Bandwidth: The following is a supplementary document to the AUP. Please direct all comments about this policy to action. General: The capacity of a network to transmit data, informally known as "bandwidth", is a shared and limited commodity. Heavy network use, much like heavy highway use, can and will lead to traffic jams --- network congestion, slowness, packet loss, and high latency. This will make the network unusable for everybody. What one person does on the network effects everyone else. You are expected to be neighborly --- to moderate your use and refrain from monopolizing the network. The Department of Computer & Media Services monitors network traffic and takes steps to relieve overloading, so as to maintain the performance of the network. Our goal is to make the network more usable for everyone. If your network usage is judged to be excessive, you may be asked to limit it or it may be limited for you. The methods used to shape network traffic are subject to change. At present, certain kinds of traffic are given priority over others, some traffic is rate-limited, and transfer quotas have been implemented. Quotas: We have limited each computer to a fixed transfer quota. This quota does not include local (on-campus) network transfers, but does include data transferred both to and from off-campus. The specific quota varies with the availability of resources. Currently, it is 1.6 gigabytes per day. More accurately, there is a 400 MB quota for each of four 6-hour periods: 2AM-8AM, 8AM-2PM, 2PM-8PM, 8PM-2AM. Any computer which reaches the 6-hour quota will be blocked from off-campus network access until the beginning of the next 6-hour period. Being blocked is a way to prevent the activities of a few network users from negatively impacting the rest of the campus community. It is also an attempt to increase awareness that bandwidth is a limited commodity. It is not a punishment. Your Internet usage statistics may be accessed at http://guardian.simons-rock.edu:8080/. Petitions for daily exceptions to the quota may be directed to Computer & Media Services. Conservation Guidelines: The bandwidth capacity of the on-campus (local) network exceeds the capacity of our uplink to off-campus (the Internet). Use on-campus resources rather than off-campus resources whenever possible. Simon's Rock operates a caching web proxy which stores local copies of visited sites. Setting your web browser to use the proxy will reduce off-campus bandwidth usage. The proxy server is located at proxy.simons-rock.edu, port 3128. See the FAQ for detailed configuration instructions. Schedule large downloads for non-peak network usage times (ideally 2AM-8AM). Also avoid running many concurrent downloads. Be aware that if you run network services (e.g., game servers, file servers), your bandwidth is consumed whenever someone off-campus accesses your services. Morpheus/KaZaA users are urged to disable the SuperNode option. To do so, go to the "Tools" menu, select "Options...", click on the "Advanced" tab, and check "Do not function as SuperNode" (screenshot). This will not impede your use of KaZaA in any way. When you install a filesharing program on your computer, in addition to gaining the technical ability to download files from other computers, you may be giving others access to download files from your computer. In many programs this "upload" option can be disabled or limited, dramatically reducing the amount of bandwidth used. For more information, see http://cms.simons-rock.edu/fileshare.html. To further prevent others from downloading files without your knowledge, make sure to quit (not just close) filesharing applications when you are not using them. Keep track of how much bandwidth you consume. Check your usage at http://guardian.simons-rock.edu:8080/.