<p>Why do we have to pay for internet access while at other universities, their students get free unlimited internet? </p>
<p>I know that technically, at UT, you get 500mb per week for free (before they switch you to dial-up) unless you sign up for ResNet but I still don't get why we have to pay for internet at all compared to other universities...</p>
<p>The university has a bandwidth cap placed by the service providers. UT must then allocate that bandwidth to IT servers, data centers, computer labs, classrooms, iPhones, iPods, and student laptops, and other data-consuming device. Given the thousands of students are mostly all classified as “heavy users,” unlimited bandwidth access would result in severely throttled performance. That means if all the engineers in ENS are streaming 1080 Hulu instead of studying for solid-state, your browser will time out while trying to open CC to rant about them :)</p>
<p>Ahhh ok thats what I suspected it was. </p>
<p>My friend was surprised that I had to pay for internet (he goes to UVA) and I couldn’t really explain to him why but i told him it was probably because we have so many students and the bandwidth might not be enough.</p>
<p>You just confirmed my answer, thanks alot!</p>
<p>Just remember that is is FAST internet. If you are plugged in by an ethernet cable, you can download and upload around 100mbps. I have seen speeds of around 10MB/sec downloading and uploading at the same time. That’s fast!</p>
<p>Most other universities and apartments that offer free internet are just traditional internet plans like most homes have, around 10mbps downloading, so you would get a little over 1MB/sec. Resnet is fast.</p>
<p>(Of course, with it being that fast, you go over bandwidth easily. I had to the 20gb plan last year and I went over every week. I am getting the 40gb this year.)</p>
<p>Wow whytwokay, that is ridiculously FAST! Wow, its gonna be amazing :)</p>
<p>I have heard UT really cracks down on torrents and stuff though. Is that true?</p>
<p>Technically no, their whole agreement basically says: “We aren’t going to stop you, but if you get caught (by RIAA/MPAA/etc) we won’t do a thing to protect you. We’ll turn over logs, everything, etc”</p>
<p>Now, with that said, I am a massive torrent user. I use a private tracker (RevolutionTT) and not the random public crap like the pirate bay or mininova. That stuff will make it easier to catch you.</p>
<p>Also I don’t think they shape traffic either, since my torrents were actually the fastest thing I got those speeds on. It was like one Thursday afternoon and I was downloading (on RevoTT) an episode of The Office that had just aired. I was getting 10MB/sec down and once that finished I seeded at 11MB/sec. It was amazing for my ratio on that site.</p>
<p>[Btw if you are a big torrent user and always seed above 1, let me know. I have a bunch of invites for RevolutionTT left. It’s a really good TV/movie scene tracker and regularly has new shows up in 720p in under 5minutes after they air. Sometimes less than 1 minute. In the last 2 years I have downloaded 1.1TB and uploaded 2.2TB, I like to keep a ratio over 2. A significant chunk of that was at UT.]</p>
<p>Hey thanks, thats good to know! </p>
<p>I use the private tracker Demonoid a lot and yes i do seed all my stuff so that I’m not a leecher. I’ll take up your invite offer though because another tracker never hurts :P</p>
<p>Also if you want a Demonoid invite, I can get you one.</p>
<p>Okay, so ResNet would be a necessity? </p>
<p>I was contemplating getting by just on wifi, but well if ResNet is faster…</p>
<p>I hardly know anything about internet connections and bandwith etc. Is it better to do this online after I move into my dorm or before?..</p>
<p>If you live on campus, you HAVE to get a ResNet subscription. If you do not, and just use the 500mb, eventually the ITS people will catch on and block your internet access. My roommate never purchased any ResNet package, and in March they caught on. His internet was disabled. He started using our neighbor’s unsecured router’s wifi. It was horribly slow and a terrible connection that dropped constantly, but he refused to pay. Our neighbor moved out a week before him, so he had to live for a week with no internet during finals time.</p>
<p>You select your package on your housing page, if you go here –> <a href=“Sign in with your UT EID - Stale Request”>Sign in with your UT EID - Stale Request; and look for “Update Resnet Tier” you can click it and select a package. The 4GB one is fine for most people, but I download a lot of movies and TV shows so I got the 20GB last year. It’s per week, and I constantly ran out. So I am getting the 40GB this year.</p>
