Monitoring the ‘Enlaces’ educational computer network

Abstract

The use of networks in education is experiencing world-wide growth. Many schools have taken advantage of the reduction of price in modems, the emergence of electronic bulletin boards and world-wide web pages with educational content, and the availability of software for public participation in networks. Nevertheless, little information is available about the quality and quantity of existing network traffic; information that would allow organizations, network project administrators and supporters, to evaluate its impact, know its usage, evolution and projections. This paper presents some of the traffic monitoring mechanisms presently in use in a Chilean educational network (the Enlaces Project), together with examples of the information collected through these mechanisms.