a bit more research.
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Ben Schworm
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 11:20 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Internet Bandwidth --> How did you come to your level?
Laura,
We just re-evaluated our systems after realizing that even with the
Packetshaper in place, we'd need to increase the amount of bandwidth
that we offer the community. First of all, the new Packetshaper
hardware we'd need was going to cost $18,000. Second, over the 5 years
that we've had the Packetshaper, we've seen its effectiveness decrease
with the increased availability and academic usage of real-time
streaming apps and the increasing amount of traffic that is classified
as either pure web browsing traffic (whether it is or not) or "default",
the traffic class that catches all the other traffic that the
Packetshaper can't specifically identify. Furthermore, the Packetshaper
can tend to be a pretty admin-intensive system to keep working
effectively. The NetEqualizer really only deals with end-user behavior
in that it looks at the bandwidth that a given user is trying to utilize
relative to what's available and throttles "bad" users in order to try
to maintain fair access to the bandwidth. It also throttles "bad"
applications like P2P that open many connections to and from a given
user. The box is nearly configuration and maintenance-free and costs a
fraction of what the Packetshaper does. If you want to get
application-layer visibility and control, there are other options that
may work better for you and be more cost-effective than Packetshaper
depending on your needs. =20
Ben
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Laura Wilson
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 1:25 PM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Internet Bandwidth --> How did you come to your level?
Ben, I'm just about to buy a Packetshaper... could you talk a bit more
about why you chose NetEqualizer instead? =20
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Ben Schworm
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 7:54 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Internet Bandwidth --> How did you come to your level?
Jonathan,
There's definitely no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to sizing
and managing an internet pipe. We have been using what we felt we could
afford, which amounted to 4 T-1s to serve a population of about 450
boarding and day students and faculty/staff. Until recently we'd been
using a Packetshaper to partition bandwidth between the student network
and everything else and adjusting our partitioning by time-of-day. The
Packetshaper also gave us the ability to prioritize certain applications
and to throttle those that were causing major bottlenecks and had no
educational value. I have found application-based controls to be less
effective than they once had been and so we now use a product called
NetEqualizer to maintain fair access to the bandwidth we have regardless
of application. Even with traffic management tools in place, we have
found our bandwidth to be inadequate to serve our community and have
recently purchased significantly more bandwidth to keep up with demand.
Feel free to contact me off-list if you want more detailed info.
Ben
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Mergy
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 11:56 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Internet Bandwidth --> How did you come to your level?
Hi Everyone,=20
I really enjoy the list and have been reading for the last few weeks to
get a better sense of the issues facing independent schools and
technology.
My
question to the list relates to internet bandwidth. I am sure there have
been may threads on this in the past, but just wondering what metrics
you use to measure what is sufficient for you? Does it make sense to try
and gauge how much internet connectivity you need by student count or do
you break-up the connectivity between faculty and students? Have you
isolated bandwidth-intensive courses or done any segmentation or
isolation at all? Do you use and QoS to handle application/device
priority or is that not really a concern for independent schools?
Thanks and any feedback appreciated,
Jonathan
................................
Jonathan Mergy <jmergy@lwhs.org>
Director Of Technology
Lick-Wilmerding High School
755 Ocean Ave, SF CA 94112
P:415.333.4021 F:415.586.0737
http://www.lwhs.org
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