Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Why can't I listen to Internet radio or watch TV online at work?

Today I'd like to address one of the big complaints that spurs questions, frustrations, and theories from people about their IT department. This is one that I find very interesting to overhear. The reasons that people think we block streaming audio and video is often far from the truth.

Honesty, I've even heard people within IT complain about not being able to listen to Internet radio or watch a sporting event online. I can't blame them. I'd love to be able listen to music over the web while I'm at work.

What I want you to learn today, that your IT department doesn't block this type of stuff to be mean or make sure you are working or anything like that. It's because if they allowed it, you wouldn't be able to work and the network would grind to a halt. Then, you'd be frustrated with us for not doing our job. (Just a disclaimer: the reasons I list here are based on my experience and knowledge, it is possible that your IT department is mean, I don't know them (unless I'm in your IT Department, then these ARE the reasons, and we aren't just being mean).

So, why can't you watch streaming video or listen to streaming audio at work? First, I'd like to explain what "streaming" content is. Streaming means that the audio and/or video is being constantly fed over the internet to your computer. Some great examples of this is Internet Radio, which includes local radio stations, and Internet only stations, such as live365.com among many others. Streaming video can include things like live TV broadcasts, web cam feeds, or sporting event feeds.

The reason that your IT department has to block this content is because of the "streaming" part. As a constant feed comes across the internet and the company's network to your computer, it requires a certain amount of bandwidth.

The best way to visualize this is to think about the Internet being like our roadway system and the data going across it being like vehicles, the bandwidth is the number of lanes there are on the road. Most internet traffic travels like cars from a house, out to the main road, to a bigger road, to the highway, then to smaller and smaller roads until it reaches its destination. Sometimes when you are downloading a file, or opening a web page with lots of pictures or detail, it is a larger group of information traveling over the Internet, just like panel trucks and tractor-trailers. Just like these larger vehicles, the larger group of information has harder time getting to the smaller roads, and some roads are impassable (like a 1994 dial-up connection).

Streaming across the Internet is like a parade or caravan. It requires a couple lanes across the road to get from the source of the feed to your computer. Moreover, it uses those lanes the entire time you are watching or listening to that feed. That's not a problem for say, a TV station, because they are connected directly to the highway (they have their own multi-lane ramp) and can afford their private highway entrance/exit because they are making money off what you are watching.

Your company, however, may only have a few lanes out to the Internet, and only one or two lanes to your computer. This is where the problem comes in. Usually those lanes are plenty for all the "work-related" data going across the network and out to the Internet, but when you are streaming, everything else will have to fit through the remaining lanes, if there are any. Add a few of your co-workers doing the same thing, and now no one can send or receive emails, or open or save files to the server, or work with any of the production programs that run the company (SAP, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Sage, or whatever your company uses). Then we have problems.

Why don't we just get more lanes? The most basic answer is because we don't need it to run the company. It's hard to justify the cost of putting those lanes in and maintaining them, if we are only doing it for entertainment purposes. While I can't give you specific numbers, I can tell you that it would cost the company more than most of any of our salaries to be able to have that kind of bandwidth (or extra lanes).

I hope this answers the question as to why your IT Department won't let you listen to Internet Radio or watch TV online.

Please let me know if you have any questions or any topics or questions you'd like me to address in future posts. Just use the comment feature below.

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