The problem is not that cheap to resolve. Would that it were, simply paying for it or deducting it from the paychecks or X'mas fund would suffice.

As an employee, I'd love the flexibility. As a company owner, it might open up more cans of worms and produce more slippery slopes than I care to deal with. OTOH, if we were partners in an enterprise where we both have money at steak, it might be different. Employees with little loyalty to the company are a different kettle of fish.

When I worked 2nd shift, me and the 1st shift guy would go for lunch. So we had a beer or two but we got our work done. Well, 3rd shift saw it and decided to have a few more. Of course his work suffered. So guess what? NOBODY can have alcohol on their breath at work. You might say "Well, you didn't clock in yet and the 1st shift guy is on break so WGAS?". Sure, it would have been nice to say "No more than 2 beers before work." but again, we have a slippery slope. Would have been nice for us who can keep it under control but I understood that it would make that issue for them. Now, as an employer I understand it. Fortunately as the owner, I can make up the rules I want but if I were a manager ONLY, I wouldn't allow myself or anyone under me.

What about manning up and actually talking to "Mr. 3rd Shift", stating that if his consumption at lunch continues to affect his job, he'll no longer having a job? Got to love a passive-aggressive policy of punishing everyone without being man enough to confront the actual culprit. Seems to be the new way in America -- zero tolerance sucks.

3 Mbps down can easily be had for under $30/mo, much less if you're buying bandwidth in bulk. Music stream is 128 kbps, so 24 streams for the connection. Yeah, it's pretty close to $1/mo, assuming that everyone streams all of the time, which is very bloody unlikely. As far as setup costs, if you're going to be blocking, you can as well be shaping instead.

-b.

And this is why I am happy to have iheartradio and pandora on my smart phone.

They did. It didn't work. All had to suffer because they didn't want to have the slippery slope of 2 beers are ok, 3 is not and why 3 is not because it is 1 more than 2. Yes, when he crossed the line one more time, he was fired. Again, I agree zero tolerance sucks but guess what, it is much easier than having to argue about how this is only 1 more than your limit, etc, etc. Besides, as I said, you are hired to work. You are on my dime so I get to dictate policy. When you are on your own dime, knock yourself out. I understood that as an employee and I understand it as an employer.

Not talking about the RAW cost of the bandwidth. Like I said, if it were that simple, it would be fine. Nothing is ever that simple unless you are a company of 1 and you own it. There are way more people that will want your job WITHOUT the frills so if you cannot work, I can find someone else that will. This someone else might be able to work without me having to set up all kinds of filters, maintain them, etc, etc. So why should I? Besides the $30 you talk about, why should I open myself to any squabbles or disputes for no good reason. If you are 1 of 20 people in the country that can do the job, maybe. Few are that indispensable to warrant the EXTRA effort to do so.

Having be dragged into having to be part of someone offending another someone by doing something naughty, I ask you again, why should I, as the manager, not disallow any and all NON WORK RELATED activities and give myself more work? You think I would enjoy sitting there in court, if it did come to it or have to give testimony? Much easier for me to simply put the kiebosh on the whole thing and have less worry on my mind. As I said, if you cannot do work only at work, I can find someone else who can, especially in this economy.

Typical armchair IT observations. Typically naive.

First - the dollars are much more than that. We're paying in excess of $10K/month for our bandwidth, and as stated earlier, we've reduced our external bandwidth by more than 50% by eliminating all streaming content. For us - that's almost two average FTE's. And I assure you - there are organizations much larger than us, that see far greater savings.

Second - you assume excess bandwidth is available for purchase. We're in a major city - and as recently as two years back, we had the biggest pipe available to us.

EXACTLY -- it should come down to personal responsibility, no filters should be required. I.e. hire and keep people who get the job done and don't abuse services despite their availability.

But if filters are needed, then you may as well shape rather than block -- little to no extra cost involved at that point.

Bite me -- you could say "armchair" only if I didn't actually do IT for a living (probably for companies much smaller than yours - anywhere from 10-250 people, but still). Where are you that you're having such problems obtaining decent connectivity, out of curiosity?

Exactly...perfect solution.

Not to mention, it can't be monitored with a few clicks of some abusive manager's mouse. For disciplinary actions, they're actually forced to look at such unimportant and mundane things as productivity.

No thanks - but given the opportunity, I certainly would fire you for such displays of ignorance in your chosen profession.

Not ignorant at all, just practical. I'm a technical person who realizes that not every problem needs a heavy-handed technical solution applied to it. In short, I'm open minded enough to realize that "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" is not an adage to live by.

And that is YOU. I have seen some like you but no matter how we filter, some always get thru sooner or later that seem to push the envelope and even tear it up.

Much cheaper and easier to say "I catch you and I fire you" than to have to argue. Believe me, Mr 3rd shift argued that he should not have been even written up since he had only a drink or two more than us.

And again, NON WORK RELATED activity when I am writing the check paying for work related activity is not a right. If no other consequences come out of it, sure. But why do I want to risk having to solve disputes or other issues?