LAN Congestion

dpsec_hyd

Can any one tell me whether Multicasting is a possible cause of Lan congestion or not.

sprkymrk

Yes, depending on what it is you are multicasting. Some folks will tell you multicasting is good for bandwidth because it is a "one to many", and in fact it's true. A good definition is this one:

A one-to-many connection in which multiple clients can receive the same stream from a server. To receive a multicast, a client must have access to a multicast-enabled network. In contrast, a unicast is a one-to-one connection in which one client receives a distinct stream from a server.

Whenever I have to multicast more than 3 Ghost images at a time, I use an isolated network. Otherwise I use a directed broadcast for pushing out 1 or 2 images. The Ghost documentation will even warn you about multicasting draining all your bandwidth. Again though, we're talking large (2-3GB) files. What are you using multi cast for?