<p>Does University IT monitor bandwidth usage? Either up/down or both? I want to engage in some DVD trading (of legal material not governed by the RIAA or MPAA) using BitTorrent. I need to maintain a 50% share ratio to be a part of the community. Does BU start investigating usage after certain amounts of bandwidth usage in a given period? If so, what are the cutoffs?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/BUnite%5B/url%5D">www.livejournal.com/users/BUnite</a></p>
<p>i'm sure someone can tell you there</p>
<p>@ orientation we were warned about file sharing by the chief of police and i know some people who have had problems because of their downloads ... so if it's a risk you're willing to take, go for it.</p>
<p>I work with the network systems group on campus as well as everywhere else (seemingly - and no this isn't a joke but I get around... in a good way). The short answer is maybe, the longer and is don't do it. </p>
<p>Allow me to explain. There is no set CAP so to speak as in once you've transfered 200 MB across the network you get shut off. However, the RIAA literally sits on the brink of our network and routinely sends Mr. Jim Stone (Head of IT Consulting, Office of Information Technology, and University Computers) letters saying so and so IP is file sharing etc. Furthermore, OIT has the capability to literally peek inside your traffic and see what you're doing. They can shut you down fast and hard and then feed you to the fish - Stone gave 36 names under subpoena of whom 31 paid fines upwards of 5,000 for sharing.</p>
<p>Personally I think you shouldn't take the chance and just enjoy REDBOX at the book store ($1/movie per night) and not get shut down. NSEG (network security group) monitors the RESNET network for anomolies such as a port that is spitting out viral emails etc and can shut it down within 10 seconds of it starting. What does that mean? It means they're watching.... perhaps just a script somewhere without a person, but they're watching everything.</p>
<p>Moral of the story: don't share files... (this coming from one of the worst offenders before coming here).</p>
<p>-James</p>
<p>Ah, so if the RIAA and MPAA do not file complaints then nothing happens? I want to trade in Concert DVDs via Torrents of a couple bands that don't technically approve of video trading but look the other way as long as no money exchanges hands. It's been going on for 5 years and not a single torrenter/downloader has been charged b/c it's the band that owns the rights, not a record company.</p>
<p>The traffic would be over torrents and my concern is I need upload/download .50 ratio...So I guess my question is this...if I use bittorrent download say, 150gb in a month and upload 75 gb (all spaced out about evenly throughout the month), is that something I need to worry about the IT department noticing?</p>
<p>Are you serious? You think they won't notice? Read nalgene's post again. I can tell you the BU network is very well run and the idea that you can run a torrent at 5gb a day with over 2gb uploads is not in ANY university's standards. Most schools, at a minimum, will throttle your bandwidth if you start to pull that much. </p>
<p>Think of it this way: you want a school to take your word that you're trading material that bands don't care about - and somehow you can prove that no money is changing hands and that no other material is being traded - and you want the school to pay for your bandwidth use.</p>
<p>Reference Lurgnom - Don't do it...</p>
<p>Ok - Final word on this one. I brought it up to Jim Stone (the god of IT who also happens to the be the chief of high tech crime on campus) and he said (assuming nothing is in the least bit copy-written) Then you probably wouldn't hit issues unless you were slowing other people down on the network. </p>
<p>Again, if any of the material the passes is copywritten, then the phone call or personal meeting you have with Jim wouldn't be happy whereas it could be a "hey, what're you doin" sort of thing.</p>
<p>Apparently BU is one of the major switches on the internet... if you know what i'm talking about you'll think it's cool, if not - ignore it. </p>
<p>-James</p>
<p>Ahh, I just saw someone posted about BUnite -- when I visited BU, one of the mods of that community hosted me!</p>
<p>Also, one of the members was like sued or something for sharing Fiona Apple music.</p>