether it is myspace.com or anything else, the oint is that colleges are santuaries for freedom of speech and expression, and cost a bundle.
What would you say if we just banned expensive food items from the 18+ year olds “meal plans” to save money? Let ’em eat prison food and pay for it all later?
Nonsense.
A student can choose whether to attend class, drink beer all day or not, visit porno sites (not in the libraries and labs obviously!) or do whatever they’d like with their access, because they are going to be PAYING FOR IT.
College education is very expensive unless your Daddy’s rich. Censorship is fine if it’s a high school, library, or public place, but if you are going to think your University’s IT department has the right to control what you see, watch, or hear something is definately wrong with your thinking. I don’t like myspace either, but if someone wants to use it, let them consume as much of your precious bandwidth as they want to.
Until a College Education is Free.
–Professor HighBrow
(/weeps, then smacks around some IT department censcors)
Re: Re: Re: Bwahahahahahaha
I agree with you professor that colleges should just get more bandwidth, except I don’t think you have seen education and money management here in Corpus Christi. Theoretically, they should be able to just increase bandwidth and tuition, but that doesn’t work around here. And besides, the network is there for work, not play. This is a community college where they provide internet for the faculty and the students when they are not at home (no dorms). It would be nice if they would just upgrade their internet connection, but I don’t think they are willing to do that and I think you would agree that this is the next best thing for all of Del Mar to keep the internet flowing on campus.
Re: Re: Bwahahahahahaha
merrrr
And again
In reply to all those who said “So what? They’re adults, let them do what they want”, or something like that:
The point is not to make THEM do school related business only online. The point is to give those who actually WANT to do school related business (whether on a school computer or in their dorm on their personal PC on the school’s connection) the ability to get to the information they need. A school does not pay for 3 OC-whatever lines so that 6000 people can go look at last night’s party on MySpace or FaceBook.
Don’t get me wrong, i don’t totally hate those sites. I like the idea of MySpace, although it has to many ads for me (which i know i can get rid of). FaceBook is great. It’s the best designed site I’ve seen since Google. Seriously. I mostly avoid MySpace because i don’t want to deal with all the crap people think looks good, or the crap that was designed wrong. For example:
I have a dual screen setup, so when you get the size of my monitors using the function in Javascript, you get 2048 instead of 1024. However, a lot of the sites I’ve went to use the screen width to dynamically lay out the page. I then have to stretch the page out across both monitors to read everything (and no, there isn’t even a horizontal scroll bar).
Another MySpace i visited had flashing text for the whole site. I have no idea what it said, i didn’t even bother reading it.
FaceBook i like, mostly because it doesn’t allow people to change the design of their profile page. Therefore, quick and easy loading. It doesn’t have a blog area though ,so mainly i just use it if i forget someones email or if i want to IM them.
In reply to Billy
Have you ever been on a large network like this where people had access to and a reason to use MySpace?
No?
Then shutup.
I KNOW it take up bandwidth.
When i go online and i go to the Google homepage (not the personalized one, the main search page) and it takes almost a full minute to load, and then another 2 to do the search, you know you’ve got a problem. And 10,000 students going to normal text and some media sites on an OC3 +T2 connection does not cause this! It’s all the graphics, videos, pcitures, backgrounds, flashgames, etc that people who have no idea what “designing a website” means put on their page.
As i said before, when 70% of your outbound traffic is going to one site, you know you’ve got a problem. And it certainly will slow the network down.
As ‘No one you’ll listen to’ said above:
“You have no inherent right to free speech when the exercise of that right does harm to others ability to do the same. ”
And as he said, the same applies to using MySpace on a school computer, whether paid for by you the student or you the taxpayer. You have every right to go to MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, or playboy if you want to, except when it gets in the way of other exercising their right to browse the internet.
Check out my website. Not done, but will be clean and simple. http://www.AsherMaximum.com
I agree
If they have a valid reason who cares if they ban MySpace?
I log into myspace all the time and have a detailed profile, and sometimes it is slower becasue of it. Face it folks myspace is a huge site and its going to hog bandwidth thats just the way it is. And like someone said in the above replies its a school people should be learning not jerking off on myspace. Get over it.
