Internet slow; ITS denies rumors of cuts
Patrick Timmis
Issue date: 9/24/09 Section: News
Students are complaining about the slow-moving Internet down the hill this semester.
"The Internet is far slower this year," senior Matt Stone said.
Students also brought complaints to Director of Student Activities Rebekah Dell during the first few days of classes.
"I talked to the students, and several just mentioned to me that the Internet was so slow in the rooms that they really weren't using it because it took so long to do their work," Dell said.
David Zenz, executive director of Information Technology Services, said that for the first couple of days, less than half of the college's bandwidth was available, but that ITS resolved the issue quickly.
"For the first two days of school, I believe, we had the bandwidth set too low," Zenz said in an e-mail to The Collegian. "However, since then we have bandwidth set at 45 [megabytes]."
However, he said the Internet does continue to move slower than last year.
"Yeah, it is [slower], it's a bandwidth issue, it's not a speed issue," he said.
Zenz said the lag is due to changes in student activity.
"The usage has changed to higher bandwidth traffic. Things like streaming music and watching streaming video take up a dedicated chunk of bandwidth. When everybody does it, there's not a lot of room for other types of traffic," he said.
He also said that the large number of bandwidth-using devices, such as iPhones and gaming sys-tems, aggravate the problem.
During business hours, Zenz said, slightly less than half of the bandwidth is set aside for the use of faculty and staff to teach and to carry on business. Often, the activity of students during those hours pushes the use of the bandwidth above 45 megabytes, the total available bandwidth, slowing the internet down. After business hours, all of the bandwidth is free game.
"You guys have the lion's share of the bandwidth," Zenz said.
Zenz was firm in saying that there had not been a cut in bandwidth from last year. On the con-trary, he said that the bandwidth is up five megabytes from last year's 40.
"The Internet is far slower this year," senior Matt Stone said.
Students also brought complaints to Director of Student Activities Rebekah Dell during the first few days of classes.
"I talked to the students, and several just mentioned to me that the Internet was so slow in the rooms that they really weren't using it because it took so long to do their work," Dell said.
David Zenz, executive director of Information Technology Services, said that for the first couple of days, less than half of the college's bandwidth was available, but that ITS resolved the issue quickly.
"For the first two days of school, I believe, we had the bandwidth set too low," Zenz said in an e-mail to The Collegian. "However, since then we have bandwidth set at 45 [megabytes]."
However, he said the Internet does continue to move slower than last year.
"Yeah, it is [slower], it's a bandwidth issue, it's not a speed issue," he said.
Zenz said the lag is due to changes in student activity.
"The usage has changed to higher bandwidth traffic. Things like streaming music and watching streaming video take up a dedicated chunk of bandwidth. When everybody does it, there's not a lot of room for other types of traffic," he said.
He also said that the large number of bandwidth-using devices, such as iPhones and gaming sys-tems, aggravate the problem.
During business hours, Zenz said, slightly less than half of the bandwidth is set aside for the use of faculty and staff to teach and to carry on business. Often, the activity of students during those hours pushes the use of the bandwidth above 45 megabytes, the total available bandwidth, slowing the internet down. After business hours, all of the bandwidth is free game.
"You guys have the lion's share of the bandwidth," Zenz said.
Zenz was firm in saying that there had not been a cut in bandwidth from last year. On the con-trary, he said that the bandwidth is up five megabytes from last year's 40.
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