Lately, we've heard from several people who use the Facebook and are getting Network Overflow messages. This is because the way that the Facebook transmits pictures requires a lot of "network connections" to be made. Here's some numbers:
- You get the Network Overflow message when you use over 500 of these connections in an hour.
- In a normal hour of web surfing you'll usually use 100-200 connections.
- An hour of surfing the Facebook can use 800-1000 connections or more.
So why is there a limit of 500 connections an hour? Because each connection requires some space on the College's Internet line. If too many people use too many connections, then no one is able to use the Internet. Previous testing has found that allowing more than 500 connections per person per hour starts to "clog" the Internet connection and make it unusable for others.
As we regularly do, we'll be examining the limit again in the future to see if it can be increased. However, the way in which the Facebook has setup their picture transfers means that it will always take more connections than most other sites.
