Why is working from home putting strain on the internet?

[RichardCoulter]

If these people were at work, they'd still be sending the same amount of data down the wires?? I suspect It's not as simple as that though, anyone know?

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

If these people were at work, they'd still be sending the same amount of data down the wires?

No, they would not.

For example, at work, I'm already connected to our internal network, so there is no internet traffic for most of what I do.

At home, I have to connect to our network via a VPN, so all my traffic is going over the internet.

Also, because they’re not really working, they’re on Netflix.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Paul

No, they would not.

For example, at work, I'm already connected to our internal network, so there is no internet traffic for most of what I do.

At home, I have to connect to our network via a VPN, so all my traffic is going over the internet.

Ahh ok, I understand. If you sent an email to a colleague at work, it would be an internal process, but at home it uses the internet.

Thanks for clearing that up.

---------- Post added at 17:11 ---------- Previous post was at 17:10 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

Also, because they’re not really working, they’re on Netflix.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Ahh ok, I understand. If you sent an email to a colleague at work, it would be an internal process, but at home it uses the internet.

Thanks for clearing that up.

---------- Post added at 17:11 ---------- Previous post was at 17:10 ----------

Yup, back in the early days of big corporate networks you didn’t even necessarily qualify for access to the internet “gateway”. We used to use a messaging system called Lotus cc:Mail, which allowed you to address messages within the business anywhere in the world using an addressing format that looked a bit like this:

To: John Smith AT CORPORATE

But to send email outside the business it would be johnsmithswife@ntlworld.com AT INTERNET

Needless to say you were only allowed access to the internet gateway if you had a valid business reason. As businesses moved to mail systems like MS Outlook or others that seamlessly integrated intranet and internet messaging, they tended to adopt today’s more familiar email addressing format, so today John’s messaging address regardless of whether he’s being contacted internally or externally is John.smith@globalbogroll.com . But there is still a corporate network hiding behind it all, which transfers email within the busniess, without tasking the public internet service.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Chris

Also, because they’re not really working, they’re on Netflix.

True, although my company has standardised on the use of Microsoft Teams for holding meetings and general communication. As such, we've made it available for staff to install on their own computers or devices. So, what have a lot of our users done, despite us making videos and holding multiple training sessions telling users how to do this?

Yep, they log in to our remote desktop system, then use Teams on there. All of a sudden, the load on our network connection goes up exponentially.

To explain the extra load. If a user logs on to teams with their own computer, my company's infrastructure is not involved at all beyond the initial authentication (and I don't know how involved it is in that). If they log in to remote desktop, they consume one of our Remote Desktop licences, then are transferring potentially many megabytes of data as mouse/keyboard inputs to their virtual desktop are transferred to the server, and the results are transferred back.

[pip08456]

From an email sent out bt BT.

We’re constantly monitoring our broadband network, and have built in more than 10 times the capacity needed for everyday use. We have more than enough to handle the increase in people working from home, and the extra calls people will be making too.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

If these people were at work, they'd still be sending the same amount of data down the wires?? I suspect It's not as simple as that though, anyone know?

Is home working putting strain on the Internet?

[RichardCoulter]

Yep, Netflix is reducing their bandwidth by 25% to help with this.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Yep, Netflix is reducing their bandwidth by 25% to help with this.

That’s not evidence that it’s actually a thing though - at least not in the UK. Only that there’s a perception this is happening.

BT confirmed the other day that record levels of bandwidth were in use when Tottenham played their last Champions League tie and at the same time an update to Red Dead Redemption 2 was released. This was 3.5x normal daytime bandwidth usage. Home working, even millions of people doing so, barely nudges the dial.

More people in self isolation in the evenings (and entire countries in lockdown), on top of normal evening usage, is more likely be be the reason they’ve reduced the bandwidth.

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by Chris

Also, because they’re not really working, they’re on Netflix.

Our CASB is throwing up some very interesting reporting

[tweetiepooh]

For me although my VPN means traffic is over the internet most of my work is done on a virtual Linux desktop so all the traffic on that is just with in the company and only "display" changes are pushed to my local machine.

Originally Posted by mrmistoffelees

Our CASB is throwing up some very interesting reporting

Amazing how dumb some people are - im sure there will be some "interesting" 1-2-1s when things calm down.

[downquark1]

My lab puts all the meetings on video conference, but normally there are a lot of people in the actual room for face to face discussion. Now everyone is connecting from home the conference servers are overloaded.

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Amazing how dumb some people are - im sure there will be some "interesting" 1-2-1s when things calm down.

Indeed, I had to give a webinar to 2000 staff when the org decided to move decided to move to remote working. Reminding that all of our VPN's were full tunnel (PA Prisma Access) , we had CASB . and that only traffic limited to our video conferencing services would not be inspected. (apart from the usual services such as personal banking etc.)


Apparently, that was unfair