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How much bandwidth should I feel safe using on campus?

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archcommus

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
8,115
0
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Originally posted by: BigJ
Originally posted by: archcommus
For those of you that using anything like BT on your campuses, were the typical BT ports already open on their network? I imagine they wouldn't be.

If you have a respectable IT department, the packetshaper will make sure that BT is not usable. Most P2P programs will also either blocked or slowed by the IT dept.

Your best bet is finding out if there is a DC++ Hub setup (IT dept normally doesn't care because it's all internal bandwidth) or IRC.
IRC, yep, that's the last resort I was thinking of.

No kind of ports must be open to use IRC? IRC can work.

 

Mo0o

Lifer
Jul 31, 2001
24,227
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For college file sharing i2hub is the best way to go second to finding a solid DC++ hub on your school network.
 

BigJ

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
21,330
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Originally posted by: archcommus
Originally posted by: BigJ
Originally posted by: archcommus
For those of you that using anything like BT on your campuses, were the typical BT ports already open on their network? I imagine they wouldn't be.

If you have a respectable IT department, the packetshaper will make sure that BT is not usable. Most P2P programs will also either blocked or slowed by the IT dept.

Your best bet is finding out if there is a DC++ Hub setup (IT dept normally doesn't care because it's all internal bandwidth) or IRC.
IRC, yep, that's the last resort I was thinking of.

No kind of ports must be open to use IRC? IRC can work.

I don't think you really understand the concept of what a packetshaper is. It filters and throttles different types of traffic. Most IT depts will not have the packetshaper configured to affect IRC, i2hub, DC++, or Newsgroup traffic.
 

oogabooga

Diamond Member
Jan 14, 2003
7,806
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when i was in the dorms (2002-2003) they had started using packet shaper and gimped all the p2p. For awhile we had an awesome DC++ hub up, but that got torn down, etc. Essentially the only downloading you could do at your capped speed in the dorms was IRC and IE.

Priority went something like 93% bandwidth to IE (read wasted..) 5% to online games 2% to PvP. And that 2% wasn't much shared by a billion people.. you get the idea. I actually started to buy my own movies, cd's, games, and still do :p
 

archcommus

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
8,115
0
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Originally posted by: BigJ
Originally posted by: archcommus
Originally posted by: BigJ
Originally posted by: archcommus
For those of you that using anything like BT on your campuses, were the typical BT ports already open on their network? I imagine they wouldn't be.

If you have a respectable IT department, the packetshaper will make sure that BT is not usable. Most P2P programs will also either blocked or slowed by the IT dept.

Your best bet is finding out if there is a DC++ Hub setup (IT dept normally doesn't care because it's all internal bandwidth) or IRC.
IRC, yep, that's the last resort I was thinking of.

No kind of ports must be open to use IRC? IRC can work.

I don't think you really understand the concept of what a packetshaper is. It filters and throttles different types of traffic. Most IT depts will not have the packetshaper configured to affect IRC, i2hub, DC++, or Newsgroup traffic.
You're correct! I never heard the term packetshaper until this thread.

i2hub is a new one to me, will have to look into it.
 

Juno

Lifer
Jul 3, 2004
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Originally posted by: Horus
Originally posted by: jewno
Originally posted by: aplefka
As much as you want until they warn you?

werd!

Last fall, I got my account suspended for wasting too much bandwidth so I believe the bandwidth was around 100gb. :Q

GO RIT!

RIT? Rochester Institute of Technology?

yes.
 

tami

Lifer
Nov 14, 2004
11,588
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Originally posted by: archcommus
There's no chance they'd be asshats and shut me off without warning?

