Help with requirements

Help with requirements

by Olga Janeth Gutiérrez -
Number of replies: 13

Hello everybody! My name is Olga Gutiérrez, and I need to know if I can manage moodle with an internet conection by modem, or it´s too slow? Also I want to ask you if you can recommend me a hosting in Colombia that supports moodle and with low prices, because my school doesn´t have so much money, and the last question is: 100MB is enough for about 30 students or I need more? Thank you very much for your help. Sincerely,

Olga

Bueno, disculpen el inglés tan malo, pero ahora va en español, pues veo que algunas personas lo hablan. Hola! Mi nombre es Olga Gutiérrez, pienso instalar moodle en un colegio, ellos no tienen mucho presupuesto, así que creo que es más económico contratar el hosting, además ellos tienen acceso a internet por línea telefónica, (módem) y la conexión por banda ancha les saldría un poco costosa, así que no sé si con la conexión por módem es suficiente para administrar la herramienta o necesariamente requiero mayor velocidad. Además quisiera saber si uds conocen un servicio de hosting, preferiblemente en Colombia que soporte moodle y que sea fácil de administrar pues no tengo experiencia en la administración de moodle. Que ventajas tiene el comprar un servidor y tenerlo en el colegio con el moodle instalado?, pues es una opción costosa para ellos, además de que no tienen red y no hay muchas posibilidades ni presupuesto para hacerla, pero si es necesario lo harían (lo de la compra del servidor, no de la red).   Finalmente, para tener unos 20 a 100 alumnos más o menos al año, distribuidos en 3 cursos, puedo contratar 100MB o requiero más.

Muchas gracias por atender mi solicitud y que pasen feliz día.

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In reply to Olga Janeth Gutiérrez

Re: Help with requirements

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
"I need to know if I can manage moodle with an internet conection by modem, or it´s too slow?"

If you mean an analog modem which dials-up (like a phone) and connects to internet it is clearly slow by western standards. The _maximum_ speed (on good phone lines) is 64 kB/s compared to 256 kB/s for a _slow_ broadband connection.

To make the matters worse, to get such a setup going is more involved than using a permanant connection.

If you are really low on buget there may be a remote possibilty. To judge that send more details about your setup. You mentioned 30 users attending 3 courses? Where are these users, in classrooms at your school will they be connecting from home?

What sort of courses are these? Is it just a way of sending them on-line material or is it more about interaction like using discussions, on-line tests, etc.?
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Help with requirements

by Olga Janeth Gutiérrez -

Hi Visvanath!

Where are you from? Thank you very much for helping me. Yes, it´s an analog modem which dials-up, so it´s better if I have a broadband connection. Excuse me, when you say buget it means money, I´m sorry, but I just don´t know that word, and I´m a colombian girl with some levels of english.

And about the users, I´m talking about 30 to 100, not at same time, in different cities, every course has a duration of 6 months, and there are 3 courses and I´m not sure if they want to put all the material in a big course or if they are going to have 3 big categories with the respective courses in each one.

Anyway,  they told me they need to send to the users the information, maybe a big pdf file or as several files as subjects has each level, we are talking about three levels. The users have few knowledge about internet, so they just are going to receive the material and send the homework later, and perhaps answer and interactive evaluation, or maybe the evaluation will be send  as pdf. But, the institution wants to have sometimes the service of chat to guide their students, I mean they will use it sometimes. 

Finally, I´m not sure if they need to acquire a server in the school or if it´s better have a hosting and manage moodle in a remote way.

Again, I want to say thank you very much. Bye.

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In reply to Olga Janeth Gutiérrez

Re: Help with requirements

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Believe it or not, I´m writng from this beautiful island Öckerö close to Göteborg in Sweden. BTW I´m supposed to be on vacation ;-(

"when you say buget it means money, .."

Yes, but it should be spelled "budget" sad

Anyway, the important thing about your setup is that the users are in _different cities_. So the machine could be anywhare (not necessarily in the school). Assuming that those users have reasonable download speeds, say 256 kB/s or more, an upload speed of 64 kB/s from the server is not good.

And I forgot to mention that many of broadband connections are _assymetrical_. Speeds like 512/128, 1024/256, 1200/200 (down-/up-stream) are common.

If you are a novice to server maintenance your best bet is to go to a well-managed web-hoster.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Help with requirements

by Olga Janeth Gutiérrez -

Hello again Visvanath,

You are in an island, Öckerö, it´s very interesting! I hope you can enjoy at least a little your vacations. Thank you for your advices, you help me a lot.

Greetings from Colombia, 

Olguita

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In reply to Olga Janeth Gutiérrez

Re: Help with requirements

by Manish Verma -

Dear Olga,

I used dial-up for a few days while I was sorting out some network related problems.   All I can say is that my experience was not bad though it was a bit hard to be patient after getting accustomed to broadband.  At that point the site had around 1000 users (I do not mean online at the same time).

You can probably explore Moodle demo site at http://demo.moodle.com and experience the speed yourself.

Moodle takes around 40 MB, so 100 MB looks fine - though it may depend upon your file storage requirements etc.

As far as hosting is concerned, though I am not in a position to recommend a host, all I can say is that a reliable cPanel based hosting would be better for you.

Manish.

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In reply to Manish Verma

Re: Help with requirements

by Olga Janeth Gutiérrez -

Dear Manish!

Thank you very much for your help.

You  used dial-up for managing moodle? Did you have your files in your own server or you have a hosting service?  Sorry about this questions, but I´m just a beginner with moodle and managment of web sites.

Thank you again,

Olguita

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In reply to Olga Janeth Gutiérrez

Re: Help with requirements

by Jason Hando -
Hi Olga,

It can be daunting starting out....stick in there, the benefits are well worth it!

I have been successful with 500 users on a very cheap remote host and with dial-up modem.... it doesn't matter because a good host will have a thing called cpanel which should have fantastico. This allows a very easy way to install Moodle without having to download and upload it to your server yourself via your dial-up internet connection.

The location of the host doesn't matter either - I am in Sydney, Australia and my host is in Russia (probably smile ).... as long as they are reliable, easy to get support from and have the features you need.

Let me know if you want more details.

Jason
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In reply to Jason Hando

Re: Help with requirements

by Manel Lopez -
Hi Jason

Could you tell us more about this "very cheap remote  host"?


Best regards
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In reply to Jason Hando

Re: Help with requirements

by Olga Janeth Gutiérrez -

Hi Jason!

Thank you very much for the info, and of course I´m going to be over here, all you are very nice and helpful, thanks,

Olga

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In reply to Manish Verma

Re: Help with requirements

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Hello Manish

Are you sure that demo.moodle.com is on a dial-up connection? It could on broadband with an easydns.com DNS record.

Visvanath
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Help with requirements

by Manish Verma -

Hello Visvanath,

What I meant to say was that one could feel the speed of managing Moodle using dial-up by visiting demo.moodle.com or opensourcecms.com and logging in as admin.  For example if I am on dial-up and I am afraid if I would be able to manage Moodle, I can visit these sites and feel the speed.

I hope, I have made the point clear.

Manish.

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In reply to Manish Verma

Re: Help with requirements

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Hi Manish

Thanks for the clarification!

I think you are right. The question was about _managing_ a Moodle site via dial-up, and _not_ about hosting on dial-on-demand.

Hope I haven't confused the OP sad

Visvanath.
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