Internet Traffic Study

I found this press release from Ellacoya Networks to be interesting. HTTP is approximately 46% of all traffic on the network. P2P continues as a strong second place at 37% of total traffic. Newsgroups (9%), non-HTTP video streaming (3%), gaming (2%) and VoIP (1%) are the next widely used applications.

Breaking down application types within HTTP, the data reveals that traditional Web page downloads (i.e. text and images) represent 45% of all Web traffic. Streaming video represents 36% and streaming audio 5% of all HTTP traffic. YouTube alone comprises approximately 20% of all HTTP traffic, or nearly 10% of all traffic on the Internet.


There's some dispute regarding these numbers with respect to HTTP vs P2P, but overall I found these numbers surprising. I am surprised by the high newsgroups count -- is alt.whatever that significant?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Richard wrote:
I am surprised by the high newsgroups count -- is alt.whatever that significant?

At first I thought it might be the news servers exchanging data, but the link described a study of broadband users, not the internet in general. I'd probably attribute that high showing not to alt.whaterver, but to alt.binaries (the old p2p).
Anonymous said…
Interesting that email doesnt figure in the list at all.

I too am surprised at the high number for newsgroups. 9% of all internet traffic just seems too high.
Anonymous said…
Some time ago I had to deal with broadband Traffic-Management. Unexpected high http traffic was also an issue.
I can only guess what kind of users Ellacoyas customers are and what they counted as 'Web page downloads', but I know for a fact that at least in networks with some kind of Traffic-Management appliance, users tend to hit hard on direct download sites like rapidshare, to bypass limitations.
They are fast, conveniant, full of content, etc.
I think this has reached the extend where you have to take a second look at usenet and http-hits, in order to get an accurate number for P2P-classification (especially if you implemented p2p-limitations with a good reason).
Anonymous said…
Two comments:

1. Follow the porn and you will find usage

2. Giganews
Anonymous said…
I've heard from many that PORN and WAREZ and DVDs can be downloaded vi newsgroups. Newsgroups are rampant with this stuff.
Anonymous said…
It's true, I know people who download entire albums of music and then stitch together a 1000 txt files to listen to them.
Anonymous said…
Looks like most people dont know what Usenet or NNTP are. I sure do feel old now...
Anonymous said…
That's definitely binary newsgroups, where the serious filesharing is happening now that Giganews and other provide big retention-- it's replaced the old ftp scene. Check out alt.quebec.hackers, any of the alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica.* groups, or search for groups with 'ijsklontje' and you can d/l full DVDs of warez and pr0n aaaaaalllllll day.
Anonymous said…
Back in the early 1980's, the most used newsgroups were alt.sex followed by comp.lang.c. In the late 1980's the alt.pictures.* groups really started the USENET binary bloat. The alt.binaries newsgroups really became overloaded in the mid-1990's with the availability of inexpensive hard drives, 28.8/56k modems, and consumer DSL. Sad to say that much of what's fueled the desire for increased Internet access over the past three decades has been p0rn and warez.
Anonymous said…
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