And what kind of monitoring can they do?

having worked as a student employee at a university that does monitoring, i can answer your question with my own experience.

i'll preface by saying that BurnItDown was using his school network (98-99) way before people actually learned that downloading was possible, so no such monitoring really existed on college campuses simply because the RIAA/MPAA didn't care and there was no need for it.

in today's day and age, when everything can basically be downloaded and as newer students come in that are more technologically savvy, a lot of universities have seen the need for imposing caps on the network because the students' bandwidth usage usually maximizes their OC3+ or gbit lines. when everyone has dedicated 10mbit, you can see that it's easy to max out easily at 155mbit.

during my time as a student employee, a lot of specific changes went into effect (mostly in 2001-2002 because of growing need).

a networking script was installed for monitoring services, specifically seeing what kind of hosts on the ENTIRE network (it was scanning packets at the router level) were using a lot of bandwidth. while i was a student/staff there, only the top 10 were listed, but that usually covered the biggest offenders (usually people hosting ftp sites and the like) and legitimate servers as well. once a student machine (desginated by hostname) was on this top 10 list regularly (the script counted the number of times in the last hour or so that the student had hit the list -- it refreshed every 5 minutes), that raised a red flag for university network administrators and if repeated, the student's port would be shut down. ultimately, the student would have to call in complaining that his/her network was not working and they'd have the student make sure s/he was not doing anything illegal before enabling access again. the student often had to agree not to "abuse" the network.

that said, it was more uploading than downloading that they were concerned about. they also saw that repeated uploading was slowing down administrative network access so during the hours of 9-5, they'd restrict access -- but even more so, it would be necessary to cap upload speeds (i think you were only allowed to upload 60mb in an hour, and after that, you'd be in a 5mbit pool with like 100 other people, so you'd be uploading at, literally, 0.2k/s until an hour is up... the process is then repeated an hour later). it wasn't so fun.

i think the year after i graduated (2003), they instituted a downloading cap as well, but i don't know the specifics.

i'd suggest that if you're curious, email your school's network administration department anonymously (don't raise any red flags) and ask them about their network policy. i'm thinking that grove city college, wherever that is, is a small college and obviously doesn't need to place so many restrictions on college students. my guess is also that the school is not ridiculously cheap like mine was (they didn't want to invest in an OC12 but had numerous OC3s)...
 

archcommus

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
8,115
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Thanks!

My school has a low tuition, but I don't know if that means they're "cheap." I guess emailing and asking is what I'll have to do since I can't seem to find any kind of networking policy on their site or in my papers.
 

tami

Lifer
Nov 14, 2004
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Originally posted by: archcommus
Thanks!

My school has a low tuition, but I don't know if that means they're "cheap." I guess emailing and asking is what I'll have to do since I can't seem to find any kind of networking policy on their site or in my papers.

no problem.

if your school has no policy that you can find, chances are, there is none, and if there was, maybe it's not really enforced so therefore there's no need to publicize it. however, a lot of schools do hand out paperwork during orientation to acquaint you with policies and procedures, so it's nice to know in advance if they're going to put restrictions up -- sometimes, for useful reasons (and you can make legitimate excuses at times if it's academic and not commercial related), they will make exceptions.

find out if they block any ports too. i think that's very useful information. they may not give you that information outright, but it helps to know.
 

archcommus

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
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I suppose I will email someone now while I'm still at home and NOT from my school-provided email address.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
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Originally posted by: jewno
Originally posted by: aplefka
As much as you want until they warn you?

werd!

Last fall, I got my account suspended for wasting too much bandwidth so I believe the bandwidth was around 100gb. :Q

GO RIT!


Haha...that's nothing.

When i had my 5/1 connection i did about 300 GB total up & down per month :D
 

thomsbrain

Lifer
Dec 4, 2001
18,148
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i used to do 20 GB/day back in the day. that was before colleges cracked down on napster... DivX was just getting off the ground, still being hosted on web sites and stuff. Good times. My roommate and I just about melted our hub with all the traffic. Lots of dorm-wide CounterStrike games went on, too.

These days the trick is to use someone else's wireless network so you are connecting through their account and network port. ;)
 

tami

Lifer
Nov 14, 2004
11,588
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Originally posted by: thomsbrain

These days the trick is to use someone else's wireless network so you are connecting through their account and network port. ;)

depends how hard a school looks for offenders. if they see high traffic coming from a wireless network, they may ban access on the MAC address level, which makes things a lot more difficult.
 

