Technical Notes - Special Considerations

Online web based testing presents new and unique technical challenges to schools. Any issues that fall outside the current content categories of this site will be addressed here.

Cookies
Online web based testing does require a few session state cookies to be kept by local browsers.

Cache
Online web based testing content must NOT be cached. Every effort must be taken to NOT cache test content on both network appliances and workstations. Systems must be monitored for cached content and purged immediately after testing if found.

Proxy Servers
Proxy servers cannot be set to cache the content of the test. The test is dynamic content targeted at specific users logged into the test. Proxy servers should be set to pass regular (port 80) and encrypted traffic (port 443) from everything on data.ncsu.edu.

Firewalls & Content Filters
Firewalls and content filters need to allow regular http (port 80) and encrypted https (port 443) from data.ncsu.edu

Pop-up Blockers
Due to the current design of NCTest, pop-up ad blockers WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS. Pop-up blocking tools need to be set to allow pop-ups from data.ncsu.edu.

Traffic Shaping Technologies
Traffic shaping is a group of techniques designed to allow prioritization policies on the transmission of data over a network link. These technologies can be used to elevate the priority of traffic between data.ncsu.edu and student workstations during test administrations. Traffic shapers would need to be set to elevate the priority of all traffic to and from data.ncsu.edu.

Client Workstation User Permissions
Use of NCTest should not encounter difficulty if permissions of the user account are specialized or tightly managed as long as the permissions allow normal web browsing and Flash add-on activities.

Viruses and Worms
The potential exists that a new virus or worm may be released into the Internet during a period when online testing occurs. These pests exist largely to propagate themselves, and they do this by infecting computers and using their processing power to transmit themselves. This process may render the computer unusable, as well as the network by clogging it with attempts to attack other computers. It is imperative that client computers and servers be maintained with up to date virus protection and operating system patches.

Workstation Setup Preservatives (Deep Freeze, GoBack, Ghost, Clean Slate, etc.)
Administrative applications that assist preservation of system state may keep software installations and/or updates from sticking. As long as these are set up not to interfere with normal web browser activities, there should be no problem with these tools and NCTest

WinFrame\MetaFrame\Remote Desktop
At this time we are unable to confirm if there are special considerations with regard to using remote windowing session technologies to access NCtest. Flash media components would have to be installed and proven functional on the Application/Presentation Server for students to access this test using this type of technology. The Application/Presentation Server would need to be configured to pass TCP/IP on ports 80 and 443 (encrypted) to and from data.ncsu.edu and NOT cache content across client sessions.

VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol is used to replace telephone service within an organization. VoIP can create high bandwidth utilization on existing networks. Without a separate network to handle VoIP, an actively used network could reach full utilization quickly. Therefore, VoIP would have to be managed heavily or its bandwidth profile restricted during online testing events in order to archive acceptable client test session quality. VoIP typically uses 16-80 kbps per call, depending on the algorithm used to encode and compress the sound data into digital data and back

Linux
At this time we are not restricting the use of Linux workstations for this project. Taking into consideration the technologies being used for development, it is possible that Linux could be used as a student environment for accessing NCTest as long as browser and Flash comparability can be locally verified as equal to what is being used in Windows and Macintosh environments.