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).
8:57 PM
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.
3:40 AM
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).
3:55 AM
Anonymous said…
Two comments:

1. Follow the porn and you will find usage

2. Giganews
9:25 AM
Anonymous said…
I've heard from many that PORN and WAREZ and DVDs can be downloaded vi newsgroups. Newsgroups are rampant with this stuff.
4:27 PM
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.
12:46 PM
Anonymous said…
Looks like most people dont know what Usenet or NNTP are. I sure do feel old now...
9:29 PM
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.
9:05 AM
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.
4:46 PM
Anonymous said…
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6:52 AM
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