<p>I believe I read that the illegal sharing of copyright material is prohibited on the Columbia network, but I am sure it happens.</p>
<p>How frequently do general students use peer-to-peer file sharing? Are they likely to be caught? If so, what are the consequences? Any past stories to tell?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>In lieu of BitTorrent, many colleges set up their own internal P2P networks under DC++, a network that cannot be monitored by the outside world, but according to WikiCU, Columbia’s got shut down: [DC++</a> - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia](<a href=“http://www.wikicu.com/DC]DC++”>DC - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia) :(</p>
<p>However, the wiki article (reliability may be questionable) does say: “According to CUIT policies, Columbia doesn’t monitor network traffic.”</p>
<p>i personally know two or three people who got sued by the RIAA while we were in college</p>
<p>columbia doesn’t monitor network traffic but some downloads can be tracked…if they get a complaint about your IP address you’ll get a warning at first (and they might cut off your internet) </p>
<p>there is a bandwidth limit (a certain number of MB per hour) for downloads and if you exceed that limit you get throttled down severely for the next hour (i think, don’t remember precisely… correct me if i’m wrong) </p>
<p>basically…don’t download music illegally on the columbia network, not worth the risk. also downloading movies might be a bad idea, though i think the risk is much less.</p>
<p>bottom line: columbia is not on your side at all when it comes to this issue</p>
<p>Thank you, Shraf and dococtopi, for your advice. I don’t think it’s wise to risk internet usage over $20 worth of a CD.</p>
<p>BTW, why is it safer to download movies than music? is it because of the harsher policies adopted by the music industry?</p>
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<p>That article isn’t entirely correct. The server was up and running last year and had been since at least 2006. The problem recently was that it was run off of some computer in some closet somewhere on campus that only one person could get to. Then that person graduated and the server wasn’t maintained and it went down…</p>
<p>yeah, DC++ actually got shut down because the spec ran an article about it – so columbia simply started blocking the ports that DC++ used internally. As for bitorrenting, its very much a bad idea. when i first got here, i was torrenting left and right (taking advantage of columbia’s incredibly fast T3 connection :D) and within a month I had gotten two cease-and-desist emails. Columbia doesnt monitor your web traffic – however they are in a somewhat unique position because Columbia actually owns its very own ISP, so they get the cease-and-desist letters when companies send them (normally they are sent to the ISP, not the college, but in this case they are one and the same). Anyway columbia took away my internet the first time and threatened me with academic probation the second.</p>
<p>long story short, no there is no bittorrenting here and dont try it.</p>
<p>If you’re bent on using BT for file sharing and you’re somewhat computer savy, connect your computer through a router. They track the C&D letters by the network MAC address. All you have to do once you get a C&D letter is to go into the router settings and make up a new MAC address for yourself.</p>
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<p>Or if you’re REALLY comp savvy you could get a friend in Canada to set up a server then download to that and ftp the stuff off of there (since Canada doesnt care about downloading)</p>
<p>Couldn’t you use peerguardian2?</p>
<p>what if i’m transferring large amounts of data legally? like a friend is sending me a movie he made and it’s several gigs and we’re doing a transfer? Do they cap that stuff?</p>
<p>In the past, they’ve capped download at 300MB an hour and upload at 150MB an hour. Once you exceed those limits, they put you on another internet connection that’s shared with all the other people who have exceeded their limits. This usually means that your speed drops down to slow DSL speeds.</p>
<p>However, I really haven’t noticed any slowdown this year so go ahead!</p>
<p>nice!</p>
<p>Theoretically I would get ousted to the slow connection for the remainder of the hour?</p>
<p>I tried the wifi in Lerner and the spot I used was unbearably slow. How fast is the average wifi speed?</p>
<p>Yeah I don’t remember how long your time-out session lasts but it’s between 1 and 2 hours.
If you’re tech savy, you can also change your MAC address which allows you to get around the bandwidth cap (along with a slew of other legal related issues)</p>
<p>Average wifi speed is enough to do most of your basic web browsing and research and probably the occassional youtube video but don’t expect to stream netflix over it.</p>
<p>It’s around 768kbps.</p>
<p>I love streaming netflix! The wired connection allows that though, right?</p>
<p>for the record, for the past semester or so… they haven’t enforced the bandwidth quotas. I used to have to cap upload speeds for BT around 25 KB/sec to stay under their ■■■■■■■■ upload cap, but yeah…</p>
<p>Yeah, wired connection works fine.</p>