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Before you begin creating ASF content, check the maximum bandwidth allowed on your server.
Once you know the maximum bandwidth of the ASF content that you can create, you can begin. Other than Windows Media Encoder and Windows Media Author, the tools you use to create ASF content do not force you to scale your source files to fit a certain bandwidth. The Windows Media Tools command-line utilities convert source files directly into ASF. ASF content that is created from another file type retains the bandwidth requirements of the original source.
A quick way to find out how much bandwidth your content requires is to play the content with Microsoft Windows Media Player. Once the file is playing, from the View menu, click Statistics. In the dialog box under Network is an entry labeled Bandwidth. The value displayed tells you how many kilobits per second (Kbps) are required to stream the content. There are many ways to reduce amount of bandwidth required by an .asf file, including editing the source files or using codecs to compress the source files.
If you are creating content with a tool that monitors the amount of bandwidth used, the tool automatically reserves a portion of the bandwidth for other types of network traffic. For example, when you set the target bandwidth to 28.8 Kbps, you use an actual bandwidth of approximately 22 Kbps. If you are using a tool that forces you to keep track of the bit rate of the content, you must monitor the amount of information based on the actual bit rate required to deliver the content.