Sunday, September 7, 2008
Hardware & Networking
computer requirements
If you purchased your computer in the last few years, it will almost certainly be fast enough and have enough memory to view the recorded lectures. No special hardware is required, beyond a network connection and either audio speakers or headphones. If your computer is old, you'll have to test it. Since old computers often have out-of-date software, we recommend first updating your media player as described on the Software page.network requirements
Different types of networks operate at different speeds (often incorrectly called bandwidth). You'll see advertised numbers that have the unit Mbps, short for megabits per second. Generally, the bigger the number the better, although - much like gas mileage - you may never experience the advertised value. To make things more complicated, on some networks you share the network capacity with others around you. So, the performance you experience will depend on the demands others are placing on the network.If your Internet connection is not fast enough, the playing of a lecture will periodically pause, awaiting the arrival of more data across the network. At some point, you will become so frustrated that you will seek better networking.
Here are some common network technologies and our experience with their performance:
Wired Ethernet on the UT campus is at least 10 Mbps and usually 100 Mbps. Both of these are more than adequate for viewing lectures.
Wireless networking in all College of Natural Sciences buildings is 54 Mbps. But, everyone connected through the same antenna (i.e., access point) shares this capacity. Viewing recorded lectures should work fine until too many people connect to the same access point as you. Elsewhere on campus you may find older and slower wireless networking, operating at 11 Mbps. This should work fine if you're the only one using it but will degrade even more quickly as others connect.
AT&T DSL currently comes in four download speeds (768 Kbps, 1.5 Mbps, 3 Mbps, and 6 Mbps), depending on how much you pay per month. The speeds are advertised as "up to", suggesting they are best case and not guaranteed. We have experienced unsatisfactory performance on the lowest speed DSL (768 Kbps), but the others should be sufficient for viewing recorded lectures.
Road Runner Cable Modem is 5 Mbps, but you are sharing this capacity with your neighbors. We have experienced adequate performance with this service.
Modems that use standard telephone lines are fortunately becoming obsolete. They usually operate at 56 Kbps, which it totally inadequate for watching lectures.
