Broadband Speed and # of Computers

[ictstbenedicts]

We currently have a 2Mbit SDSL connection with a very low contention ratio, supplied by Easynet.

 

I'm getting complaints that it is at times slow.

 

We have about 400 PCs on the network at any one time during the school day of which a certain percentage will be using the internet.

 

I would be interested to discover what other schools have regards broadband connection in particular:

 

• Speed (Mbits per second):
  
• Type of service e.g SDSL, ADSL, Ethernet, Leased Line etc:
  
• Contention ratio of that service:
  
• Number of Computers on the network during the school day:
  
• Name of ISP:
  

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[kmount]

10mbit both ways.

Leased Line

5:1 (mind you, we don't notice any contention)

550 ish.

EMBC

[cromertech]

8Mbit connection both ways on a 5:1 contention

 

Sometimes slow but always due to a rubbish cache pilot that I am assured is "working normally"

 

around 300 pc's at capacity

[Geoff]

1Gbit.

Fibre w/CLEO LLU.

No contention.

450 Machines.

CLEO.

 

Limiting factor is the LancsNGFL proxy servers.

[RabbieBurns]

8mbit normal adsl 800k upstream. 400 machines. No problems.

[FN-GM]

60meg from Zen

 

600 computers

[maniac]

10MBs Fibre (Both ways) from KCN (SEGFL)

Around 500 machines

Works well most of the time, but they've been experiencing some problems recently which slowed things right down.

KCN are just upgrading their setup to support speeds of up to 100MBs and beyond so the future's looking good. No idea if we have any contention ratio on the KCN setup.

 

Most schools in Kent will have the same, although at varying speeds depending on what the school has payed for. 10mbs is the lowest offering, and I don't see the need to up this at the moment, but the introduction of a proper VLE may change this.

 

Mike.

[dhicks]

Speed (Mbits per second)

 

512 kbits / second.

 

 

ADSL

 

Contention ratio of that service/QUOTE]

 

Depends on time of day. 50-ish to 1?

 

Number of Computers on the network during the school day

 

150 odd.

 

Name of ISPp

 

BT. I think.

 

--

David Hicks

[localzuk]

We've got a 10mbit fibre, with 250 pc's with an average of 140 using the internet at one time.

 

I've seen it at 80% usage during that sort of time.

[FragglePete]

SWGfL

10Mbps both ways fibre into the School

2:1 Contention

Approx 400 PCs

 

Have had the odd occasion where the Grid seems to slow. Upgrade to the Grid's backbone is happening this November.

 

Currently Children Services at Swindon LEA are looking to providing a Point-2-Point WiMax Server for Schools; surveys are being done at the moment. This is supposed to give 100Mbps with the existing 10Mbps kept as a backup!

 

Pete

[amfony]

4 MB symetrical across 300 nodes

 

@Geoff - I cant believe a school can afford 1 GB internet access! Thats just purley and utterly bananas. Do you work for eaton? haha

[Nick_Parker]

We have a 4MB account which has a 50GB monthly limit on it, after hitting the limit, internet throttles down to 128KB...

 

Oh, and about 230 computers

[localzuk]

4 MB symetrical across 300 nodes

 

@Geoff - I cant believe a school can afford 1 GB internet access! Thats just purley and utterly bananas. Do you work for eaton? haha

 

From what I know, lots CLEO secondary schools have 1GB access.

[pmassingham]

Essex LEA is the 'provider' over Siemans/Updata

Up to 8 Mbps over copper

5:1 contention

670 clients of which about 50% usage per day

 

But more importantly - up time up to 99% over the last year.

 

Plans are in place for a major improvement within 12 months.

 

Some of the 'slow' speed is LAN related as there is contention there given the amount of data usage.

[Geoff]

4 MB symetrical across 300 nodes

 

@Geoff - I cant believe a school can afford 1 GB internet access! Thats just purley and utterly bananas. Do you work for eaton? haha

 

Standard install for CLEO in a secondary school. Cost is about £1200 + £3 per pupil I think.

[amfony]

sorry dudes you lost me at CLEO - whats that?

 

1GB though ... how do i draw a jealous smiley? i dont know how haha so ill draw this

 

To be honest though ive never even heard of a "school" (as in k-12 institue), the largest bandwidth requirements ive heard of was 10MB Symmetrical for a College that provided very significant (as in end users) online correspondance schooling.

 

What do you do (any one with this type of bandwidth) with this type of connectivity?? Or is it more of an celiing limit that you'll never hit type deal?

[zag]

SEGFL

10/10mbit

Easynet Fibre

400 PC's

[Geoff]

sorry dudes you lost me at CLEO - whats that?

 

CLEO - Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online

http://www.cleo.net.uk/index.php?category_id=113

[amfony]

double post - i thought my post wasnt posted for some reason? Edited October 13, 2008 by amfony
being simple

[gaz350]

24down/3up bonded ADSL.

Provided by Vioni.

400+ computers on our network (not counting iphones, ipod touchs etc)

 

Only since allowing access to video has our bandwidth got any where near to being saturated (lunch times) as our filtering box on site cannot filter webpages fast enough to get bandwidth up to that level just from normal surfing alone.

 

we are looking at moving from a 8meg bonded solution using BT's network over to O2 on be's network and bonding 20down/2up lines instead(80d/8u). sadly were out in the sticks so cant have any of this funky fibre stuff.

[ChrisP]

ICT Solutions have just sent BT down to do a site survey here (Norwich) looks like were going 100mbit in 2009

[Sirbendy]

IIRC, we're 100 now, going gigabit soon..LEA provided. The entire town (Telford) is carpeted with Cable courtesy of Blueyonder, and we run on that infrastructure.

 

As to PCs on it..numbers in the thousands with all the schools and public buildings. Not counting IP Phones. 200ish PCs here, plus..ooh..say 50 IP phones. Every public building (again) has IP phones as well, so it's effectively free to call school to school/council.

 

It goes, not to put too fine a point on it, like the proverbial off a teflon coated shovel.