On-campus Internet usage has limits

Though the policy is not well-known, students who over-use their uploading privileges on the Gonzaga Network will face the punishment of losing Internet access for 24 hours. 

While going beyond the allowed Internet usage seems unrealistic to many, it is actually quite simple, especially for international students using Skype.

American students often use their cell phones to get in touch with their family and friends, but Skype is the international students' main form of communication with people back home.

Australian sophomore Bennett McLaughlin is an example of a student who uses Skype to keep in contact with his family and friends.  Though his cell phone contract includes international calls, many of his friends in Australia do not have a plan that includes international calls.

"I only communicate with my friends through Skype," McLaughlin explained.

Last year McLaughlin's Internet unexpectedly stopped working with no explanation.

"It greatly annoys me ‘cause I have had conversations with my family and friends back home and the conversation has been cut off," McLaughlin said. "You can't do anything and usually you can't get a hold of the people you were speaking to after, to let them know what happened."

Another thing students should be careful of is uploading too much content from the Internet. Senior A.J. Newcombe, a native of Seattle, said he has experienced this firsthand.

"My Internet got cut off two years ago in the fall semester. I got it cut off for breaking the upload limit in 24 hours, and I couldn't access the Internet for 24 hours," Newcombe said. "I had downloaded a movie that day, and apparently it took up too much space, but other than that, I don't think I was using the Internet too much."

Newcombe said he did not know what was going on when the following morning he could not get to the Internet after opening up his laptop. He figured it was some kind of mistake because it did not say why he could not log on to the network.

"I finally called IT, and they told me I'd had it shut off for

using it too much, and I wouldn't be able to access it for 24 hours," he said.

Newcombe does not believe IT receives instructions to shut off the Internet from the administration.

"I don't really know who's in charge of setting all that stuff up, but I'd bet it was IT. I don't think anyone higher up would really understand the whole thing," he said.

IT Chief Information Officer Chris Gill said they have an automatic system that cuts off the Internet connection of a student, but only if the student uploads more than 750 megabytes of data in a 24-hour period. The connection may never be cut for downloading data, though.

"The reason why we target bandwidth uploading was because, as we monitored, users who upload a lot of data were potentially the ones who were exceeding the corresponding bandwidth usage," Gill said.

He affirmed that the main goal of the policy is to respect the university mission, and also keep the resources fair and balanced for everybody.

"We put this policy into place because the university has a limited amount of bandwidth to be distributed among more than 1,000 employees and almost 8,000 students," Gill said. "What we are trying to do is being respectful to all students. Some individuals can´t use an unfair amount of bandwidth."

Gill acknowledged that this policy has a fault. He said that Skype is a legitimate use of the bandwidth, but IT's automatic system is not able to differentiate between the distinct types of data uploading.

"It is something we are working to address right now," Gill said.

Gill also clarified that the IT department developed this policy. They do not receive orders from anyone above. He also said that this policy is clearly referenced in the student handbook, and that all the employees are aware of it as well.