DRAFT

Trinity Computer Forum - Minutes

Date: March 13, 2002

Time: 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Location: Larkin Building 341

 

Present: Mark “The Chow” Andruchow, Robert Baines, Jason Cherniak, Steve Doma (Trinity Computer Support), John Gunn, Megan Lush, Andrew Morgan (Computer Forum Chair and Secretary), Andrew Oakden, David Ort, Geoff Seaborn (Bursar), Gilbert Verghese (Trinity Computer Services Coordinator), Adam “Monk” Wakefield (JCM Chair).

 

  1. Introduction to the 524 MB/week limit and U of T policies governing Trinity's network connection

 

Seaborn explained that U of T had fast network connections between U of T buildings, but a small connection to the Internet, therefore only activity to the Internet is restricted.  Doma explained that the actual limit was 524 MB/week, or, to be precise, the actual quota enforced is 524,288,000 bytes per week.  Verghese explained that the computer coordinators of the residences met regularly with the U of T computer coordinators to discuss issues related to ResNet connections.  Verghese said the next meeting of this group is on March 25, 2002.  Verghese said that U of T might be offering colleges increased network bandwidth at the cost of $800/Mb/month, and in doing so they would be placed on a private connection to the Internet.  U of T’s connection to the outside world is currently 50 Mb.  Verghese said that Innis was considering purchasing more bandwidth from U of T, but pointed out a college cannot be both on its own private connection and on U of T’s shared connection, and therefore a college would have to purchase a significant amount of bandwidth to make up for that lost from the share access.  Verghese said that Vic and St. Mike’s used the most bandwidth, and Innis the least, since many of their students had purchased high speed Internet access from Rogers.  Trinity’s usage was in the middle pack of all of the colleges.

 

  1. Privacy Issues

 

Wakefield raised privacy concerns surrounding Trinity’s online Internet Traffic website which contains a student’s name, room number, and IP address.  Andruchow pointed out that anyone on the Internet could access this information.  Verghese said that U of T had considered the privacy issues and had considered it acceptable, but pointed out that U of T only gave out the IP address and traffic, not the student’s name and room number.  Seaborn said that the same information was available in the Head’s Package.  Oakden suggested that the names be removed.  Andruchow suggested that access be restricted to only from within the Trinity domains.  A consensus was reached that the site be restricted to only from within the Trinity domain and that the names would be left on the forms.

 

 

 

  1. Technical explanation of how students' network connections are turned off

 

Verghese explained that the bandwidth usage was calculated by U of T Computer Network Services (UTCNS), not Trinity, at the gateway between U of T and the Internet.  This information is sent every 24 hours, usually at around 10:00 a.m. every morning, to a Trinity server, which then connects to the hubs and disconnects the appropriate connections.  Morgan asked if this information could be delivered more often, or in real time, so that once a student has exceeded their 524MB/week limit, though could not go any further, therefore preventing a connection from being turned off for multiple weeks in response to a large amount of traffic being transferred between the point when the person passes their 524MB/week limit and when their connection is actually turned off 24 hours latter.  Verghese said that he had spoken with UTCNS about this, and that it really did take that long to calculate all of the usage statistics, therefore UTCNS was unable to deliver the data in real time.  Two network meters are available from:

http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3cc/files/#BANDWIDTH

http://www.utoronto.ca/ucres/netup.htm

 

  1. Issues surrounding the accuracy of the measurements of the 524 MB/week limit

 

Andruchow asked if UTCNS could provide a listing of the most used port for each IP address so that the program which was causing the excessive traffic could be tracked down, allowing for simpler troubleshoot of workstations which when over the limit for seemingly unexplainable reasons.  Cherniak asked about random turnoffs of connections.  Doma said  the bandlim software connects to 8 separate hub closets daily to carry out activations and disconnects. If the connection fails then the changes cannot be processed (but the HP hubs otherwise work) and the hub stacks need to be reset. Doma said he had to do this approximately twice per week.  To solve this problem an upgrade might be needed, which Verghese said would probably cost too much.

