Analogy of a File Too Large for the Bandwidth

Tim Kennedy, an expert on bandwidth from the beginning (around 2000) made this analogy to describe what happens when your streaming file is too large for the viewer’s connection bandwidth.

“Imagine someone gives you a garden hose hooked up to a fire hydrant. Then they turn the hydrant on full. The hydrant is now feeding more water than the garden hose can physically handle. You discover pretty quickly that hooking up a garden hose to a fire hydrant is all wet. Of course, if you turn the hydrant on slowly and keep the volume of water turned down, it works.”

– Troy @ TLC