Please explain our network connection

[MattDLEA]

Sorry for a noob question just want clarification on it.

 

We have a 8MB line coming in to school.

I take that once it reaches our switch then depending on load that 8mb gets shared via the computers that are connected.

So generalising if we had 2 computers turned on and downloading they would each get roughly 4mb download each?

 

The next question is say if i had 100 ipads that needed to download apps from the cloud. would it be better to do them in batches of 5 or set them all off together over night/weekend?

 

Whats a decent school speed?

 

Thanks

[fairm010]

A decent school speed depends on the number of users and devices I guess.

 

We have 450 pupils and 100 staff and ~250 devices and are on and 80Mb FTTC connection and its perfect.

 

I'm not sure on your question though, sorry,

[Boredguy]

We have 600 devices and 1000 users all connecting out via a 50Mb fibre and not had too many issues.

If lots of people suddenly decide they want to watch videos then the bandwidth does start to take a bit of a hammering, but in the past year we've averaged 13mb outbound and 7mb inbound (that's 9.4Tb inbound traffic and 31Tb outbound over 12 months)

I don't think we've hit our cap more than once or twice over the year and typically it's hovering around 10 to 20 Mb of our connection in use during the school day.

[jb2201]

Dont confuse your megabits and your megabytes, internet connection speed is measured in bits, download speed is measured in bytes, 8 bits in a byte, so roughly divide your connection speed by 8 to give you a rough estimation on download speed.

[tmcd35]

The next question is say if i had 100 ipads that needed to download apps from the cloud. would it be better to do them in batches of 5 or set them all off together over night/weekend?

 

The answer depends largely on the size of the apps. In theory the whole job would happen quicker as a whole because you take out the human element of starting each batch, but each individual iPad will get their apps a lot slower since they are contending with a larger number of simultaneous users. If the app being downloaded is a few mb then put all on at once they'd be done in a minute or so. If the app is a few gig then...

 

The correct answer to the problem is caching. I'm not sure how products like Smoothwall handle caching of these types of files. In theory the proxy server should get the file once through the 8mb connection and the 100 iPads should only be talking to the proxy cache at local network speeds, the 8mb internet connection is then immaterial.

 

If you don't have a local proxy cache, or it's not suitable/compatible with the Apple Store, then the other option would be to download the app once into iTunes on a PC/Mac then sync the iPads directly with that, again cutting out the need to download 100 copies of the same app at the same time on a highly contended slower connection.

[seawolf]

You will want to use QoS or bandwidth shaping for your users or you could have a single user tie up the entire bandwidth. No one will be happy with that except the one hogging all the bandwidth.

[MattDLEA]

Ok I have just run speedtest on a client pc and i get this

Im sure we are supposed to be at least 8Mb .

 

So even though Im downloading some apps should it be this low?

 

Also thinkning of installing wireshark, would that temm me whats using most of the bandwidth up?

[seawolf]

Ok I have just run speedtest on a client pc and i get this [ATTACH=CONFIG]25510[/ATTACH]

Im sure we are supposed to be at least 8Mb .

 

So even though Im downloading some apps should it be this low?

 

Also thinkning of installing wireshark, would that temm me whats using most of the bandwidth up?

 

You will need to run speedtests when no one else is around to determine your maximum speed. Performing downloads at the same time will skew the measurement (downward). Or, you may want to plug straight into the ADSL modem/router with a laptop to ensure that nothing else is causing a drop in performance (cut out the firewall, web filter, etc.) to take your max speed measurement of the line.

 

Also, you need to realise that just because you are paying for an 8Mb/s ADSL connection, the actual download/upload speeds will be determined by your distance from the exchange, the quality of the lines between you and the exchange, and the quality of your modem. Make sure that you use a good quality modem and line filter, check the line for noise, and you will get your maximum speed. Our ADSL2+ line has a maximum speed of 20Mb/s theoretically, but we can only get 9.5Mb/s out of it. We have a 30M/30M fibre line and our top download speed is 27.5Mb/s and upload is 28.5Mb/s - a couple Mb/s short of 30Mb/s. That's life.

[MattDLEA]

So what Can I use thats easy to see What is using all the bandwidth?

[seawolf]

So what Can I use thats easy to see What is using all the bandwidth?

 

??

 

Nothing will be using the bandwidth if you plug your laptop straight into the ADSL modem and run a speed test - you'll have all of the possible available bandwidth then.

 

To measure bandwidth consumption when the connection is under normal use, you will need a firewall or web filter with QoS and good reporting to show you the users consuming bandwidth as well as the protocols and destinations, etc. If you want to know a really good one to use, the iBoss Enterprise web filters are fantastic. If you don't need AD integration and don't mind mapping IP address to user then the iBoss Pro will do in a pinch for only a couple hundred. There are many other QoS solutions that can be used as well.