Case Study: Niels Brock achieves fast, stable internet for students with SmartShare Systems

SmartShare Gives Students Freedom On The Internet

Niels Brock, a large educational institution with 4,000 students and 400 teachers across four locations, faced the challenge of maintaining a fast and reliable internet connection. Its open-access policy, which allowed anyone to log on with everything accessible, was frequently slowed down by students using bandwidth-heavy peer-to-peer applications like BitTorrent. While they previously used a manual blocking system, an upgrade to a 1 Gbit/s connection made their old solution too costly, prompting the need for a new alternative from vendor SmartShare Systems.

SmartShare Systems implemented its StraightShaper 8000 solution, which dynamically and evenly allocates bandwidth among all active users to ensure quick response times for everyone. This approach eliminated the disruptions caused by file-sharing applications. Additionally, Niels Brock activated a filter within SmartShare to identify and throttle the connection speeds of students who continued to use such programs, enforcing responsible internet use. The school achieved a stable, high-performance network that supports its open-access policy without impairing classes, all at a reasonable price.

Niels Brock

Steffen Herskind

Chief Information Officer