In Favor of the Network Cap :: Internet Technology Essays

In Favor of the Network Cap Iowa State’s internet administrators had a problem: several computers around campus had been being used as Internet servers for illegitimate data distribution, and these select computers were using a severe amount of bandwidth on the ISU student network. The undeniable fact is that these are students illegally serving copyrighted software and media to people outside the ISU network, and they are taking up an extreme proportion of the network’s available bandwidth. Although this abuse had not yet caused consistent detrimental network problems for many users, the problem was getting worse, and AIT’s network cap decision has halted it. AIT’s 500 megabyte network cap is justified. Warez servers on the ISU campus send out a huge amount of data and slow the network down. We should be greedy about our network speed because our tuition is paying for ISU’s internet connection. It is true that an alternative method, such as filters based on complex data rate monitoring algorithms, might do a better job preventing the warez servers network abuse, and keep many intensive users from protest. But such measures are likely unfeasible, due to limitations of AIT’s network software, and time limitations of AIT network analysts. If the 500 meg cap does indeed cause real problems for a number of legitimate users, investigation of these other methods can be pursued. The 500 megabyte cap was a good and timely solution. Those who disagree with the cap argue that it would affect their legitimate network usage, such as Quake 3 game servers, or people with websites that they serve from their own computers. Instances where these users will actually peak 500 megs in a day are rare, however. Even a moderately trafficked user web site might never send 100 megabytes a day; the simple reality is that 500 megs per day is, 99% of the time, only surpassed when a user is illegally serving a large amount of data such as music, movies, retail software, or pornography to a large audience. This is precisely the user that clogs the bandwidth for those of us who need it to get work done, and this is precisely the type of network abuse that the network cap targets.