Hi Guys,
Met with IT Services and the ResNet managers today. To sum it up in a nut shell, P2P is not going to be unblocked. The university is receiving letters of legal action from lawyers so the few who have been downloading illegal material have resulted in all P2P being blocked for all 6,000 users.
All DC++ hubs on campus will result in port blocking and being asked to explain yourselves. The university can’t take the risk.
Additionally, the network team (which moved in house over the last week from an external company), are very interested in finding out which applications and ports students use to prioritise the traffic shaper.
I am one of the students in this focus group, so if you could post on this forum or PM me, I will take this to the meeting next week.
Hope this helps. Any questions, please post and I’ll try and answer them. Please note I don’t work for IT Services in any way. I’m just a student rep trying to get feedback.
ResNet Update (P2P + Traffic Shaping)
Moderator: Operators
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fattymatty
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:38 pm
- Location: University of Warwick
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UnholySmoke
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 8:21 pm
Good point
If they're going to butcher our connections so brutally, surely we should get a say in whether we have to pay for it.
If any ISP offered a net connection whereby any P2P use is limited or blocked, no-one would stand for it. No matter what they assume it's being used for, surely offering high-speed internet connections in every room and then limiting, reshaping and blocking that connection to within an inch of its life isn't accpetable?
What do these 'letters from lawyers' entail? 'Students are using their internet connections for piracy'? I hope they're sending letters to every ISP and IAP worldwide in that case. It's not as though we don't have a leg to stand on; P2P does not automatically equal illegality - otherwise filesharing programmes - Windows included for god's sake - would be outlawed.
If any ISP offered a net connection whereby any P2P use is limited or blocked, no-one would stand for it. No matter what they assume it's being used for, surely offering high-speed internet connections in every room and then limiting, reshaping and blocking that connection to within an inch of its life isn't accpetable?
What do these 'letters from lawyers' entail? 'Students are using their internet connections for piracy'? I hope they're sending letters to every ISP and IAP worldwide in that case. It's not as though we don't have a leg to stand on; P2P does not automatically equal illegality - otherwise filesharing programmes - Windows included for god's sake - would be outlawed.
Blocking p2p traffic because it is possible to use it for illegal purposes is just stupid, as UnholySmoke said.
It's a sorry state of affairs when the authorities that be ban things because they have potential to be used unlawfully. I mean, I could use a car to run someone over, does this mean that cars should be banned? of course it doesn't.
There are lots of legal things that use p2p and people are being prevented from using them because of network 'policy'
Cut the crap, we don't live in bloody america.
It's a sorry state of affairs when the authorities that be ban things because they have potential to be used unlawfully. I mean, I could use a car to run someone over, does this mean that cars should be banned? of course it doesn't.
There are lots of legal things that use p2p and people are being prevented from using them because of network 'policy'
Cut the crap, we don't live in bloody america.
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lost&found
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:31 pm
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speakerfreak
Yeah this is just a joke, I'm having to refresh pages several times as they just time out on me. We should at least be given the option of opting out and finding our own provider...£5 a week for sub-dial up speeds and everything except port 80 being blocked hardly seems like a bargain.
A dedicated DC hub is the clear answer. That way everyone is happy and no letters from lawyers (like there ever were any) because no-one from outside can prove it. Maybe you should mention that if everything is blocked people will just use HTTP tunnelling to get on DC and bittorrent, which would basically slow everything down as all the bandwidth is sucked up.
A dedicated DC hub is the clear answer. That way everyone is happy and no letters from lawyers (like there ever were any) because no-one from outside can prove it. Maybe you should mention that if everything is blocked people will just use HTTP tunnelling to get on DC and bittorrent, which would basically slow everything down as all the bandwidth is sucked up.
I agree that the state of the network is apalling - web pages are slow to download, legal downloads (AOE III demo 
) are slow, and all of the games I thought I would have been able to play online are just unbearable due to latency.
But what I find almost more uneblievable is that many of you seem to think that you somehow have a right to have access to P2P programs, apparently because they can be used for legitimate, legal sharing purposes...
Who are you kidding?
No doubt all of you have illegal uses of P2P programs in mind, and even if you don't, or can think of a legitimate reason as to why they should be allowed (seriously, can you?), the majority of others using them will use it for illegal purposes.
While I wouldn't mind access to them myself, I see it as perfectly fair of IT Services to disallow the use of such programs.
) are slow, and all of the games I thought I would have been able to play online are just unbearable due to latency.But what I find almost more uneblievable is that many of you seem to think that you somehow have a right to have access to P2P programs, apparently because they can be used for legitimate, legal sharing purposes...
Who are you kidding?
No doubt all of you have illegal uses of P2P programs in mind, and even if you don't, or can think of a legitimate reason as to why they should be allowed (seriously, can you?), the majority of others using them will use it for illegal purposes.
While I wouldn't mind access to them myself, I see it as perfectly fair of IT Services to disallow the use of such programs.
hmmm have they actually been dunb enough to manage to block acces to their mail system from this spate of restrictions too?
since today, which seems to be the day they started this shit, my mail program has failed to log into the IMAP servers to check my warwick mail....
interesting coincidence may be?
since today, which seems to be the day they started this shit, my mail program has failed to log into the IMAP servers to check my warwick mail....
interesting coincidence may be?
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UnholySmoke
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 8:21 pm
E,
While what you say is no doubt true, it's not the point. The point is that it's not up to the university to decide how and if we can break the law - in that case why don't they stop Cocksucker selling baccy and rizlas?
Telling us we'll have internet access in our rooms and then blocking all ports and everything but http (last night I could neither access my Warwick Mail nor sign in to MSN) is unacceptable. We don't need to give reasons for using P2P - it suffices that using them is not in itself illegal.
So no, ITS doesn't have a right to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The guy above who wants to download game demos and play online is being shafted by this policy, though like all of us £5 of his rent every week goes towards this joke they call an internet connection.
While what you say is no doubt true, it's not the point. The point is that it's not up to the university to decide how and if we can break the law - in that case why don't they stop Cocksucker selling baccy and rizlas?
Telling us we'll have internet access in our rooms and then blocking all ports and everything but http (last night I could neither access my Warwick Mail nor sign in to MSN) is unacceptable. We don't need to give reasons for using P2P - it suffices that using them is not in itself illegal.
So no, ITS doesn't have a right to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The guy above who wants to download game demos and play online is being shafted by this policy, though like all of us £5 of his rent every week goes towards this joke they call an internet connection.
ITS ANNOUNCEMENT
Just got a letter under my door from ITS. They say that:
*gaming is not blocked
*Bit Torrent, Kazaa, E-Donkey + Gnutella are blocked
*Other P2P applications are not currently blocked, but are being monitored for impact on performance
*they have not reduced bandwith
They said there's gonna be some sort of focus group where we can , in their words, "assist us in gaining a better understanding of the issues and working with us towards a solution"
We'll be informed about it through our wardens but it'll happen on wednesday 26 oct at 12:30
*gaming is not blocked
*Bit Torrent, Kazaa, E-Donkey + Gnutella are blocked
*Other P2P applications are not currently blocked, but are being monitored for impact on performance
*they have not reduced bandwith
They said there's gonna be some sort of focus group where we can , in their words, "assist us in gaining a better understanding of the issues and working with us towards a solution"
We'll be informed about it through our wardens but it'll happen on wednesday 26 oct at 12:30