Slow Internet complaints investigated
Chris MacDonald '10
Issue date: 3/4/09 Section: News
Many students have noticed a definite decrease in the speed of their internet connectivity, either via Ethernet cable or wireless. Ethernet tends to be a stronger connection, but students are still experiencing noticeable-and irritating-slowdowns.
Those who stream videos from various sites have noticed a significant lag in download time. "I've just noticed that using YouTube or Surf the Channel, the uploads have been really slow," said Nora Rasanen '11. "But I don't know if it's the connection or just my computer."
Others are sure that it's the connection. Dan Libon '09 says that, "The Internet connection here sucks." He often tries to play video games online, but says that it is often impossible. Other students like Sam Beal '09 said he played more online video games over January break when there weren't many students here, "but now the Internet connection is too slow."
"This past semester we've seen a dramatic jump in streaming video/audio usage amongst students," says Steven Hess, Wheaton's Director of Network Operations. This new percentage of video traffic has been taxing the Internet connection, causing it to be slower. "I have been making adjustments to our connection to try to better allocate bandwidth," Hess continued. "I replaced our traffic management device with a different device to try to alleviate latency issues."
While retaining hope that this will improve things, he encouraged students to be cognisant that there is a finite amount of bandwidth available.
Streaming audio and video applications consume enormous amounts of bandwidth, and so the more students that use them simultaneously, the slower they are. "In a bitter irony," Hess told the Wire, "they are very latency sensitive-some of these video streams can consume upwards of 1 megabite per second."
Wheaton's entire Internet connection is 65 megabits/second, so it does not take very many students using streaming applications to reach capacity. "As the Internet pipe gets close to capacity," Hess said, "latency is introduced which adversely affects download speeds and response time.
Those who stream videos from various sites have noticed a significant lag in download time. "I've just noticed that using YouTube or Surf the Channel, the uploads have been really slow," said Nora Rasanen '11. "But I don't know if it's the connection or just my computer."
Others are sure that it's the connection. Dan Libon '09 says that, "The Internet connection here sucks." He often tries to play video games online, but says that it is often impossible. Other students like Sam Beal '09 said he played more online video games over January break when there weren't many students here, "but now the Internet connection is too slow."
"This past semester we've seen a dramatic jump in streaming video/audio usage amongst students," says Steven Hess, Wheaton's Director of Network Operations. This new percentage of video traffic has been taxing the Internet connection, causing it to be slower. "I have been making adjustments to our connection to try to better allocate bandwidth," Hess continued. "I replaced our traffic management device with a different device to try to alleviate latency issues."
While retaining hope that this will improve things, he encouraged students to be cognisant that there is a finite amount of bandwidth available.
Streaming audio and video applications consume enormous amounts of bandwidth, and so the more students that use them simultaneously, the slower they are. "In a bitter irony," Hess told the Wire, "they are very latency sensitive-some of these video streams can consume upwards of 1 megabite per second."
Wheaton's entire Internet connection is 65 megabits/second, so it does not take very many students using streaming applications to reach capacity. "As the Internet pipe gets close to capacity," Hess said, "latency is introduced which adversely affects download speeds and response time.
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