^^^^^^OMG.....BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!^^^^
You Sir, have just made yourself look like an idiot in front of thousands of people. You have NOOOOOOO clue as to how a network functions., please stop talking as such.
When you have access to a major network’s log files, you can see exactly how the bandwidth is used, who goes where, and how much is used in total. I’ve looked at hundreds of thousands of logs before to analyze network behavior in many large and small compaies and several major education networks including the University of Michigan, and to state that Myspace.com is 70% of network traffic at any one time is not believable. ESPECIALLY on a network the size of an educational institution’s.
Your so called “network guy” is lying to you because he has personal reasons for not liking myspace. He KNOWS that you don’t know anything about networking and that he can tell you such a BS figure like 70% of bandwidth is going to myspace.com. I am calling him a liar, be sure to let him know I did.
There are REAL things that harm bandwidth. Filesharing is at the top of that list, but knowing that only takes common sense. The second would be malicious behavior, DoS attacks and the ilk (yes people still DoS attack today, even though it’s so easy to get caught). That’s about it for the things that actually damage bandwidth. “Websurfing” does not harm bandwidth, even a tiny bit. On average, at a network like that at the U of M, websurfing as a whole takes about 30% of the bandwidth. During peak hours (6-10pm) it can climb as high as 45%. That’s it. Now the percentage of that, that is ONE site? Usually about 10% would be the max, and that would be for the umich.edu domain….yes that means 10% of it is still internal traffic.
You sir, need to keep your mouth shut when commenting on something you know nothing about.
Better to keep thy mouth shut and remain a fool, than open it and remove all doubt.
Re: ^^^^^^OMG.....BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!^^^^
I’m afraid I have to call BS on you sir. I manage the filter for 30 different school networks. And I can assure you that it is perfectly possible for a website to hog all the bandwidth. I analyze those logs you were talking about on a daily basis.
And furthermore I don’t know anyone in the IT business for as long as you claim to be who talks the way you seem to be talking. My guess? Your about 13 years old spouting off about stuff you only half understand.
Re: ^^^^^^OMG.....BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!^^^^
You sir are obviously lying to yourself, or have much less experiance then you claim to have. I am the network administrator of a small network of 30 People out here in Iraq, and I have many times seen the MySpace at over 90% of the total network bandwidth (although the average fuctuates depending on who’s on what missions when). It got so bad that at one point I started blocking MySpace during the evening when everyone was trying to IM with their families and were getting disconnected by the MySpace crowd. As far as Filesharing and DoS, anyone does that crap, their off the network, permanently. Perhaps you should follow your own advise, as you have obviously removed any doubt in my mind that you are a fool.
Re: Re: ^^^^^^OMG.....BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!^^^^
A network of 30 people in Iraq……and what is your bandwidth overhead…hmmm?
I know several people serving in Iraq right now, all in seperate locations, and all of whom use the internet to communicate with their families. Guess what their connection is the equivilent of? The worst DSL you could find. I had my friend run a bandwidth speed test from several sites in the middle of the night when NO ONE else was in the network tent for that ENTIRE area and it averaged 300 MBPS DOWN!! That’s MegaBITS not BYTES. Upspeed was almost identical, so at least they’re using a “full-duplex” type connection.
But why am I telling you this, you should KNOW that you already have scarce resources. Last time I checked military bases in Iraq were not technology hubs like a that of a University.
You are using YOUR network for comparison against a MAJOR University network. That doesn’t work.
If you had 5 people on your network all using VoIP at the same time, you would have major problems. My father is in Kosovo and even his network connection is terrible. In fact it’s one of the number one complaints out there since using land lines to call home runs about $5 a minuite so VoIP is the only reasonable option.
Oh and to the guy who seems to think he could call BS on me. You don’t know anyone in the industry that talks the way I do? You mean they talk like you, using “And” to start a sentence with, and calling others 13?
Bah, I know people that talk like YOU in this industry, talk like ME in this industry, and talk like half the people who have posted here in hate of myspace. That’s because this industry is so rediculiously large. Not to mention there are a lot of people who say they’re in IT that are really just in customer service and tech support.
Do you realize how silly it sounds to make a statement that a comercial WEBSITE can hog bandwidth so bad that is slows down the entire network at a major institution?
