We occasionally get complaints about slow Internet speeds. As more
services move to the web, Internet usage increases. Here is a graph
showing the growth of the district's Internet connection speed over the
past eight years.Our current connection speed is 130Mbps.
Although we have upgraded our bandwidth significantly over the past few years, it isn't possible to provide the same amount of capacity that people are accustomed to from a home broadband connection.
Here's a comparison:
Home Internet speed: 10 Mbps
# of computers: 3
# of other Internet-capable devices: 2 (phones)
Internet capacity per device: 2 Mbps
District Internet speed: 130 Mbps
# of computers: 1600
# of other Internet-capable devices: 600
Internet capacity per device: 0.059 Mbps
An additional problem is that our network security server has trouble handling this amount of bandwidth. The IT department has been researching and evaluating other technological solutions to this, such as replacing our network bandwidth manager, requiring all users to log on before accessing the Internet, and installing a caching proxy server. However, there is something we can all do in the meantime- remember that Internet capacity is a shared resource, and use it judiciously. This means:
- Minimize personal use
- Limit activities which consume lots of Internet capacity, like streaming music and videos, and large downloads.
- Try to use Discovery Streaming for streaming video content, since we have a local server delivering that content, so it doesn't use our Internet connection.
- If you need to download a huge file, do it during non-peak times (such as after 3:30).
- If a download is slow, resist the urge to hit "reload" since that just make the problem worse.
We will continue to keep you informed as we make changes to the network and our management systems. Thanks in advance for your help!
