University Internet Cap

[vshah]

at my school we had a 10gb/5 day rolling limit, after which we were warned. 3x warnings = 30 day suspension. this was per registered machine though. we could register an unlimited number of machines

 

[Modelworks]

If you use it just for school related purposes 15GB is enough. Now if you intend to use it for gaming, video, music, and general entertainment that could be a problem.

And don't go there about linux distros and such, most universities have those on local servers.

 

[CottonRabbit]

You're school had a 5gb cap 2 years ago and a 10gb cap last year. I basically paid a $20 monthly usage fee when I lived in dorms. 15gb is pretty decent in combination with DC++.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Man, I'm lucky I went to school after fast Internet was the norm but before everyone and their mother started capping downloads. I didn't even use that much but it's ridiculous how low some of those caps are given how high student service fees are.

 

[spidey07]

Bandwidth ain't free. Sounds like the school is doing what is necessary to prevent the kids from costing the uni too much money and affecting all users and services.

 

[Ken g6]

What?! Nobody's mentioned AdBlock (for Firefox) yet?

I don't see ads much anymore; but when I browse from a machine or browser without AdBlock, some of the ads are freakin' videos! AdBlock prevents downloading this stuff, so it should help at least somewhat.

While I'm here, I'll mention Polipo, a caching web proxy. If your browser isn't caching things properly, it could cut your bandwidth further.

 

[RedArmy]

Something tells me they can tell the difference between connecting to computers on campus and ones off campus. Pretty much any department that you will have need of stuff like that will have their own computer labs and networks for you to get on.

And regardless of your opinion of it, plenty of schools put caps specifically to try to limit piracy. Sure it probably doesn't do much, and yes, there's certainly a lot of people being punished for the abuse of some, but schools don't exactly have a lot of options.

Negative. We're required to logon to the servers for our projects. No computer lab at our school runs the version O/S that we need either. I pity the university that throttles bandwidth but provides access to MSDN Alliance. That's just asking you to hit the bandwidth cap.

 

[SunSamurai]

Bandwidth ain't free. Sounds like the school is doing what is necessary to prevent the kids from costing the uni too much money and affecting all users and services.

Obviously they should switch to comcast

 

[Leros]

Whats bugs me more is the on campus wireless bandwidth we get. We only get 500mb a week. Once we run out, we get put on this second tier 1-2KB/s bandwidth. They sell us 1GB increments at $5 each if we run out. I've hit that 500mb limit many many times just doing normal surfing, research, downloading a program for school use, etc.

 

[SLCentral]

Just to reply to everyone at once:

My school's tuition plus room/board is at over $52,000 right now. If that doesn't entail the right for unlimited internet use, I'm at a loss. On top of that, charging every student $10 more would be plenty to fund unlimited internet campus-wide. This is 2009, not 1999...internet should be unlimited and uncensored.

My internet account is linked to the ethernet port in my dorm room. I have to register MAC addresses of all devices that access the outside internet. I believe you get up to 3, but I could be wrong (might be unlimited). Wifi isn't available in my room (4th floor), but on campus, it goes towards the 15GB. That's new for this year - last year, wifi was free. MAC spoofing wouldn't really help here since they require you to register/login your MAC address on any piece of hardware that accesses the network.

No, the DC++ hub does not count towards your internet limit, so it is fairly easy to get "media" without compromising your 15GB limit. That said, my suitemates and I have an Xbox Live hooked up in our common room. It connects via Wifi to one of our two routers (we switch off for fairness). That, I'm sure, uses quite a bit of data. There are computer stations around campus that won't go towards the limit (and lots of kids Bittorrent on them to get new content for DC++), but there's no easy way to SSH to them. At least, not that I know of. I'm fairly sure they re-image every night.

Furthermore, I'm not sure if anyone has noticed the fact that over the past few years, the internet has been moving quickly to video-based content. With YouTube in HD (and soon to be 1080p), bandwidth needs are not going down. Just yesterday I had to download a 48MB PDF file for a report I was working on.

No, I don't torrent. They'd catch me if I did and force me to take an anti-piracy class. Yes, I watch videos on Youtube, etc. Yes, I play Xbox. Yes, I use the internet a lot (at least a few hours a day). From what I've heard from people on campus, the cap was instituted in response to people hosting web servers from their rooms, and at one point, 90-something-percent of all traffic was being used by 1% of the student body. That said, a 15GB cap isn't the fix to that, and it's pretty ridiculous that a school with the resources it has available to me otherwise can't even give me unlimited internet.

