Downloading a file brings network to a crawl

Solution 1:

It's not that normal really, not for a medium sized business as most of those wouldn't have a T1 line with no bandwidth management - a small company with no interest in their IT perhaps but not a medium sized one already using that link for VoIP.

Basically a T1 line is VERY slow by 2010 standards and your traffic should be managed by your router; allowing VoIP traffic highest priority and regular downloads to work but not kill a link.

There is something you can do; invest - in link speed, routers and most important skilled people to set them up.

Solution 2:

We have the same issue. I think the issue is that some websites, Microsoft comes to mind, it will give you all of its download power and your internet connection will use this to its advantage. I would download an ISO from Microsoft and the whole internet would come to a crawl as well.

We did 2 things:

• Download such things in off-production time (after 6pm) this way we didn't hinder our users
• Got a 50down/15up connection. This really took care of the problem. Now everyone doesn't depend on such a small pipe.

I know that these are not exactly answers you're looking for but I wanted to share my experience with you. Hope this helps.