If your campus connection to the Internet now seems a bit more robust, thank the University Computer Center for the addition of a third T-1 circuit on December 4. "The extra circuit was added as a test to measure the impact of our Internet access speeds and through-put," says Malcolm Toedt, executive director of the University Computer Center.

"On December 10, we decided to keep the third T-1 line," he adds.

The move triples band width for UConn's Internet traffic.

When UConn went to a second T-1 line, "there was an immediate improvement in Internet speeds," says Toedt. "However it only took a week for our Internet capacity to reach 75 percent and higher, during peak usage periods."

Based on projections of Internet usage, Toedt predicts that UConn will again reach saturation with the third T-1, sometime in the first half of the spring semester. How can we conserve use of this resource? Toedt suggests that individual users can help by assessing their use of applications which continuously update from the Net.

"As an example, many members of the University community make use of the 'PointCast' screen saver. This application routinely interacts over the Internet to update information. You can conserve resources by carefully selecting only applications which are necessary for your work- related activity," Toedt suggests.