Generally LIS only hears about it when our systems aren’t responding quickly enough or aren’t working at all.  We almost never get a call saying, “Gee, the servers have been up for a very long time without crashing!” or “My gosh, our network is extremely reliable and response time has been really fast lately!”  Nevertheless, we continue to work very hard to keep everything running and at top speed.  We regularly make improvements behind the scenes to benefit the whole community.  One recent such improvement was a doubling of the size of our primary Internet connection.

The College maintains two connections to the Internet: our primary connection is via Level 3 Communications, while Vermont traffic (and failover protection) is supported by a local provider named TelJet.   (Both Seven Days and the Burlington Free Press have recently run favorable articles on TelJet.)

Anticipating continuing, steep growth in our network traffic, LIS requested some time ago that Level 3 increase our bandwidth from 200 Mbps to 500 Mbps.  (Our TelJet connection is at 100 Mbps.)  Just last month, Level 3 completed the upgrade.  While you may not have noticed the increased speed on your desktop, you can rest assured that, at least for the time being, the tubes connecting Middlebury to the outside should be big enough to support your academic needs.

Stay tuned to this blog to learn of other plans we have for improving and expanding the campus network!