 

[Leros]

The schools I know with unlimited bandwidth block all ports except 21 and 80.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Here is what's relevant; they are lazy. Instead of blocking and configuring a firewall properly to prevent things they dont want, they put a blanket over the whole thing in the form of a cap. I find this ironic from a school. Its like none of these places have a course in basic networking.

As somebody who works at a Uni (Penn State) in IT, I can tell you we have VERY strict guidelines on what filters we are allowed to institute because of academic freedom. So, what that leaves us is a cap in bandwidth and usage. You are using it legitimately, go to the labs (where most campuses at PSU actually have NO firewall blocking content (yes we do block known bot nets and other virus propagation)). Although if you are stupid enough to download movies or programs or whatnot while on the PSU network you can still get nabbed since we do MONITOR everything... which was vastly different then when I was there in 1997.

 

[uhohs]

15gb fffffffffff, i do that easily on a busy afternoon. :/

there was one time in the dorms that i was running a ftp for anime distro. i set the user limit at 50 for lols and i was using approx 5% of the res hall's bw for a day or two. then they shut me off for a week and i spent the time crying in the comp labs.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Negative. We're required to logon to the servers for our projects. No computer lab at our school runs the version O/S that we need either. I pity the university that throttles bandwidth but provides access to MSDN Alliance. That's just asking you to hit the bandwidth cap.

Way to completely not get what I was saying. In other words, go to the labs for your major's department, and I can almost guarantee you that you will not have bandwidth caps. If you're needing that much, stop being lazy and go to the facilities provided by the school specifically for this stuff. I have no sympathy for you if you're just unwilling to do so.

Some of you guys have clearly not dealt with college students, or university level IT. Porn alone would be a big reason to cap bandwidth in the dorms.

Not to mention, have you tried just talking to the IT departments? If its a legitimate need for your coursework they might be able to do something to help.

 

[thescreensavers]

No Cap here,decent speeds. Sometimes it cuts downloads to 100 megs though, and some times it doesn't. P2p ports are blocked as well

 

[Reliant]

I work in IT for a Univ. We don't put a cap on usage but we do throttle P2P. We also don't block any service, but do get a lot of DMCA notices and have to track down the students and issue warnings DMCA violations. Last month our highest DMCA offender was in excess of 400gb for 1 month. If we don't promptly warn and notify the proper people in these types of situations we get in trouble, so I see why univ's try to cut down on this type of thing.

 

[RedArmy]

Way to completely not get what I was saying. In other words, go to the labs for your major's department, and I can almost guarantee you that you will not have bandwidth caps. If you're needing that much, stop being lazy and go to the facilities provided by the school specifically for this stuff. I have no sympathy for you if you're just unwilling to do so.

Some of you guys have clearly not dealt with college students, or university level IT. Porn alone would be a big reason to cap bandwidth in the dorms.

Not to mention, have you tried just talking to the IT departments? If its a legitimate need for your coursework they might be able to do something to help.

I think you're the one that's not getting it. Our teacher assigns unique user names and passwords to each person in our class to access a server that is otherwise inaccessible to anyone on the campus. We're required to use the version on the server so our teacher can monitor our usage and the O/S is a server-side version that is NOT one that runs on normal desktops. In order to access these servers we need to install software on our computers. The policy we have is that we can't install software on any of the lab computers on campus. Even if we were able to do that, there aren't enough hours in the day to go to the lab to do what we have to do, plus you get kicked out of most of the labs when a class is scheduled.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I think you're the one that's not getting it. Our teacher assigns unique user names and passwords to each person in our class to access a server that is otherwise inaccessible to anyone on the campus. We're required to use the version on the server so our teacher can monitor our usage and the O/S is a server-side version that is NOT one that runs on normal desktops. In order to access these servers we need to install software on our computers. The policy we have is that we can't install software on any of the lab computers on campus. Even if we were able to do that, there aren't enough hours in the day to go to the lab to do what we have to do, plus you get kicked out of most of the labs when a class is scheduled.

Really? They don't have that on the department's own computers? Sorry, but sounds like you're being lazy, not that you just plain cannot get what you need done. Pretty much every department here has its own network (wired and wireless) for one. Then there's the library. None of those are capped. But let me get this straight, you're living in the dorms on campus, but you don't have enough time in the day to go to the labs? I'm just finding your excuses hard to believe. Every department here, that you would need to access software has it on computers in their own lab(s), which are open 24 hours.

