Dear AIS Staff,
The administration and technology team members recently met to discuss the work we have been doing on our Internet connectivity issue and to review the plans we have in place. I'm sure many of you are reaching our frustration level with this issue so it was felt that we should share with you our work to date and include you in the next steps we will be taking. I'll try to limit the tech jargon ...
Below you will find a description and Internet connectivity history of our new network along with steps we've taken, our next steps and how you can help.<>
Netwwork Description
Our LAN network consists of a variety of active and inactive, old and new equipment. For example, we have integrated active equipment (servers, switches, etc.) from our old network to our new network and we have added a phone system and security system to our network. On our old network, we had contractors and staff who were very familiar with the sensitivity of our network, and we controlled traffic by limiting the access to sites like You Tube and Yahoo Instant Messenger. On our new network, we have contractors with no familiarity with the active equipment we brought with us, and we opened access to high bandwidth sites at the request of teachers. These all result in changes in the use, the traffic and the time it takes to troubleshoot issues on the network, including the slowdown we are currently experiencing. Each item we check and change has to be monitored one to two days to collect data before we can move on to the next item. The process is long but I'm confident we will find a solution. On the up side it's the quickest way to become familiar with the workings of our new LAN and will assist in handling future network issues.
History
We have experienced at lease five different issues involving Internet connectivity this year. Our first was wireless access points at the beginning of the year. This issue could be resolved only by the contractor who could only come on certain Sundays because they needed to take the network down from time to time. Sometime in mid-October we were able to sign the contractor off because all the access points were correctly configured for our user base, and we could then manage them ourselves. Since then access points have been working well with the exception of location profiling on some of our laptops. Our second issue was connectivity to Blackboard. At the NESA conference we discovered that the slow connectivity was experienced by other schools in the region. This indicates that part of the problem is our external Internet speed. We began sharing data about our connectivity and will send a trace of our connectivity jumps. So far, the project coordinator has not resolved the issue entirely. Third, we have experienced a few isolated lapses in Internet connectivity since school opened due to power shutting down, the DNS server not restarting, modems going bad, etc. These issue are common and quickly address because they are the first items we check when we have Internet connectivity issues system wide. Fourth, there was a period of no Internet connectivity during which we spent two days checking our systems only to find out that our provider had reset the configuration to a back-up dated before we were added. So while our systems should have had outside access, our connectivity was denied because we weren't configured in the system. They then corrected this. During the pass few week, our fifth issue with Internet connectivity escalated. We noticed what we thought was a consistent slowdown from around 1-3 pm which we began investigating. These past few days our slow connectivity was compounded by the storms that effected the connectivity of many users in Israel. Please note that PowerSchool and e-mail have really been pretty stable throughout this time. Do not confuse network connectivity issue with the functionality of these programs.
Steps So Far
Here are some of the general steps we've taken to work on our current slowdown:
- We contacted our Internet service provider and obtained the assistance of our Web Server Administrator, TKOS, to check external connectivity. This checked okay.
- We notified staff about potential bandwidth wasters, requesting they avoid streaming music and video, chatting, and downloading large files.
- We called in TKOS to check devices that are common causes of slowdowns: modems, DNS server, firewall, etc. This resulted in a focus on our firewall.
- We collected data on network traffic, which was very inconsistent, making it difficult to isolate the problem.
- We began comparing access speed through our LAN to access speed using a direct ASDL connection. We are continuing to monitor the differences.
- We updated the software on our SonicWall firewall.
- We have disconnected our redundancy LAN line, which has been an issue in another organization. After two days we will switch cables and monitor the result.
- We have contacted Bynet the contractor who installed our active equipment, for assistance. Their first two suggestions we had already done: check external connection and firewall.
Next Steps
- We have downloaded a sniffer and will work with Bynet to identify activity on our network that may be causing the problem if our monitoring of the redundancy and the firewall doesn't show any positive results.
- We are requiring that all private computers/laptops connecting to our network be registered with us by February 12 for access.
- We are considering returning to a more controlled filtering process to better control network traffic. Please bear with us if sites like You Tube become temporarily unable to students. We will work at allowing access to these sites on teacher laptops.
- We will then explore software possibilities like spyware, viruses and network-based applications if we exhaust the possible causes within our hardware.
How you can help?
- Please keep a running log of your and your classes' web activity and speed by block. Let us know at the end of the week, February 8, if you see a pattern in decrease or an increase in speed.
- Remind your students to avoid using potential bandwidth wasters during school hours.
- Remind your students that all computer/laptops, including your own, need to be registered and configured with the tech department to connect to our network. Make sure you know how to connect to AIS-User.
As always I am open for suggestion on this and any technology issue we are experiencing. If you are ever curious as to what is happening in the tech department, feel free to contact me. I am more than happy to share the efforts of this hard-working team and address any curiosities you may have. I will try to send Tech Updates at lease once a month and I invite you to visit our Tech Update Blog to review previous updates and related information: http://wbaistechupdate.blogspot.com
It's not quite ready --I'm still working out viewing preferences -- but it seems an appropriate time to make you aware of it. Please bear with the text running into the margin on some entries.
Keep Computing!
Your Friendly IT Guy,
Steven Roberts Technology Coordinator
Walworth Barbour American International School
"The man who can make hard things easy is the educator."
by ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~
