Internet Connection Speeds

The speed of your Internet connection will depend on two main factors:

1. The bandwidth connecting your school and your Internet service provider (often the LA)
2. The bandwidth from your service provider to the Internet.

Some facts
An LA with 50 schools connected at 2Mb will need 100Mb connection out to the Internet if all schools are to get full bandwidth consistently.

All ISPs rely on the fact that organisations connect at different times so they can share out the full bandwidth on an as needed basis. In reality the peak times tend to be the same in mostschools.

Many schools cannot get 'uncontended' connections - that means you are sharing your access to the Internet with other users.

A simple test to check whether your Internet can deliver web pages effectively
1. Type in any web site address that has not been accessed by the PC you are working on (to check this click on browser tool, then connections and clear any files from the browser cache). Check to see how many seconds it takes for the page to appear complete with no empty spaces. e.g.: www.annefrank.com
2. Now try a page that is an example of heavy content www.NetPilot.com/big800

Check to see how many seconds it takes for the image to appear completely, you will need to scroll down the page to see it all.

Now time for the maths !

The time you have now have an approximation on the time it would take for CachePilot to deliver the same web pages. These figures will vary depending on the type of content and the number of simultaneously active users.