How do you enforce acceptable network use?

Wide Area Networking This newsletter is sponsored by Packeteer Your coffee is on us. No tactics. No pressure. Spend 5 minutes on a phone call to learn how Packeteer(r) can help improve your WAN's delivery of Microsoft services to remote locations using the new Packeteer iShaper WAN technology. Register today for an honest assessment of how we can help you and get a $25 Starbucks gift card. Register today. Network World's Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 09/27/07 How do you enforce acceptable network use? By Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler Almost every week, we write about how to make the most effective use of your WAN and the topics often center on how to keep unauthorized traffic off your network. For instance, we recently wrote about whether it’s a good idea and/or possible to block traffic in certain ports, especially with the ability of applications like Skype to find a way though most firewalls and application performance appliances. Today, we’d like to take a moment to consider to what extent tight control is possible – or even desirable. For instance, recently reports in the popular press focused on lost productivity from employees accessing their “fantasy football” accounts while at work, reporting that many people spend up to an hour a day – while allegedly “at work” - managing their teams. And there seems to be virtually no way to stop personal e-mails at work. Even if corporate e-mail is used for work purposes only, Web-based access to services like Google’s Gmail make it almost impossible to stop access to e-mail services. So the basic question becomes to what extent it is reasonable to try to curtail this use – or possible abuse – of corporate resources with technology? Yes, we can – and should - continue to use various devices for traffic shaping and to ensure that sufficient bandwidth is available for mission critical applications and that personal communications do not cause a bottleneck. At the same time, perhaps this is best addressed with a combination of technology and policy, after all, with increasing bandwidth and lower bandwidth costs the strain of corporate networks is becoming more and more a productivity issue than a corporate bandwidth issue. And while policy can’t always be strictly enforced, there at least is a baseline expectation as to what is and isn’t acceptable network use. Find out why WAN Optimization is Right for You Discover how you can realize a three to four month return on investment with WAN optimization tools in this informative Webcast. Learn how all WAN optimization products are not the same and how to find the right box for your organization. To find out more click here. So we’d like to hear from you on this. Do you have an acceptable network use policy in your organization? Are there strict limits as to how many hours per day may be spent on personal communications? If so, how are these policies enforced? Let us hear from you, and we’ll be sharing the results.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to Webtorials, the premier site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and market research. Taylor can be reached at taylor@webtorials.com Jim Metzler is the Vice President of Ashton, Metzler & Associates, a consulting organization that focuses on leveraging technology for business success. Jim assists vendors to refine product strategies, service providers to deploy technologies and services, and enterprises evolve their network infrastructure. He can be reached via e-mail. This newsletter is sponsored by Packeteer Your coffee is on us. No tactics. No pressure. Spend 5 minutes on a phone call to learn how Packeteer(r) can help improve your WAN's delivery of Microsoft services to remote locations using the new Packeteer iShaper WAN technology. Register today for an honest assessment of how we can help you and get a $25 Starbucks gift card. Register today. ARCHIVE Archive of the Wide Area Networking Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007