Traffic regulation in corporate IM networks.

    By type of work, I had the opportunity to implement IM (Instant Messenger) within the company. Yes, not one, but a network of three. On the implementation of IM, mechanisms for collecting and counting traffic, choosing the right client - this is a separate article or even three. I would like to start a conversation about traffic regulation in such networks. The company only threw out about 10 thousand dollars to limit the HTTP traffic in the company and here you have ideas of the bosses about Instant Messenger. Of course, it’s convenient and progressive, but it’s the most time killer. There was a question that remains open and now - how to prevent misuse of the service.

    It is no secret that the administrative method of influencing users is the most effective. The fact that traffic is under control and someone can read it is a good reason to limit chatter. Especially if the bosses in the office are not a rag and arranging a couple of good demonstrative fuck-ups or even layoffs is not a question for her.

    Collecting all the traffic into the database and the web interface for viewing traffic and statistics was posted for the authorities in a couple of days. But the bosses are the bosses, and the king in the head is different. The idea was born to send a “kapets letter” to lovers of chat every morning with a text like this (free translation from English):

    Dear user. This is a reminder that all traffic is logged and can be viewed. Please use this service for business purposes only.

    According to yesterday’s statistics, you sent X and received X messages (total X). This means that with an average message length of 35 characters and a reading or writing speed of 120 characters per minute, you spent X minutes using this service. We hope that all messages were on work.


    It seems to be moderately frightening and formal (excuse me for the translation, but for some reason English messages are better for me). It remains to determine who exactly.

    Initially, the idea was this - to everyone with the number of received + sent messages above the average. But there were quite a few of them. The people began to complain about the excess traffic - it is clear to everyone that this nagging is mostly far-fetched. But it made me think.

    All users with the number of messages less than the daily maximum divided by 10 were thrown out of the sample. if the flooder himself wrote / received 1,500 messages, then everyone with modest numbers of 150 and below will not be taken into account. But still, it was wrong. One such flooder could throw everyone out of the sample. The last option was - Top 10. I.e. take the ten most-easiest and warn them.

    And then the authorities called and said, “Let's stop sending out reminders for two months and see what happens” (read “and we’ll fire a couple of people”). I wait for the order to cover the service;)

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