Packeteer plug-in controls P2P traffic

Packeteer last week announced it had developed a software plug-in for its PacketShaper application traffic management product line to help IT managers monitor and control recreational traffic on their nets.

In particular, the plug-in lets IT managers detect and control peer-to-peer applications that may or may not be allowed to run on corporate networks, depending on company policies. The plug-in comes with new PacketShaper appliances, and current users get the upgrade for free. PacketShaper is targeting music file sharing services such as Apple iTunes, RealNetwork Rhapsody and the new Napster.

“The plug-in architecture has been one of the best things to hit the PacketShaper,” said Mike Ruiz, director of IT at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y., in a statement. “These peer-to-peer applications are always growing and evolving, becoming more anonymous and learning how to get around firewalls.”

PacketShaper sits between LANs and WAN routers, can reserve bandwidth for key applications and can queue traffic by application so that top-priority applications get preferential treatment. With the addition of compression, users will be able to optimize the performance of important applications across WAN links where bandwidth is limited.

Packeteer will allow users to download and install plug-ins from the company Web site.

Packeteer says research shows that 70% of traffic is from music swapping. And a study done by Packeteer and Network World this summer showed that recreational traffic caused by “music downloading and exchange” was second only to traffic generated by worms and viruses as respondents’ greatest concern.

The product ranges from $2,250 to $48,000, depending on link size and features included. A service contract is 15% of the cost of the product per year.