2008 Woodie Awards
File sharing slows down SRU residential network
By Travis Pickens
Rocket Contributor
Issue date: 11/4/05 Section: News
This October, an anonymous alumnus of Stanford University donated an undisclosed amount of money to the school for the purpose of allowing students to download music for free from Yahoo.com.
Just two years ago, students at Slippery Rock University could also download music for free. There wasn't a donation made by a wealthy alumnus; all you had to do was install a program like Kazaa or BearShare, which allows you to find the music you want and download it for free.
Downloading music that way was not only illegal, but it also slowed the SRU computer network to a crawl.
"On campus, you shouldn't be allowed to download," Brian Parker, resident network assistant (RNA) at Harner Hall, said. "Students are doing it illegally. The university did put a stop to it, but people complained, so they opened it back up."
The way SRU ended illegal downloading was the installation of a firewall, which takes away the ability to share files over the Internet. Sharing files is how people download music free from popular engines.
"The reason for the firewall is because we have a limited amount of bandwidth available from the state system," said Linda Passauer, SRU supervising network engineer.
"We're trying to provide ample bandwidth for academic purposes. We don't totally disallow music sharing, but we want higher priority traffic to work well over gaming and downloads."
Parker said there is a right and wrong way to go about downloading music on the Internet, and most students do it the wrong way.
"(Downloading) should be at the bottom of the list of priorities," Parker said. "That's my opinion."
To realize how the firewall works and why music could be downloaded at SRU in the past, Passauer said you have to be aware that there are two firewalls on campus: one for administration, which goes through classroom buildings, and one for residence halls. Until recently, classroom buildings and residence halls were linked with the same firewall. With separate firewalls, it's harder for students to find programs that get around the firewall and let traffic travel outside of the SRU network.
Just two years ago, students at Slippery Rock University could also download music for free. There wasn't a donation made by a wealthy alumnus; all you had to do was install a program like Kazaa or BearShare, which allows you to find the music you want and download it for free.
Downloading music that way was not only illegal, but it also slowed the SRU computer network to a crawl.
"On campus, you shouldn't be allowed to download," Brian Parker, resident network assistant (RNA) at Harner Hall, said. "Students are doing it illegally. The university did put a stop to it, but people complained, so they opened it back up."
The way SRU ended illegal downloading was the installation of a firewall, which takes away the ability to share files over the Internet. Sharing files is how people download music free from popular engines.
"The reason for the firewall is because we have a limited amount of bandwidth available from the state system," said Linda Passauer, SRU supervising network engineer.
"We're trying to provide ample bandwidth for academic purposes. We don't totally disallow music sharing, but we want higher priority traffic to work well over gaming and downloads."
Parker said there is a right and wrong way to go about downloading music on the Internet, and most students do it the wrong way.
"(Downloading) should be at the bottom of the list of priorities," Parker said. "That's my opinion."
To realize how the firewall works and why music could be downloaded at SRU in the past, Passauer said you have to be aware that there are two firewalls on campus: one for administration, which goes through classroom buildings, and one for residence halls. Until recently, classroom buildings and residence halls were linked with the same firewall. With separate firewalls, it's harder for students to find programs that get around the firewall and let traffic travel outside of the SRU network.