I humored those that said they could walk into a computer lab and see 90% of the people browsing myspace. Never seen it…checked today…still haven’t seen it. This was at a community college too, about 3000-some active students. I stopped in and asked the resident BOFH if they’ve had any myspace problems. Guess what his reply was? “Huh?”
I showed him this article and he lost it laughing. We looked at an access chart and guess what the most hit domain was? The main local. The next largest…also a local. In fact the largest hog of bandwidth WAS myspace.com…..at about 8% of max bandwidth at PEAK in the middle of the day around lunchtime. This is on an OC3 backbone too…..and they offer external FTP and HTTP services in addition. The only things blocked are filesharing ports, and that’s only because of liabilities.
If you indeed have a network that ANY website browsing is a bandwidth hog off, then that should be a warning sign that your network cannot handle the needs of it’s users. It’s not myspace’s fault that your network can’t handle normal acceptable use.
Don’t blame myspace because your network is designed for half as many people that actually use it. As I said initially, websites don’t hog bandwidth. If they do, then your network is subpar for the community that it is supposed to serve.
Oh, and lastly, on the censorship front……….yeah that’s what this is kids, censorship.
It’s common knowledge that there are a lot of people that dislike myspace (I’m one of them even), but since the dislike of myspace is entirely a matter of taste, no one can make a legitimate attack on them. Attacking something on a matter of personal preference today will have you called a bigot, fool, or one of many other intelegence insulting epithets.
So the somewhat intelegent person decides that he must find another way to attack this thing he dislikes. In this case, someone decided to say “bandwidth hog.” It’s quite obvious that the sentiment held for myspace by those pointing the fingers, is that of dislike. The general public will go along with this idea, because they haven’t the slightest clue as to how a network functions. In fact, those that know little more of computers than writting papers, surfing the web, and downloading music would most likely believe anything they’re told about “the internet.” There’s something to be said of the penom that ignorance leads to gullibility.
Re: Re: Re: ^^^^^^OMG.....BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!^^^^
Personally to the people bad-mouthing myspace saying that there is nothing but emo’s and crazies. I beg to differ. Myspace has helped me in quite a few ways.
1) To find not one but two roomates in college. Cheaper than posting an add in the newspaper.
2) You know those cam whores….Well they are easy. I’ve hooked up with not one, not two, but three cute, SANE, and skinny girls.
As for it being a bandwidth hog…true.
As for it being a waste of time… Erroneous
quite frankly....
i hate myspace. on the other hand, i oppose banning it as a matter of principal. i oppose banning anything. first banning dirty pics, then rude words, then games, myspace, etc. ending with banning everything but the school’s own ethernet. and everyone knows that school ethernets are utterly useless. damn them for crippling my native land.
note- i have a shift key, i’m just too lazy to use it
myspace ha.
because of myspace I graduated highschool early.
i made a proxy and everyone and school began accessing myspace through it.
ha.
those suckers got told.
and than my internet privledges were taken
MySpace is retarded
myspace is for people with no lives… kinda like WoW.
its a really stupid way to get a site out there with your name on it. If you really want to make a website it doesnt take much learning to figure it out. It will cost a few bucks but you get a site that isnt restricted in anyway.
Theres to manny fuckin people on it!!!!!!!!
Myspace raped Joblo in the ass
Yes my name is JoBlo and I am a stupid ass grandmotherfucker. First why don’t all the wealthy cracker motherfuckers give our schools more money to get some decent ass teachers so that I actually want to learn. Fuck those boring ass teachers that don’t give a fuck about the students and their future. Again, my name JoBlo and I like to suck on elephant dick.
Andrew? Ever heard of the 1st?
I’m sorry fellas, but schools SHOULD NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to ban any internet sites at their own discretion.
The last time I checked, I still owe thousands in government loans, well before Napster even came along. Who paid for that? Who is GOING to PAY FOR THAT, FOOLS?
The students, that’s who. So until you decided to donate a few hundred thousand to your local unversity you HAVE NO RIGHT to ban or even shape internet traffic. And don’t give me that Public State school crap either, hardly a fraction of your tax dollars go to that. The students bear the burden, they are the ones paying the tuition, so what gives their IT department the right to limit their access in any way whatsoever?
Maybe Mommy and Daddy paid for your schoolin’, Son.
