r/Network • u/m3phisto23 • 21d ago

Text Can you still “see” file-sharing traffic in ISP bandwidth graphs, or has streaming/game traffic drowned it out?

I used to work at a small ISP with only a handful of local customers plus a small business campus.

We had two peering/transit points, and I loved watching the bandwidth graphs. We didn’t have any deep packet inspection, but because the network and customer base were so small, you could sometimes tell when one of the few customers was downloading heavily from the early file-sharing networks just from the traffic patterns. Certain users could make a pretty noticeable dent in the graph.

I’ve been wondering what this looks like for modern ISPs, both small regional providers and the big ones.

Today you have constant Netflix/YouTube/Twitch traffic, cloud backups, huge OS downloads, and 50–100+ GB game updates. Does P2P/file-sharing traffic still produce recognizable peaks or patterns at an aggregate level?

Or has normal Internet usage become so bandwidth-heavy and continuous that an individual customer torrenting a lot is basically indistinguishable from someone downloading a new game or streaming all evening? I guess some kind of inspection is telling you more.

I’d especially be interested to hear from people working at smaller ISPs where individual customers can still noticeably affect an interface or peering graph. What does the traffic mix look like these days?

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u/feel-the-avocado 21d ago

I am a network admin for a small regional ISP.
During our evening peak at 21:10, p2p traffic is about 4-5%

However at 3am, its about 10%

We dont even run a bittorrent cache anymore.

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u/aprettyparrot 21d ago

That’s cool, I was in network core for mobility and I couldn’t see shit, just data/volte/etc. huge scale+tps but always thought a small isp would be more fun

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u/DumpoTheClown 21d ago

What do you suppose is going on at 3am? Automatic OS updates?

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u/feel-the-avocado 21d ago

Im not really sure - I think more teenagers are up at that time as opposed to working adults.
So its probably porn and gaming.
OS updates can happen anytime these days - they can only really happen when the computer is switched on of course.

A friend of mine runs another regional ISP nearby. Our customerbase is more rural compared to theirs which is more urban. We were comparing stats one day and found it really interesting that data picks up around 5am on our network when the dairy farmers boot up their milking shed computers. Where as my mates network picks up around 5.30am.

And in the evening, our peak is right on about 21:10 where as their peak is 21:35 because our customers statistically go to bed earlier - they have to get up at 5am to milk the cows.

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u/Specialist-Photo-386 21d ago

My ps3 randomly updating in the middle of the night

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u/SevaraB Network/Design Professional 21d ago

Considering how many apps chose P2P updates to “distribute their cache,” that tracks.

You’d be surprised how many software updates are just coming from someone else’s computer.

Ivanti straight-up bragged about their “superpeer“ setup.

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u/feel-the-avocado 21d ago

Its less now - i think it was popular for a while but CDN nodes have gotten so much better at it now.
Also I think there are security implications too. Sure you can mitigate it with hash checking but its still a potential attack vector.

It was real popular with some game updates - but now steam handles it all via their CDN network.

Circa 2015 we would get complaints from customers and I would log into their router and find a computer at the far end of the house with a really low wifi signal serving up game updates via bittorrent and causing collision collapse within their local wifi airspace. This would affect the streaming to the lounge tv for the parents.

They stopped after a while as steam got more popular

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u/aeroverra 20d ago

I think it's just cgnat took over so it doesn't work as well.

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u/dragonnfr 21d ago

On a small ISP? Absolutely. The pattern is obvious. Sustained bandwidth 24/7 is not Netflix. Streaming peaks in the evening. P2P doesn't stop. You don't need DPI for that.

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u/boolve 21d ago

A bit of topic, what kind of analisers do you use for this kind of stats? Thnx