Napster is one of the big traffic sources on our network. Basically, slowdowns usually occur from too much traffic. A recent major addition to our traffic load is Napster and napster-like programs. At any point in our campus network one can run into a bottleneck. This can be if there is a lot of traffic within a building, within a campus router, or at our connection to the Internet.
Bottlenecks can also occur outside of campus.
The Internet is made up of a number of different connection points. Each one has different core technologies. Depending on where you are going, and what route your traffic needs to cross, you may run into a slow link. Let's say there's a gigabit pipeline somewhere that you are crossing to get to your final destination. Let's say it's running really close to capacity.