–Professor HighBrow
(Now the Eyebrows are Angry)
Re: Andrew? Ever heard of the 1st?
Short answer? The other half of the school trying to do actual research on the web for actual schooling. When those students paid their tutition they were given an acceptable use policy for the schools network. They knew what they were buying before they bought it. If they didn’t like it then they didn’t have to purchase the tuition.
That half that wants to study? They bought the same access to the network and if they can’t use it for it’s intended purpose then they would have the right to complain. And man let me tell you I would certainly have complained. So yes the student did pay for the right to go to school there and learn but they didn’t in any way pay for the right to visit myspace on the school network.
Hmmm? Interesting. For the most part, the MySpace defenders could use a little Remedial English 101.
As for whether the school has the right to block the site, well, yes, they do have that right.
You may not like it, but...
I still havent gotten into MySpace and really have no desire to. I think it is dangerous to publish that much information about yourself on the internet. Why ban it? Just because I dont like it and dont want to use doesnt mean that it should be banned.
MySpace isn't that bad, but...
…it can eat up a lot of bandwith, depending on what page you’re on. If there are a lot of videos and moving images, it can slow things down a bit. I don’t really know why there are so many people out there who hate it. If you don’t want to use it, that’s fine, but it can’t be much worse than anything else out there. I do use it to keep in touch with friends and while I do have the skills to make a webpage, I don’t want to spend the money on a personal page that just sits there when I can use MySpace for free.
Do I feel that it should be banned in schools? Not necessarily. If it is draining bandwith, the schools may want to come up with some “rules of netiquette” to help these students self-police their usage in their own dorm rooms. As for being on it in more public settings (i.e. the library or class), you’d have to ban more than just MySpace. There are a ton of Internet gaming sites with enough ads to at least cause problems on the PC level, and that alone can keep students away from their studies longer than intended.
And for people who say that most of the computers in use in libraries and such are on MySpace and that you can’t gain access for legitimate work? The school should have a policy that gives priority to students who have educational reasons for their use. I think an outright ban on anything is generally a bad idea, but there should be other measures in place that can help conserve bandwith or at least allow students who want to work to do just that.
I do have a MySpace account and I do get a little tired of slams on people who use the service. There are good and bad elements everywhere, and while there are a lot of emo kids out there, there are people who are just trying to connect with one another. I live a good distance away from my friends, and this is just a way to keep in touch without the high long distance phone bills.
And the issue with people putting too much personal information on MySpace is more of an issue of a lack of common sense than anything else. You don’t have to put anything on there, really, that tells people where you are and people do lie or get creative about their location. I’m able to put more personal address information in Facebook than MySpace, but I elect not to because I don’t want that known. What people need is an education on how to keep yourself safe on the Internet, and not just say that it’s a MySpace problem.
So, to get back to the issue at hand, MySpace shouldn’t be banned, but steps need to be made to cut down on the bandwith drain that can happen due to its use. There’s got to be a happy medium somewhere.
I apologize for the length of this comment, but as a person who can actually write (I may not, however, be the best speller in the world) and does use MySpace, I had to say something.
Carry on….
Re: MySpace isn't that bad, but...
i strongly agree with ur comment
Banning of myspace to u.s. troops in IRAQ
today on al asad, iraq command unit banned myspace in all MWR building for no apparent reasons given to the troops…. 1st of all they just cut the link between friends and families of troops in iraq. it doesn’t hog bandwidth… 2nd there went the moto to the u.s. marines overseas in iraq …. Yes the command here is smart but not in the fact to ban myspace
if you choose to ban myspace you will not succeed!! We the myspacers will shoot you in the head so then you’ll be DEAD DEAD DEAD!! we will tie you up in are basements until you choose you like myspace… if you haven’t already been found… WE WILL FIND YOU!! Now have a nice!!!
People are the cause of their own demise
My Space . . . is the tip of the iceberg . . . BIG GOV will tighten the noose around your neck . . . until you can’t breathe . . . then, it’s too late . . .
WHY????????