<p>I didn’t know it was a requirement, but I believe what you say. I don’t really know what to expect of data usage…I guess I’ll pick the 2nd or 3rd option. </p>
<p>The Resnet tier thing isn’t there for my summer housing… probably because I’m only there for 6 weeks…I’ll figure it out though.</p>
<p>One more question…</p>
<p>Is it just wasted money if you don’t use all that signed up for and are paying for?</p>
<p>I could pay $40 for 20 GB/week or $53 for 40 GB/week.</p>
<p>This is just a six week semester I’m looking at…</p>
<p>I plan on using the internet for email, research, FB, and some shopping. I don’t play video games or do P2P sharing…don’t think I’ll be putting Limewire on my new MB Pro. D: </p>
<p>I don’t know whether to do option 2 or 3 and how big of a difference it really will be… v_v</p>
<p>Honestly in that situation you should just choose 4GB. Isn’t that an option? You are not using that much at all.</p>
<p>Really? Well, yeah it is. I was just thinking that what I’m used to is more than that, but really I have no idea in this area.</p>
<p>I’ll go with 4gb or the 20gb at the most.</p>
<p>Hmm…decisions, decisions.</p>
<p>If you go over the allotted amount, your internet just slows down. It doesn’t charge you or anything. </p>
<p>You are allowed to upgrade your plan too (prorated, so if it’s halfway through the semester you only pay half the upgrade price, etc).</p>
<p>So just get the 4GB for now, and if you end up going over (you’ll get an email when you get close, and when you do go over) then you can just upgrade for the price difference.</p>
<p>Okay, good deal.</p>
<p>Ah! Now - to go wired or wireless.
That is the question.</p>
<p>Apparently, there are cons to both. Wired is slower, though you dont run the risk of having someone use your internet. Wireless is faster, but you do run that risk.</p>
<p>Does this happen often – people using other people’s bandwith?</p>
<p>Actually that’s not quite right. Wired is significantly faster than wireless. The speed of the internet at UT is astoundingly fast, and your only limiter is the transfer medium (e.g. a wire or the wireless connection.) Wired can reach 100mbps while wireless can reach around 10 mbps (this is from my own experience). This means if you are on wired you can download at 10MB/sec and if you are on wireless you get around 1.5MB/sec.</p>
<p>Just select the option for wireless. This means you get wired and wireless access. I honestly think the website is very poor in its wording choice, since so many people misunderstand how it works. The only reason to select wired is if you have no intention of using wireless, such as only having a desktop computer in your dorm and no laptop or iPhone. You can also change this at any time in the future.</p>
<p>You can’t steal other people’s internet unless you know their UT-EID and password to login to the wireless network with. The only way to get your internet stolen is to set up your own wireless router in your dorm, plugging it into the wall and then using that for wireless around your room. This is actually against the Terms of Service, so it’s against the rules. This is so that one roommate doesn’t purchase the 60GB package, hook up a router, and share it with 3 or 4 people, each paying him to help split the cost; if you understand what I’m trying to say.</p>
<p>Ah okay, I understand. Wireless is the better deal. The ResNet website wasn’t clear at all. But thanks again. You know a lot!</p>
<p>Uhh… it says here ([Resnet</a> - Options: Wired or Wireless?](<a href=“http://resnet.utexas.edu/options/wiredorwireless.html]Resnet”>http://resnet.utexas.edu/options/wiredorwireless.html)) that if you select the “Wired” option, you will get both wired and wireless. However, if you select the “Wireless” option, you will only get wireless.</p>
<p>Ah, my mistake then. That’s what I was trying to say. You want the option that has both wired and wireless. Which I guess in this case is selecting “wired”. Seems backwards IMO, but I guess that’s how most people think about it.</p>
<p>Definitely choose the option for both wired and wireless. All dorms now have wireless but just in case it’s slow you’ll also have wired. I had the 4GB last year and used my laptop mainly for school things like email and facebook but I went over several times, probably because I was constantly streaming pandora, watched a show on hulu every now and then, and very rarely streamed movies from the internet. Having my internet slow down was really annoying so I’m getting the 20GB this year so there’s no way I have to deal with that.</p>