On Sun, May 11, 2003 at 11:38:52AM +0100, ian wrote:
On Sun, 2003-05-11 at 11:17, Christopher Dawkins wrote:
Is this really true ? I cannot see why a school - any more than anyone else needs a symetrical Internet feed.
Averall, and at present, I agree with you, but once the school becomes a "centre of learning" with a good quantity of information and active learning material on its own intranet server, then pupils will be accessing it from home ("anytime, anywhere"). So during evenings, weekends and holidays it will need high outgoing bandwidth. There are times in the holidays when we have more outgoing than incoming.
Since the cost of the technologies falls its therefore sensible to only install what is needed when it is needed. You have such a situation now so your infrastructure is well matched to need. Its pretty inefficient
Especially since several of the RBC systems are intended more as a fast connection to surf the web than anything else. None of the things Chris has mentioned apparently ever having crossed the mind of whoever wrote the spec.
use of tax payers money to buy into expensive high level services that require either a long term fixed price commitment or will not get used to the full. Bit like buying the fastest possible processor for future-proofing when one that is marginally slower is half the price and the user really wouldn't notice the difference. Anyone can solve
By the time the "future" comes around there will be something several times the speed available anyway.
technical problems if money is no problem. The key is to get the solution/price equation right.
-- Mark Evans St. Peter's CofE High School Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 Fax: +44 1392 204763