Network Usage and Responsibilities

This page discusses how to reduce your network usage and fileshare responsibly.

Beware of peer-to-peer (P2P) Filesharing Programs

As a UNet user, you may, at times, notice that your access to the Internet seems slower than usual. You may notice delayed responses from websites, longer download times, or, in severe cases, timed out connections. There are many different possible causes for this. Much of the time, however, the cause is P2P filesharing programs such as KaZaA and Morpheus.

P2P filesharing programs allow files to be sent from your computer to the Internet (when you are uploading a file to an outside user who is downloading it). If you have many shared files on your computer, you may have several uploads going on at once. Just a small number of users on the network with many uploads and downloads may use up an excessive amount of bandwidth (the amount of information sent from or received by a computer), causing the network to run noticeably slower.

Moreover, as discussed in the letter from the Chief Information Officer, distributing copyrighted materials without permission may be illegal and very much against the Brandeis University Computer Policy. The consequences can be severe.

Network Usage Information

For detailed information on how campus network bandwidth is utilized, go to NetMon. The graph of campus network usage is updated roughly every 10 minutes.

NetMon can also tell you your personal bandwidth usage.

Computers uploading or downloading more than 10GB each way in a 24 hour period may have their network access restricted.

Network Manners

If you find that you are consistently a top user of bandwidth, please limit your use of high-bandwidth activities. Here are a few steps that you can take:

• If you use file sharing software, configure it to prevent your computer from being used as a server. Many users don't realize that most P2P software is configured by default to act as both a client and a server, so that any files you download are automatically shared with everyone else on the network. This can dramatically increase your bandwidth usage, especially if you are offering items that are large, rare, and popular (such as unauthorized copies of unreleased movies). Fortunately, it's easy to turn this feature off. The University of Chicago and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have well-written documentation on how to reclaim control of your computer.
• If you have large data transfers to do, try to limit them to off-peak times, between 2:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.
• If NetMon no longer shows you using a lot of bandwidth, thank you. We know that many of you have already taken some steps voluntarily. If you use a lot of bandwidth and you do not understand what your computer is doing that generates so much traffic, you can post (anonymously if you wish) to the discussion thread for help.

This page was last modified on: Aug 04, 2009