Bandwidth Hog

What Does Bandwidth Hog Mean?

Bandwidth hog is a slang term for Internet users who use substantially more bandwidth than other users on the same network. Simply put, bandwidth hogs generally download more content than other users.

Techopedia Explains Bandwidth Hog

The term bandwidth hog is fraught with controversy. Many heavy Internet users see the term as an excuse for Internet service providers (ISPs) to throttle speeds and cap transfers on unlimited Internet plans. The ISPs contest that bandwidth hogs represent a congestion problem and should be billed incrementally after a certain amount of downloading. There is currently no public data that shows heavy users are the cause of network congestion.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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