Apathetic

Platinum Member
Dec 23, 2002
2,587
6
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When I was a system admin at a university, I asked the students to try to limit their downloading during the day as this interfered with internet trafic for classes. During the evenings and weekends I told the students to suck up all the bandwidth they wanted.

Dave
 

Apathetic

Platinum Member
Dec 23, 2002
2,587
6
81
Originally posted by: archcommus
There's no chance they'd be asshats and shut me off without warning?

And what kind of monitoring can they do?

They can easilly shut you of without warning (some sys admins are real asses towards students.) I never understood why. My philosophy was always "if you don't bother me, I won't bother you". I *did* draw the line at running warez servers from your dorm room with annonymous access.

Anyway, considering they own the hardware (the school is effectively your ISP) they can monitor anything and everything.

Dave
 

Apathetic

Platinum Member
Dec 23, 2002
2,587
6
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Originally posted by: archcommus
It is the Grove City you're thinking about. I'm not worried. With my girlfriend less than an hour away and her own car I should have no problem getting off campus to do what we want to do.

I suppose I'll ask around when I get there. I have a feeling that not too many people there are into that, however. But what kind of hardware protection do they have on those networks? Will ports be blocked to make programs like eMule or BT 100% unusable?

Ummm... Are freshman allowed to have cars? I'm pretty sure they finally revoked that nasty rule, but you should double check. (My knowledge about Grove City is a bit dated).

Dave
 

zimu

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2001
6,209
0
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i remember getting in trouble for doing 40gb in a week.... they don't just shut you off but do issue a warning.

simple way to circumvent that is change mac addresses every so often (you'll have to give up your ip though) (only works if the university doesn't have some mac address authentication deal) so you get a fresh new slate every so often.
 

shud

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2003
1,200
0
0
My school is probably one of the most annoying as far as internet stuff goes. For the longest time IRC and SSH traffic was blocked. All P2P is blocked, and now after the installation of some new networking hardware, online games (specifically CS:S and BF2 for me) can't query the master servers. Something is always broken/messed up, it's freaking unbelievable.

Except BT works. WTF?!
 

archcommus

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
8,115
0
76
Originally posted by: shud
My school is probably one of the most annoying as far as internet stuff goes. For the longest time IRC and SSH traffic was blocked. All P2P is blocked, and now after the installation of some new networking hardware, online games (specifically CS:S and BF2 for me) can't query the master servers. Something is always broken/messed up, it's freaking unbelievable.

Except BT works. WTF?!
I really fear a situation like that. Not being able to game online? That's ridiculous. So what do you do?

Originally posted by: Apathetic
Originally posted by: archcommus
It is the Grove City you're thinking about. I'm not worried. With my girlfriend less than an hour away and her own car I should have no problem getting off campus to do what we want to do.

I suppose I'll ask around when I get there. I have a feeling that not too many people there are into that, however. But what kind of hardware protection do they have on those networks? Will ports be blocked to make programs like eMule or BT 100% unusable?

Ummm... Are freshman allowed to have cars? I'm pretty sure they finally revoked that nasty rule, but you should double check. (My knowledge about Grove City is a bit dated).

Dave
Freshman are not allowed to have cars, but why does that matter? I said my girlfriend is close by and SHE will have her own car.
 

Jawo

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2005
4,125
0
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my experience is >650 MB in a rotating 24 hr period. Colleges have really cracked down since the "glory years" of unrestricted internet access in the late '90's
 

tami

Lifer
Nov 14, 2004
11,588
3
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Originally posted by: zimu
i remember getting in trouble for doing 40gb in a week.... they don't just shut you off but do issue a warning.

simple way to circumvent that is change mac addresses every so often (you'll have to give up your ip though) (only works if the university doesn't have some mac address authentication deal) so you get a fresh new slate every so often.

you mean DHCP? most schools nowadays use it, especially if the school is big. any school that doesn't use it seriously needs to get in tune with today's times and growing need for IP addresses in a dynamic pool. students have multiple machines in their dorm rooms (i had three) and more and more people need IP addresses. getting a static IP address and having that configured takes long hours of work that administration simply does not want to deal with, so they allocate IP addresses via DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol).