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Question

Restricting how long YouTube stays connected

Mar 10, 2017 5:53PM PST

So, this may seem like a strange request, but I'm looking for a way to stop streaming services from continuing to stream "forever".

Backstory: I run IT for our small EMS agency. I've been tasked with basically starting from scratch to redo our networks, hardware, ISP, cell phones, and software. The first issue I had was when all of our crews went stream happy, (we had 2 mbps DSL for a long time, and I recently upgraded us to Verizon which runs at 60 mbps) and used a whopping 125 gb within the first 10 days, by basically streaming movies at 1080p, music all night long, and various other actual work related things. We have unlimited data, but they throttle us when we go over 25gb, and the service becomes almost unusable. I've spoken with the crews, and they tell me that they like streaming music all night to fall asleep to, which equates to them streaming music on YouTube that's attached to a 1080p video that runs for 10 hours. I need to curb this, so that everyone can use the Verizon service for work when they need to. I'm not trying to restrict people from using YouTube, because sometimes we have links to videos in our ongoing training, so I can't just blacklist it like I did with Netflix and Hulu.

My question: is there a way to have the videos stop playing after, say, 3 hours? Could I use the DHCP lease to renew after 3 hours and that would stop the video from playing and not automatically restart it? Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I think blocking is the best solution here
Mar 11, 2017 5:52AM PST

with only certain users or workstation having access to YouTube.
Not sure I understand the of "music to fall asleep to". If they require that, purchase a radio for them to listen to!

Using your DHCP suggestion would not have any effect. The lease, even if you could set the lease to 3 hours, would just renew in milliseconds without any interruption in service.

Speaking of service, do you not have a cable company in your area? Comcast in my area offers a 1TB cap on data but the business account is basically unlimited. A cap of 25gb is ridiculous for a business and unless you have no option for Service Providers, I would shop around and ditch Verizon ASAP.

P

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Blocking will probably be the best bet...
Mar 11, 2017 4:08PM PST

Yeah, blocking is probably the way to go with this. We do have cable available, and in fact have fiber going into one of the stations next week, but our other station is pretty remote, and the cable service is spotty at best. We have a serious problem with it cutting out for days at a time, and while the mom & pop cable company is pretty responsive to our calls to fix, they have been unable to find the culprit.

Thanks for your response.

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Answer
Also, SQUID.
Mar 11, 2017 6:16AM PST

As you are the IT lead, look to adding a SQUID server to cache and maximize your internet connection. A SQUID server will help reduce your byte count from the internet as well as give you controls over bandwidth use.

SQUID (see google) has a lot of options and this is not an offer to teach or configure for you. It's free and what I would install next.

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Great idea!
Mar 11, 2017 4:09PM PST

Just looked up the basics on this, and it looks like an amazing way to go for us! Thank you for the push in the right direction.

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It's a great way to maximize what you have.
Mar 11, 2017 4:32PM PST

But I can't be there to configure and tune it in. The few times I've used this is simply as an overall cache and speed up of a company's web access. Local content that is cached is much faster plus it frees up the (real) internet for new content.