The need for internet speed
By Ricky Ochilo
Warren Wilson College’s network connection to the internet has been slow this semester. David Harper, computing services manager at Warren Wilson, said that efforts have been made to improve the situation.
Campus email servers based on the Squirrel Mail software have been particularly sluggish in moving and deleting messages, which have resulted from the growth of inboxes.
"We [have] never enforced inbox size quotas," Harper said. "Consequently, the web mail client cannot support the increase of inbox sizes."
Harper noted that the inbox is not a chain of files for every message but one large text file. Whenever an inbox is opened, the system has to open the large file every time a message is deleted or moved.
"Multiply that by the number of users we have and you get the idea of what we are dealing with," Harper said.
Computing Services is working to change the current file format of email to make it faster, and Harper said that they are currently testing the new system. Computing Services will make sure that service is not affected and no relevant information is lost. The College plans to get a new web mail client, Zimbra, which has better capacity and speed.
Harper said Zimbra has "a much better graphical interface, improved junk mail handling, and shareable calendars" with "classic old arcade games thrown in for good measure."
Harper discussed Warren Wilson’s internet connection. The problem is not the College’s servers, which Harper maintains are efficient. The problem with the connection has more to do with the internet provider. WWC acquired a new internet service provider when the previous provider went bankrupt.
Harper is disappointed with the current provider, which he said is responsible for the frequent interruptions.
"The good news is that our contract is about to expire, and we have the opportunity to look at other options," Harper said.
Another factor that causes the sluggish speeds is the slow download bandwidth available to the campus. With three megabytes, Warren Wilson’s connection is equivalent to that of two household cable or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections.
The college needs both incoming and outgoing bandwidth. Currently, the college runs solely on incoming bandwidth. For better efficiency outgoing bandwidth would have to be upgraded, and that is costly says Harper.
According to Harper, the slowdowns occur because of the unlimited use of the 3 megabyte bandwidth, which supports both mail and web traffic.
Harper is satisfied with the college’s intranet capability. He said that most slow hubs in campus buildings were replaced with switches, and that only a few are still connected with fiber optics. Harper noted that the two servers, mail and file, were changed in the past year.
The existing servers will be used to the best of their capacity until the contract with the existing provider ends. Harper feels that good use of resources is necessary, but change is needed as the expectations students have for surfing spead increase.
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