ITS Policies
Peer to Peer Guide
Computing Services provides guidelines and restricts the use of peer to peer applications, such as Kazaa, Blubster, Piolet, Bearshare, Gnutella, Napster, iTunes, etc. Many peer to peer applications do not use network resources responsibly or can easily be misconfigured to use more than a reasonable amount of bandwidth. Denison's Packet Shaper allows us to prioritize traffic based on type so that we never examine the content of the traffic, thereby ensuring individual privacy. However, all community members must respect all applicable copyright laws.
Most of the free-ware versions of peer to peer applications contain adware and spyware, which you should remove. Spyware/adware cause pop-up advertisements and can keep you from connecting to the internet. Pay services can be better, but still cause similar problems. Computing Services recommends not installing any peer to peer file/music sharing applications. However, if you do, you must follow these requirements.
Banned Applications
Blubster and Piolet are banned from our network because of the malicious code of these applications. If you have Blubster or Piolet installed on your computer, you must remove them. If Computing Services detects that these programs are on your system, your internet port will be disabled until they are removed.
Enabling the "super-node" or "hub" option in any of the peer to peer programs is also prohibited.
Proper Settings
- Choose your application wisely. Check for spyware or viruses after installing.
- Read all available documentation and help files provided with your application.
- Configure the application to use a reasonable amount of resources (i.e. no more than 10 simultaneous downloads, limit bandwidth to 200kbs or 25KBs, limit or disable uploads).
- Configure the network connection as a dialup connection. (We have 6 T1 lines for a total of 9mbs or 1.1MBs shared between 3000 connections. We all must respect the needs of all of the other connections.)
- Disable all supernode or hub settings.
- Close the application when you are not using it. Some of these applications create useless connections even when you are not actively using it.
- Abide by all copyright laws.