Presenting Internet Training & Connecting Classroom Computers To The Internet

Site Directory
Membership
Train-the-Trainer
Trainer Certification
Certified Training Materials
ITinfo E-zine
Responsible Training
White Papers
Trainer Resources
What's New
Speaking Engagements
Onsite Training
ITrain Gear

Presenting Internet Training & Connecting Classroom Computers To The Internet
Dave Murphy

The most common questions related to presenting Internet training seminars that I hear both on the NETTRAIN list and in general conversation focus on how to connect a classroom full of computers to the Internet, safely and securely.

The quick and dirty answer is to install a modem, Windows 95/NT dial-up networking, and a phone line in each PC. The high tech answer is to find an ISP that offers high-speed digital service and then connect the classroom Ethernet network directly to the ISP (Internet Service Provider). Both of these options have limitations, and I believe the best answer lies somewhere in between.

I'm fortunate in that I get to visit commercial training centers, community colleges, and government training facilities in my role as ITrain membership director. I've seen quite a few ways to connect classroom stations to the Internet, and some of them have cost over $1,000 per station--plus monthly service fees.

At heart, I'm still a pragmatic trainer, and I firmly believe that the best answer to a seemingly complex problem is usually the most simple.

Rather than establish separate modem connections for each PC, which costs approximately $50/month in ISP and telco charges and requires up to an hour per station to install and test each connection, I think the best idea is to connect the classroom network to the Internet and share access.

If your classroom doesn't already have a network, the investment in Ethernet cards, cabling, and labor may have a steep initial cost, but I think the reduction in monthly costs will actually save money before the end of the first training year.

In our classroom we use a hardware product called Instant Internet. This device connects our Ethernet network hub to it's own internal modem and allows all LAN users to share the single modem connection to our ISP.

Through Instant Internet, our ISP requires only one account, and we've purchased additional POP3 mailboxes from our ISP so each student has private email for the duration of class.

We comfortably connected over 20 workstations at the same time for email or website development (HTML) training, and up to eight stations at the same time for Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer training.

Because classroom web surfing requires more bandwidth, we limit our concurrent connections during web browser training. Email and light duty web surfing, such as in an HTML class, work great with a modem connection, but my personal experience is that when more than a handful of students start serious web surfing, the shared connection should be at least a 128kbps ISDN connection.

Instant Internet does support higher-speed connections, but we don't often have large web surfing classes, so we haven't installed an ISDN connection in our classrooms.

But we do need something more than just a single modem connection, so we're about to install a new software product, a proxy server, called RideWay that will allow an unlimited number of PCs to share a single modem (or set of modems) installed in the classroom workstation(s).

Again, RideWay requires a classroom network, but unlike our current solution, Instant Internet, RideWay allows a Windows 95/NT workstation to share it's dial-up networking connection with other network stations. With multiple RideWay computers and modems we can balance the classroom need for more bandwidth.

For example, classroom stations 1-4 can share the modem in station 1. Stations 5-8 can share station 5's modem, etc. With this plan, each available modem will have no more than four concurrent sessions. And our monthly costs will only increase by one ISP account and one phone line per every four stations. And, rather than have over 20 stations on one Instant Internet modem, we'll have only four stations on each RideWay workstation modem (and we'll use 56Kbps modems, too!).

We've tested RideWay in the office, and it's a snap to set up. We're lucky, all of our classrooms are wired to a series of network file servers for data sharing and storage. Therefor, to establish our Internet connections, we're able to utilize the existing network cabling.

Again, if you're considering presenting Internet training classes, I suggest that you consider using RideWay. The cost of adding Ethernet cards and cables is about $200 per computer, and most training centers will recoup this cost within a year just through the savings of not having to purchase individual ISP accounts and phone lines for each PC.

If you'd like to talk more about how our classrooms work, drop me a note at member@itrain.org or call me at 410.567.5366.

International Association of Information Technology Trainers
PMB 616
6030-M Marshalee Dr
Elkridge, MD 21075-5987

410.567.5366
1.888.290.6200
fax 801.650.0423
Membership Director: member@itrain.org

Return to ITrain Homepage

http://itrain.org/html/resources/articles/article0002.html
updated November 1, 1997