Client Application Traffic detected as iTunes or Miscellaneous Audio

[Danut]

Hello everyone,

Due to a high number of clients connected to my Meraki MR42 APs, I had to set a bandwidth limit for different applications to avoid congestion. Most of these application include OS updates and video streaming.

Since few weeks ago, I got lots of alerts telling me that the network usage is very high. Upon checking I noticed that most of the traffic is marked as iTunes traffic. Further investigations reveal that this traffic has nothing to do with iTunes, yet is the already filtered traffic masked under this App. 

None of the users from which I got traffic alerts use iTunes or tried to bypass the traffic filter, so it comes to my mind that the AP is not filtering the traffic well.

Is there anything I can do to improve this kind of behaviour?  

P.S.: I don't want to filter the iTunes traffic for now, since I may filter important traffic that is marked incorrectly as iTunes data.

[Nash · Accepted solution]

Danut,

Are these devices Apple devices of any sort? If so, that traffic can come from backing up to iCloud etc. Depending on device settings, that can happen automatically without the user being aware.

I had a user completely torch the wireless bandwidth due to his Mac trying to upload gigs of data to iCloud. It was great.

[BrechtSchamp]

I guess bandwidth throttling it a bit to avoid congesting your network won't hurt? If it's icloud traffic then it wouldn't hurt to slow it down a bit. Only if it were facetime traffic I can imagine it would be problematic. Perhaps you can give that a test: block itunes altogether for a test device and see if it can still facetime, or by extension, see what stops working...

[PhilipDAth]

Try enabling hostname visibility so you can see greater detail.  It is under Network-Wide/General.

[Danut]

I have Hostname Visibility enabled, but unfortunately it doesn't provide much info. I only see gigs of traffic coming from iTunes without any additional informations.

Thank you for tour answer !

[Danut]

I will definitely do some tests to check any possibility to improve the Wireless Network overall.

Thank you for your answer!

[Danut]

Thanks for your answer @Nash

Yes, most of our devices are Apple. I was a bit suspicious that the traffic I saw was downloaded, not uploaded. The iCloud traffic is marked as iTunes traffic and that was a bit unexpected for me, and moreover most traffic coming from Apple is marked as iTunes traffic. For anyone interested in this topic, I want to point out that apps downloaded from AppStore, documents, pictures, messages from desktop stored in iCloud will be marked as iTunes traffic. Thank you for your indication, it helped me understand how some settings/accounts work on Apple devices.

Most probably I will create some rules to shape this traffic and optimise the Wireless overall.

Thank you!