MYSPACE IS OKAY BECAUSE IF YOUR SMART U WANT LET ANY INFORMATION OUT LEADING 2 UR RESIDENCE U ,AND ONLY TALK 2 PEOPLE U KNOW.
pfft!
why get rid of myspace???!!!!! this is like making us kids in school wear uniforms! i no at my school we have a very strict uniform code which in one way makes the school look better but in another does not give any of the kids a individuality! and if u go to school disobeying the uniform rules then u are punished, this is hypocriticle of the schools as we are made to believe that we need to express ourselves through our individuality but when we do we get punished! if u ban myspace then it would not work and every1 loves it and they express there emotions without being judged which is hard to do in our society!!!!
it is messed up!
i think that is are own fault if you want to show yuour pictures on myspace and give your information out but dont punish everyone else.
ur all gay
u fukheads are all the biggest FUKIN nerds ive ever read about computers are gay get a life u homo fuks
fuckin losers
do u cunts hav anythin better to do than tal about shit on the net fuck im gunan rape all your dogs and rape your mum u cocks come to mi house n ill fuck u up
y dont u fukbags get a alife
luv daniel
fuckin losers
do u cunts hav anythin better to do than tal about shit on the net fuck im gunan rape all your dogs and rape your mum u cocks come to mi house n ill fuck u up
y dont u fukbags get a alife
luv daniel
U ALL EAT COCK GET A LIFE
U ALL
( ” V ” )
” ”
V
COCK
myspace isnt gay fuk all yall that think so
you know what this is bullshit. why the hell you going to block myspace. its additcting if you havent already figured that out yet. and for all for it yall just dont want teenegers and whomever else use it. yall should be locked up in a room somewhere. thats the thing that most of america has how could anyone even think to let that happen. i really think you should reconsider your opinions becuz they’re gay for those of you who are against. and i know why because of predators so what. your child and everybody else who joins or who has a myspace can make it private so only those that know that person can access it. and the people that talk to people they dont know is their own problem.
SO LEAVE US THE HELL ONLINE AND GROW UP STOP BITCHING ABOUT STUPID SHIT
MYSPACE IS NOT GAY YOU ARE SO GET OVER YOURSELF
SEE YA LATER
luv miranda with all my heart
I MEAN EVERY WORD
what dont you understand
alrighty…im obsessed with myspace and i am very upset that i cannot access this particular website due to how i can help (long story) people on there that need it. i guess you could say that is my whole relationship with the internet…helping people. i agree that you need to respect teachers and all that…but why are do they punish all of us? i hate this so much and i want to eat lots of cookies cuz im hungry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
fuck you
ass lick
im gonna eat your kids bicth
my space is a perfect place to get tract by sex preditors!
thought
myspace is kool and that ..but not knowing what person or persons are collecting pics and doing what and doing what to themselves isnt kool.we should do something ..like have to pay for myspace ..yes alot of people wouldnt agree i have myspace but to have to pay to see whats in there in myspace is better to have to see what kid was abducted last by someone who tract them in myspace..
joey is my bestest buddie
tylers my bestest pall :]
nipple
i need my sweatshirt just for 4th period and i’ll give it back to u in 5th
MYSPACE IS KOOL
noo/
the heaters broke in my health class
you can have it at teh end of the day!
ya
tyler and emily are weird
joey’s mean :p
theres nothing else to do.
Im boredddd
emilys a camera whore speacially on blakes fone
no im nott!!!
whats on blakes phone?
:]
joeys a camera whore!
a pic of you in a bra….emily is loose!hahaha jk i woudlnt no
no theres not!!
when did i send him those??
loser
i need MY sweatshirt just for 4th
no you dont!!!
the heater’s broke
I’ll give it back to you at the end of the day!!
I never sent blake anything joey!!
i promise that i’ll give it back to u in 5th
noo..the heaters broke!
I’ll give it back to you at teh end of teh day.
IT’S MINE!!!!!!!
joey is a lieing butt face!
theres no pictures on blakes phone!!
he owes me a dollar
Myspace
I have a major problem with Myspace. The issue is bandwidth, when a myspace profile is loading from one machine on our network, allt he other machines get disconnected from the internet. As in there are 5 desktops with wired connections and 7 devices with wireless connections…..Every single damn time a profile is loading ALL devices loose connectivity. Until someone can assist with limiting bandwidth from my router me and the Mrs/kids will continue to argue, not fair to ban myspace for the kids but it is also unfair no-one can use the internet when they are using myspace.