Hi,
Today we had 17 students at a school, at a single ip address, attempt to
connect to my flashcom server to listen to audio files. They had flashcom
server not responding errors...and I am trying to figure out why.

The students at first could connect, but then they could not. They all
started getting the not responding error. users at other locations were able
to connect during this time. So what is the most likely cause?

This is what my tech support says:

It is most certainly possible that the flashcom server denyed access because
every session was loading from the same IP address. Your Flashcom service can
accpet 50 simultanious users and 256kbps output bandwidth. (this translates
into 32 kilabytes). Essentially it does depend what they were all viewing at
the same time as well. So long as each connection comes from a different IP
address, you shouldn't run into this issue in the future. If you have any
further questions regarding your (mt) Media Temple services, please feel free
to contact us at any time.

So tell me: When they say: "It is most certainly possible that the flashcom
server denyed access because every session was loading from the same IP
address" Do you agree? Is there anyway to know if flashcom will do this? Is
there anyway to know if it did do this? Is it possible to prevent this from
happening to that class next time?

Help!! Please.

What is the bitrate and/or sampling of your audio files?

Let's assume your audio is encoded at 50kbps. Since you have 256kbps
available, you can serve about 5 users before you run out of bandwidth (shared
hosting bandwidth figures are cumulitive... not per user). you might be maxing
your bandwidth allotment faster than the admin service can track it, and that
mght cause your vHost to freeze.

Shared hosting providers could be a little clearer in their terms. I don't
know what good 50 connections is going to do if you only have 256kbps to work
with.