Using NetSupport School in a wireless classroom
It is recognised that wireless networks generally do not perform as reliably as wired networks as they use radio frequencies to transmit data and these are susceptible to interference. In addition, simultaneously connecting a large number of devices to a wireless access point will have a negative impact on the bandwidth allocated to each.
When using NetSupport School in an un-optimised wireless environment, the above can result in poor performance and student devices frequently disconnecting from the Tutor Console.
NetSupport School uses advanced techniques to limit the effects of an unreliable wireless network.
Optimising NetSupport School for use in a wireless environment
Once you have established a reliable wireless connection between the devices in your classroom, there are some settings within the Tutor Console that you can change to optimise performance on your wireless network.
A school will have a finite amount of network bandwidth available; viewing the students' screens, distributing files or broadcasting the teacher's screen simultaneously will consume this bandwidth.
NetSupport School provides multiple configuration options designed to reduce the amount of data sent across the network, which will result in improved performance. These options can be found under their respective configuration sections in the Tutor Console.
For a wireless environment, it is recommended that the options within the Performance section of the Tutor settings are set as follows:
Colour reduction: Allows you to set the maximum colour depth when viewing and showing to Students. By default, this is set to 256 (high) colours.
Low bandwidth mode: The number of video frames transferred will be reduced to around 5 per second. Setting this to Wireless will automatically turn on low bandwidth mode when wireless students have been detected.
Additionally, within the Network and Wireless Settings section of the Tutor Console, it is recommended that the following option is enabled when using NetSupport School on a wireless network:
Enable Broadcast Show and File Distribution: When broadcasting the teacher's screen or distributing files to multiple students, enabling this option will result in the screen data or files being sent to all machines simultaneously.
Finally, performance can further be enhanced by reducing the speed that the Tutor Console sends data onto the network to match the speed that the wireless access point can deliver the data. Sending data onto the network too quickly may result in packets being lost, which will result in the students requesting the data again and additional traffic being produced on the network.
For a wireless environment, it is recommended that the following options are set:
Wireless Network: Select this option to optimise NetSupport School for best performance in a wireless environment.
Maximum Throughput: This option provides the ability to fine tune the speed that the Tutor Console sends data to the connected student devices.
