Internet Streaming Blocked
The Truth Behind the Restriction
Marie Fester (Staff Writer)
You may have noticed that, last week, some of your favorite websites for wasting time were blocked. Perhaps you even thought that it was part of an internet censorship campaign that was an attempt to control the student body. Well, fear not, for that is not the case. We consulted the SUJAC Vice-President of Internal Affairs, Robin Richard-Shaw, who met with JAC internet staff and found out what the JAC internet team was doing.
In technical terms, increased media streaming was overloading the JACWIFI bandwidth, causing the internet to work at snail’s pace or
not at all.
Say What?
JACWIFI’s speed is a function of the number of people using it. More importantly what they are checking out using JACWIFI because different types of media take up a different quantity of JACWIFI’s ability to provide data rapidly. Streaming websites, ones that provide a live feed of exciting videos, pictures and memes of Kim Kardashian’s butt, Grumpy Cat, and minions, take up a lot of space. Like enough space to #breaktheinternet.
The tech team had a big decision to make. They chose, in the end, that in order to provide adequate educational services, the streaming websites that were quite often
being used for no reason other than fun would have to take the backseat, because waiting five minutes to see if your webworks answer is right as you count down the minutes until it’s due is not fun. Also, teachers who need the internet to show movies for class or need to do corrections online were being slowed down. Not to mention that the interac machines in the cafeteria use the wifi.
So if people can’t pay for their food because the interac connection times out there is a serious problem. Can you imagine what it would be like if half the people walking around were hungry and mad because they couldn’t pay for their food? It would cause a civil war! Thus, all streaming websites were blocked.
And as you must have noticed by now, Instagram is back online. Furthermore, streaming is not blocked in any of the labs or on school computers like the ones in the library or in teacher’s offices. If you have used JACWIFI since the infamous blocking, you would have found that, indeed, internet speed is much better, closing the gap between itself and Usain Bolt.
For now, if you need to use streaming for educational purposes, the library and labs are available. In the future, we may be able to look forward to educational streaming being available for personal devices but no promises!