What is bandwidth? In this case, bandwidth is essentially the amount of Internet traffic that can enter and exit a computer network. Every click to a website, every email you send, or every video you watch takes up a certain portion of the overall bandwidth available on a network or Internet connection. The connection we have in Dakota Valley is shared among all users in the district. What is the bandwidth limit? We have a 10 Mbps connection, compared to 2 Mbps two years ago. Most home internet providers offer between 1.5 Mbps and 5 Mbps. The higher the number of Mbps (megabits per second), this results in a larger “channel” available to transmit more data. Our bond is different from the one you would have at home. Our Internet connection is therefore also significantly more expensive. We have certain guarantees with our service and our upload/download bandwidth (speed, in a certain sense) that is not typically provided to home users. At home, the warranty may only be for downloads (items arriving on your computer) and the speed may be "throttled" or reduced after so many minutes of overuse. Some providers only guarantee a level of bandwidth to their own internal network and not to the Internet itself. What bandwidth do we use? Among the “potentially abused” sites, the main categories are Shopping, Sports and Games. Image searches and online videos also use a significant amount of bandwidth. Whether the video is on You Tube, MSNBC or ESPN, it makes no difference because they all use a huge amount of bandwidth resources. School uses are important. DDN Campus, our library software, Alternative School software and many other school and school management programs are delivered through our Internet connection. When bandwidth issues arise, many of these other...... middle of paper ...... demo sites, among others. This is a benefit that many schools are unable to offer. Last year we often reached peak utilization of 70%. At the start of this school year, we knew we might “run out” of available bandwidth with the addition of student laptops. Personal relationships were blocked (myspace/facebook type sites) because their role was judged to be much more personal than work/school related. During peak usage periods and a time when many abusers were online and attempting to watch movies, TV shows, and other non-school sites, blocking became very restrictive in order to stabilize our connection. Most schools block all media websites such as You Tube in order to manage bandwidth. I honestly hope we don't have to implement this level of blocking again, but it's certainly a possibility, especially if abuse or overuse becomes apparent again...