Internet connection speed increased

Internet connection speeds for Montgomery County Public Schools have been nearly doubled by MCPS’ switch to a new service provider.

NIH, MCPS’ former internet service provider (ISP), provided a connection speed of 10 Megabits (Mb) per second. Service from NIH suffered from occasional outages.

Verio, the new provider, is giving MCPS a speed of 18 Mb.

The switch occurred in early June and will most likely be fully complete by September. Anne Wisniewski, Blair User Support Specialist, says that the connection from Blair has already noticeably improved.

”[The switch] has made a difference,” Wisniewski says. ”So far, we’re fairly pleased.”

Internet connection speed affects how fast files transfer between internet servers and the computers in the school. A poor connection was especially troubling for Blair’s Media Center, which pays thousands of dollars each year for web-based research resources that are rendered virtually inaccessible when the connection is too slow.

MCPS has had problems with its NIH connection since the summer before the 2000-2001 school year, when NIH reduced MCPS’ bandwidth from 100Mb to 10Mb. In November 2000, NIH promised to restore the bandwidth, but the increase never materialized.

MCPS typically uses 16Mb during a school day, but this fluctuates with the time of day.

NIH explained that its 90Mb reduction was necessary to accommodate growing usage on the part of both MCPS and NIH.