Posted: January 25, 2017, 5:44pm
Over winter break, I happened to be downloading a huge application file. I was downloading MacTex packages, a package designed to make equations easier to type, by using a coding language called LaTeX.
While I was downloading this file (a few Gigabyte large), I noticed that it was downloading incredibly fast. I postulated that the faster download speeds must be due to the lack of people on campus (and lack of usage of USC’s bandwidth. So I tested the download speed on http://www.speedtest.net/ and made a mental note to test it again during the first week of the semester when all the students return to campus. Here’s what I found:
During break (low campus activity)
During 1st week of the semester (high campus activity)
Wow! The download speed (shown in the top middle panel, in units of Mbps, or Megabits per second) is about 40% faster during the winter break. We’ll see how I put that to use… but we know I won’t just use it to stream Netflix a little faster.
Published on July 26th, 2017
Last updated on January 20th, 2021