RU Slowing Down RU's Network?
					Technical Assistance (831-7500)
Why is it SLOW?		Bandwidth		Disabling Sharing		The Law		RU Portal

Why is the network so slow sometimes? Radford University has 55 megabits of bandwidth available for Internet traffic. (See the Bandwidth Link for detailed connection information.) Weekly logs indicate that, at any given moment, 15 megabits or approximately 27% of University's total bandwidth is being consumed by music/file sharing applications such as Kazaa, Imesh, and Audio Galaxy. On average, 5 megabits of this total is consumed by off-campus users connecting to on-campus computers and downloading files. This means that about 10% of our network bandwidth is being used by people not even affiliated with Radford University. These people are simply downloading music and files from computers in students' residence hall rooms. If we turn off the campus bandwidth management device, then our entire Internet connection is immediately consumed by people from off campus downloading files. If you want to ensure that Radford University's Internet connection is as fast as possible, we need you to help. Make sure that when you install any P2P Music/File sharing application you disable the ability of your computer to share files with other users. Because many of these applications continue to run in the background when you close them, you should be sure that they are completely closed when you are not using them. If you do not disable file sharing, then you may be in violation of the law because your computer is being used to distribute copyrighted material. This is a violation of Radford University Computing Policy 99.3. You may also be in violation of several laws which protect the rights of artists and are punishable by fines and imprisonment. (See The Law link.) What can I do to help speed up our Internet connection? LIMIT the use of P2P file sharing programs. DISABLE the option to auto-start file sharing applications when your computer boots. DISABLE the sharing of files with others. STOP FILE SHARING applications when you are not using them. See the Disable Sharing link for detailed information. Is it ethical and legal for me to download MP3 files? Downloading and distributing files without permission of the copyright holder is a violation of federal and state laws, even if it is not for profit. The penalties include fines and imprisonment. See The Law Link.

Thanks for your help in improving Radford's Internet connection speeds.

Last Updated October 21, 2002 Ed Oakes