# Robots.txt for MYCOMPUTERNAME
User-agent: *
Disallow: /movies/
Disallow: /whatever/

Don't be so gullible - things aren't necessarily the way THEY say they are, and thing aren't necessarily the way they appear.

In all seriousness, let's be fair--Rich doesn't seem to care how much we use or what we use it for, so long as it doesn't interfere with other's rights to use the resource. When people use massive amounts of bandwidth, others are indirectly harmed. That's what happens when there is a limited resource. That's not a statement, that's a fact.

The "Avg + 3 std deviation" ceiling, which must be exceeded for THREE WEEKS IN A ROW is not unreasonable. I don't know if you've ever taken a course in statistics, but this means that a *VERY* small proportion of the campus is using a *VERY* large amount of bandwidth. Are you going to argue with math?

The argument has been used that the high users aren't using too much bandwidth, the rest aren't using enough. This is a ridiculous concept--it's a limited resource and if everyone used it as much as the top five have been, our network would come to a screeching halt.

My point is--let's not resort to paranoid comments, Travis. Rich is not out to get us. We have been provided a forum for discussion and social consensus. Let's not start conspiracy theories. Let's decide on what is a fair level of use in a reasonable fashion.

I've pretty much stayed out of this thread for a variety of reasons, but I feel compelled to jump in because - as a student leader - I've had a variety of interactions with the collective "network people" to which you refer in your message.

When you say, "Don't be so gullible - things aren't necessarily the way THEY say they are, and thing aren't necessarily the way they appear." you are suggesting that there is an incentive for someone to be dishonest with the student population who uses network resources. I can assure you that ITS, and especially our Unet sysadmin, both value input from students and open/honest dialogue with them about how we - as a team - can make the most of our network resources.

I'd ask you to reconsider the claim presented in your message.

ajh

My remarks about the sysadmins were not meant to imply that they are dishonest in any sort of evil, conspiratorial way... simply that I would not be surprised if they were up towards the top of the list of highest use computers (assuming everyone was counted, not just students). In addition, I see this problem as being their fault for designing this network use monitoring program, and for the anonymous emails and restrictions connected to it. I realize that seems like backwards thinking, but it's not a problem until you treat it like one...

If we dropped the monitoring, emailing, restricting, and discussing, and simply blamed "general network traffic" (essentially the Brandeis community as a whole, no one person or group of people) for the slowdown, then the problem would effectively vanish.

You say "As long as it doesn't interfere with other people's usage, it should not be a problem." And all I can say to that is "Duh." The problem is that the usage of a few *is* interfering with the usage of many others. I don't understand how I can put this more clearly. We have a limited amount of bandwith, and when some people fill up that pipe with incoming or outgoing high-bandwith traffic (i.e., movies/wares/mp3s), other people find themselves contending with unexpected and unfair lags in their own traffic.

"Blaming the top X number of students" is not "the easy way out." It is the logical way out. Think about it - if those people weren't using the network, or were using it at levels that were at least reasonably comparable to other people's, the problem would not exist. This thread would never have started. And we would never have gotten in to this discussion in the first place. Also, I would point out that, judging by the number of posts in this thread, and the anger and/or ignorance on display in some of them, one would be hard-pressed to say that this whole process has been easy for Rich and the rest of the sysadmins.

You write "I would not be surprised if [sysadmins] were up towards the top of the list of highest use computers." Really? I would. Do you really think Rich is sitting in his office downloading a rip of The Phantom Menace DVD? All of the e-mailing and pinging and whatever else a sysadmin does would probably amount in a full day to the bandwith consumed by downloading a song or off Morpheus, if that. What exactly do you think the sysadmins are doing to rack up incoming totals approaching a half-gig in a 24-hour period? Because that's what it's going to take to make it up near "the top of the list."

Finally, you hit us with this gem: "it's not a problem until you treat it like one..." A few lines above, you mentioned the occasional lags and other network latency problems you've encountered. Guess what? That's the problem. Sticking our collective head in the sand and pretending that it isn't won't get us anywhere.