Lastly, why have you not told your instructor/department about your problems? If they are legitimate, it sounds like you would have a pretty good case to make, and if your instructor doesn't agree, talk to the dean of your department.

 

[RedArmy]

Really? They don't have that on the department's own computers? Sorry, but sounds like you're being lazy, not that you just plain cannot get what you need done. Pretty much every department here has its own network (wired and wireless) for one. Then there's the library. None of those are capped. But let me get this straight, you're living in the dorms on campus, but you don't have enough time in the day to go to the labs? I'm just finding your excuses hard to believe. Every department here, that you would need to access software has it on computers in their own lab(s), which are open 24 hours.

Lastly, why have you not told your instructor/department about your problems? If they are legitimate, it sounds like you would have a pretty good case to make, and if your instructor doesn't agree, talk to the dean of your department.

Our department doesn't have specific computers dedicated to them. We just have computer pods located around campus. There's one Linux lab in the engineering building but access to that room is only granted if you're in a specific class. These pods around campus have classes scheduled in them, so between having my own classes and other classes that use those pods, it would be hard to find a block of time where you could actually sit down and get any real work done. However, I don't even live on campus so this isn't an issue for me, but such isn't the case for everyone. It's pretty shitty, regardless.

 

[spidey07]

Just to reply to everyone at once:

My school's tuition plus room/board is at over $52,000 right now. If that doesn't entail the right for unlimited internet use, I'm at a loss. On top of that, charging every student $10 more would be plenty to fund unlimited internet campus-wide. This is 2009, not 1999...internet should be unlimited and uncensored.
<snip>

There it is. Entitlement mentality front and center. Entail the RIGHT for unlimited internet use? So internet is now a right? Internet and bandwidth is NOT an unlimited resource, it is a FINITE resource so they are distributing it fairly. A right? Please. They're doing this so the little snot nosed college kids don't bleed their bandwidth dry downloading everything there is on the web 24/7. Remember it's not an unlimited resource but kids think it is and they'll take it all.

 

[waggy]

whaa! at least you got internet in college.

when i went only those in the Computer science floor got it. i was business so i lost out =(

 

[Firsttime]

I have unlimited upload/download. There is a bit of variance in the speed. Early this semester I had 12mb down and 18mb up 0_o. Now it's much less. We have a very extensive firewall, but I mean, does that actually stop anyone with half a brain? Plus there are some people working on the inside keeping certain essentials open I'm pretty sure.

I feel sorry for those of you with caps. I don't think I could attend a school that limited my access to information to a GB/M number. That's an anti-intellectual policy to hold. And besides my technology fee more then pays for my internet.

 

[timosyy]

That's still more than the OP's...5.12GB a week or 20.5GB a month.

Right, but if you say, download a video *cough* ~700MB, you're effectively done for the next 24 hours. Put differently-- 1GB filesizes are not that uncommon, which you could not do in a single 24-hour period. At least he could conceivably download 10GB in one day?

 

[darkswordsman17]

Our department doesn't have specific computers dedicated to them. We just have computer pods located around campus. There's one Linux lab in the engineering building but access to that room is only granted if you're in a specific class. These pods around campus have classes scheduled in them, so between having my own classes and other classes that use those pods, it would be hard to find a block of time where you could actually sit down and get any real work done. However, I don't even live on campus so this isn't an issue for me, but such isn't the case for everyone. It's pretty shitty, regardless.

So what were you even arguing against the cap for? People on campus will have plenty of chances to access places other than the dorm, and people off campus will likely have their own internet.

I have unlimited upload/download. There is a bit of variance in the speed. Early this semester I had 12mb down and 18mb up 0_o. Now it's much less. We have a very extensive firewall, but I mean, does that actually stop anyone with half a brain? Plus there are some people working on the inside keeping certain essentials open I'm pretty sure.

I feel sorry for those of you with caps. I don't think I could attend a school that limited my access to information to a GB/M number. That's an anti-intellectual policy to hold. And besides my technology fee more then pays for my internet.

If you can't handle the "anti-intellectual policy" you're free to get your own place and pay for your own internet service. Would you also complain about them preventing elementary or high school students in the same way? The school is there for learning. It is not their responsibility to care about you being able to play video games online.

For the OP, if you want to play video games, make or join a club for that. You will then be able to probably get special privilege from the school (yes, for video games, we have a bunch of clubs for that here, and since it is a club, they do get special privileges like being able to use certain rooms on campus and checking out equipment like projectors).

 

[Mide]

Do you go to a private Uni?