Question : Uneccessary Programs/ addons ...things that take up internet bandwidth that can be removed.

Hello,

We have small business with approximatly 37 computers and 4 servers. I noticed that since I have added 5 more computers to the mix that the internet has become significantly slower from time to time...Probably from too many people surfing the net at the same time

We have a Comcast business plan with an 8mb down 1 up...which is more like 5 down and 750 up...and we are on the highest tier of service that they offer (we are also in a very small town where comcast is pretty much it.....anyway

before I want to go the route of load balancing or bandwidth measuring tools or some other measures that I haven't even explored yet etc.... I want to know if there is a list out there of common addons and such that suck up internet bandwidth in the background?

 If there are and we can get rid of them that is what I would like to do first in trying to improve our situation. I have already gotten rid of the people that are running weatherbug but I am sure people have more things that are making internet connections because even at night when I leave the computers on even when no one is at work the bandwith meter read pretty low...sometimes even 750 down but when I shut all the computers off (again people aren't using them) the bandwidth goes up to 4 to 5 mb. So it seems to me that some of these computers are making connections to the internet that may not be neccessary.

I know spyware and all that can cause this and I will be sweeping the computers to see if I can come up with anything but It would be nice when I am doing that to also disable some add-ons or other stuff that they don't need that is eating up internet bandwidth.....

Sorry the post was so long and thanks in advance.

Answer : Uneccessary Programs/ addons ...things that take up internet bandwidth that can be removed.

in my opinion installing anti spyware and antiviruses on all of your PCs should be the first step , it is possible some PCs are infected by internet worms and they are eating your BW. so first you should get rid of them.
also you need somehow monitor your network bandwidth , you should know how much BW is each PC using , solution depends on topology of your network and your router , may be it has such a feature built in which you can access by http or snmp.
also if you know such people are using the services which it is not needed , you can simply block the IP of that paticular service in your router , for example if people download from a certain place or watch videos from youtube or ...
what you can do , depends on your router and the topology of your network , for example your router may have website blocking feature built in.
I hope it helps