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Blazing speed to make internet connections hum by George Spain  CCIT Technical Writer Dr. James B. Edwards, president, gets acquainted with the Backbone Network Service (vBNS). While Kevin Moore, left, manager of network systems, CCIT (TIS), Steve Burns, back right, director of informatics structure, CCIT (TIS), and Dr. Frank Starmer, right, associate provost, Information Technology, explain how it works. Think of it like this: they built superhighways above I-95, I-26, and I-20, they only let a few cars drive on it, and the speed limit signs read, “Faster.” That’s what MUSC’s connection to a new high speed, nationwide computer network is like.  MUSC recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for $350,000 to plug into the supernet called very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS). The University of South Carolina and Clemson join MUSC in linking the Palmetto State to the MCI-owned, high-speed hub in Atlanta. How fast is it? Try it for yourself.  Using your web browser, first download the University of Georgia's homepage at <http://www.uga.edu>.   Now try Georgia Tech’s home page at <http://www.gatech.edu/>. That’s pretty dramatic, isn’t it? Same region, very different connection. That’s because vBNS connects MUSC directly to Georgia Tech (and other universities around the southeast such as Emory, Florida, Florida State, UNC, Duke, etc.). Read the map. It’s not only web browsers that enjoy this speed. Some vBNS sites get up 622 megabits per second. Although the wiring connecting the three state universities limits connections to around 155 megabits, compare that to MUSC's normal Internet connection speeds of nine megabits.  Press releases say that at the 622mps, “322 copies of a 300-page book can be sent every seven seconds.” This kind of speed means that researchers collaborating on projects can take advantage of full motion video conferencing and real-time molecular modeling. Before you dream of downloading Elvis’ boxed set CDs over the net, you should know that this is experimental and doesn’t connect commercial sites (.com). Its purpose is to link researchers and their projects.  No matter what your current network setup, you should see an improvement accessing other vBNS sites. However, to get the top speeds you would have to install a special networking card in your computer and, possibly, upgrade your office network connections. For a more technical discussion of vBNS, be sure to read the September edition of the online PacketXpress newsletter at <http://www.musc.edu/ccit/arcs/packet/>.   PacketXpress begins its second season with CCIT with the September edition.