Are these bandwidth hogs taking over your campus?

Supporting a network in a higher-ed setting can be a daunting task. With their proclivity for mobile devices, video games, wearable technology, and laptops (just to name a few), higher ed IT users may not realize how their tech choices can impact the network at large.

Generally, users at higher-ed institutions assume they can have bandwidth on-demand—as much as they want whenever they want—and take advantage of that regularly. These attitudes can mean that the university network becomes a traffic jam; difficult to administrate and nearly impossible to run smoothly.

According to the Association for College and University Technology Advancement (ACUTA), bandwidth on college campuses has nearly doubled since 2012 to accommodate, but it still may not be enough. How is an administrator to manage such a large, growing increase in demand? Don’t panic. There are definite trends in technology usage and several “bandwidth hogs” that make up a majority of network traffic in higher ed. Here are the top four, and a few tips for how to manage them.…Read More

Campuses race to keep up with students’ bandwidth demands

College students are eager for more bandwidth and connectivity on campus, according to an annual report measuring higher ed’s internet offerings.

One in three schools offer 7GB bandwidth or more, while 72 percent offer 1GB or more–an almost three-fold increase since 2012, the ACUHO-I 2018 State of ResNet Report reveals.

Sixty-four percent of campuses extend wireless coverage to 80 percent or more of the whole campus–a 7.6 percent increase from 2017. Wireless coverage of 81-100 percent in on-campus student areas continues to increase year over year, from 77 percent in 2017 to 80 percent this year.…Read More

Can colleges respond to bandwidth demand without drawing student ire?

Six in 10 colleges don't monitor individual bandwidth consumption.

Grappling with students’ insatiable appetite for bandwidth, college technology officials on one in five campuses have instituted strict limitations on how many laptops, smart phones, and tablets a student can connect to the school network.

That finding, along with a host of other approaches to maintaining secure, powerful web connections across campus, were published by the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education (ACUTA), which on March 22 released its first “State of the ResNet Report.”

ResNet is short for residential network, or the internet connection provided to campus dormitories and, usually, a range of school buildings.…Read More

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