Network managers often hear complaints from end users about applications performing slowly and Web pages loading at a snail's pace, but many times the true cause of the slow service lies in end-user activity online that eats up a company's precious bandwidth.

Companies looking to improve performance without buying more bandwidth could invest in a tool that shows them exactly how bandwidth is consumed on their networks. Companies like eTelemetry and WebSense offer such tools, and this week at Interop eTelemetry plans to introduce the second generation of its Metron appliance, which is specifically designed to help network managers get a handle on end-user Internet usage and bandwidth consumption.

ETelemetry will showcase Metron 2.0 at the show. The appliance passively monitors traffic to determine employee bandwidth use, optimize business processes and spot malicious behavior. Now Metron 2.0 includes a bandwidth control capability that enables network managers to throttle traffic to specific Internet sites. The product lets network managers define how much bandwidth can be allocated to specific sites and how much bandwidth certain employees are able to consume at any given time.

"Typically with Internet access, it is wide open for employees, but with this feature you can ensure that a specific department, site or individual can't use up bandwidth on non-critical, non-business activities," says Ermis Sfakiyanudis, CEO of eTelemetry. "In many cases, companies learn the reason they seem to have to increase bandwidth is because of exorbitant personal or non-business use on their networks."

Metron 2.0 is expected to be available this summer, with pricing starting at $15,000 for a 1U appliance that can manage 500 people.

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.