Groove chokes off bandwidth

[Stefan]

Groove becoming a real resource hog - and it seems more so in recent weeks -
updates?.
Biggest problem is the fact that *all* bandwidth is blocked by Groove when
transferring data out, i.e. uploading. I'm stressing all bandwidth, as this
also means downloading, even if Groove itself is not downloading anything.
So, if I've just updated a document and Groove starts uploading it, I cant
browse the web or receive email anymore.
This happens at all our locations, all machines.
Is there something fundamentally wrong with our settings, or is this a
general issue due to recent (security) updates?

 

[Mark Smith]

Hi Stefan -

Groove certainly used to cause problems when a lot of people shared a lot of
updates over a slow connection. With Groove 2007 this problem has been much
reduced as Groove adapts to the bandwidth available so as not to hog it.

You report a recent increase in this problem - are you sure that you are
still getting the same quality of connection to the internet?

 

[Stefan]

Hi Mark,
It's certainly not a matter of connection quality, as it happens in
different locations (i.e. different countries, different ISPs, etc.) - and
aside from that I regularly run speed tests.
Is there a setting somewhere that can be changed regarding the bandwidth
balancing?
Stefan

 

[Mark Smith]

Hi Stefan -

You might find this article useful:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262662.aspx

It describes what steps to take to get Groove to be a better citizen - I
didn't know the bit about requiring all Groove windows to be closed!

 

[Frances Selkirk [MSFT]]

Stefan,

Could you have recently added a number of contacts? If your router or proxy
limits the number of network connections, Groove may be exceeding that limit,
leaving nothing available for your other application.

Here are some resources that may help:

"When another member of a Groove workspace adds a large file to a Files
tool, programs on your computer may run slowly until the transfer is
finished" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906691

914722 You see many open SSTP TCP connections and many connections to relay
servers when you run the "netstat" command while Groove is running
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914722

You may also want to take a closer look at which workspaces are transfering
data. On the Options menu, click Communications Manager for details on send
and receive status.

 

[Stefan]

Thanks for all your suggestions, but no luck so far.

Mark, those bandwidth policies seem to refer to a corporate server setup,
but we use the 'standalone' version, i.e. the one included in MS Office.

Frances, just using my computer as the example - I've got pretty much a
monster here, a recent Dell souped up to the max and the problem is not
the computer running slowly, but Groove squeezing all bandwidth out of it.

Just now, my laptop was uploading a couple of megs, and this computers
latency went up to 3651ms!!!
The same happens in the office - if one of us adds a file to Groove, all
computers become internet-unuseable until the upload has finished. Same in
other offices.

So again, the problem is any Groove installation across the network during
upload hogging ALL bandwidth. Which is quite mysterious to me, as upload
shouldnt kill download....
And Groove downloading something is not really an issue - it's being a good
boy and shares its bandwidth nicely. So the problem is purely int he upload.

again, very grateful for any suggestions. We have become deeply dependent on
Groove, but now every office has to appoint a volunteer to stay late in the
office to organize Groove uploads, which cant be the point