Here's a hypothetical conversation between Person 1 (let's call him Jesse) and Person 2 (let's call him Travis):

Jesse: "Gee, the network's slow again."

Travis: "No it's not."

J: "It took CNN.com a full minute to load. I just wanted to check the headlines before I ran to class. This sucks."

T: "Well, that's certainly not the fault of that kid next door downloading porno off Morpheus. If it was a problem, which it isn't, I'd probably blame the *n*x gurus over at ITS/UNet. They're always sending 2KB e-mails and downloading 20KB software patches. That adds up fast."

J: "Whatever. I just think it's a problem."

T: "It's not a problem until you treat it like one."

Thus emerges from the ashes Boogle 2.0b1, the first iteration of the next generation of high-tech, all-powerful, buzzword-compliant network search tools. KaZaA isn't quite back yet, and the list is opt-in right now, but it is certainly a start, and it will only grow as more people add their computers.

Check out the future of the future, by going here:
http://boogle.agblog.com

Brought to you by Students for Preventing Ethereal Erudition Deficiencies (SPEED).

http://lists.wi2600.org/pipermail/2600/2001-July/007247.html

http://lists.jammed.com/fw-wiz/2001/09/0010.html

In general our policy is simply to manage a fair share for everyone, not to block, but when people totally ignorant of network programming do shockingly stupid things, we can't let them.

Thank You,
-Arnon Shorr

It's just a warning. You need to exceed the threshold for 3 weeks in
a row before we restrict you.

Network bandwidth doubled this year. I don't run the budget, so I
can't promise anything, but I think doubling every year or so is
necessary to keep up.

Everything about the way we do business, including the (very high)
proportion of traffic students use and rough estimates of what
applications are being used, is in the open at
http://netinfo.unet.brandeis.edu/

As for movies, I think more students should abuse
http://www.netflix.com/

Post a signup list in your dorm, get 50 people together, open 5
memberships, you get effectively unlimited DVDs (up to 15 in your
shared "library" at a time) for $2 per month. You're not even
breaking the law (well, maybe netflix has a policy against pooling).
Yes you have to think ahead and wait a couple days for shipping, but
I think the quality and the fact you don't need to search or babysit
your computer while downloading is worth it.

Doubling the connection every year? That would be quite cool...

I actually do use NetFlix and I must say, its completely awesome, if a bit pricey (for an individual), and now that they have a distro facility in Worcester the times between movies are decreasing. :-) If people want to pool for DVDs, I think that would be a great idea. In fact, I might suggest it to my suitemates. :-) And you don't need to get 5 accounts, just get the ultimate account, 8 DVDs at a time for $39.95, and they have EVERYTHING. Twenty people at 2 bucks a month each, and eight DVDs circulating at any one time, seems pretty good. Well, except for things that are still in theaters. For that you need to have a friend in the Academy...

I'd like pro and con arguments from students before spamming the
poll announcement anywhere.

If I can only get con (or only pro), that's what I'll link.

The good news is that we've secured a grant for an i2 link through NoX. 45mbps to other i2 schools and research institutions. We've also got a 5mbps backup circuit (our previous 1.5mbps circuit was a real disaster on the two occasions our primary circuit went down) and should be able to pipe about 20mbps of general intentet1 connectivity over the fiber used for the NoX link. The bad news is that it might not be done til late October. Late October is a hard deadline because that's when our current contract with Genuity expires.

Please be considerate of other Brandeis users and make good use of local resources to alleviate Internet congestion. We're all in this together.

I was just about to post about the network situation.. hopefully something will be done SOON.

Standard warnings have gone out to the top 43 users, all undergraduate students, who together accounted for 48.8% of all network traffic last week. If the past is any guide, they are all going to complain that the other 4000 people who would like to use the network are being grossly unfair in asking them to cut back a little.