 

  1. Time period for which students' connections are turned off

 

Doma explained that a day's traffic is summed up at midnight and Bandlim software does any resulting connection/disconnection 10 hours later (at at about 10 AM). This results in a 10 hour – 34 hour delay between when a student actually goes over the limit and when they are cut off.  Seaborn said that currently a student’s reconnection date could be pushed to a later date due to the 10-34 hour delay between when a student actually went over and when the connection is actually turned off.  Doma said that the reconnection date can also be moved as the day when a student went over the limit gets pushed to the end of the week, affecting the calculations of the averages.  Seaborn said that Verghese was readjusting the calculations to prevent the change in the reconnection dates.  Seaborn said that Trinity’s disconnection policy was much more lenient than at other colleges, where they have a “three strikes you’re out” system.  The first time a student goes over the 524MB/week limit, they would be disconnected for one week, the second time they would be disconnected for a month, and the third time they would be disconnected for the rest of the term.  Seaborn said that looking at the numbers there are a number of people who are very aware of the limit and come close to it often, clearly conscious of the limit and trying not to go over.  The Trinity system is very lenient with those who only go over the limit by a small amount, as the time a connection is cut off is proportionate to the amount by which a student exceeded the limit.  Lush said that it would be useful to have examples of what a MB is, for students who don’t have a good sense of different sizes of files.  Seaborn said such examples were in the new FAQs.  Doma said that typcal web browsing and email generates less that 10% of the allotted quota in traffic. Seaborn stressed that with very few exceptions, penalties follow file sharing traffic excesses (Morpheous, Kazaa, etc).  Cherniak asked if there could be retroactive averaging of bandwidth usage, taking into account a students low levels of use before a spike, in order to reduce the cutoff time.  Verghese said that U of T’s network has a constant supply of bandwidth, and hoarding quotas would result in a saturation of the pipeline (e.g. at the end of term).

 

  1. Technical support for those whose network connections are turned off

 

Cherniak asked if there could be phone technical once Internet access has been turned off.  Seaborn said that the college did not currently have the resources or personnel for it, but that he would consider it.  Doma said that assistance had been available for individuals with academic needs, in the form of tutoring in the computer lab, but that there had not been very much substantial demand for these services.

 

  1. Use of Server Software

 

Seaborn said that there were other issues surrounding the use of server software, such as Morpheus.  He has received a letter from Michael Jackson’s lawyers asking him to shut down a student’s computer who had server software sharing one of Michael Jackson’s songs.  Ort said that Napster was about to be reinvented as a legal, pay-per-song system, and asked whether or not legal song sharing programs would be subject to restrictions.  Seaborn said that legal song sharing programs would still be subject to the traffic limits.  Seaborn stressed the point that the College is not particularly concerned in policing the traffic content but occasionally may have to take restrictive measures, as per above.

 

  1. Blocking of Morpheus and other sharing programs' ports by U of T, Monday-Friday 8am-midnight

 

Gunn asked if U of T’s policy blocking Morpheus and other file sharing programs during the week could be ceased.  Verghese said that U of T was using a program called Packeteer (www.packeteer.com) to turn off various programs.  He said it was more than just shutting off certain ports, that the program could actually analyze the contents of each packet and apply a certain set of rules in order to screen out certain activity.  He said that U of T was still modifying the rules, and had turned the system off for a certain period of time.  Gunn said that programs such as Morpheus had not been determined as being illegal yet, as their cases were still in the courts.  Ort said that U of T appeared to be screening out ICQ file transfers, which had legitimate academic uses to exchange essays and other files.  Verghese said he would press UTCNS on more disclosure on what programs or ports they are screening out screening out.

 

  1. SMTP Server at Trinity

 

Verghese said that a faulty switch had been the source of the instability with Trinity’s SMTP server (e-mail server), as well as problems logging into computers in the computer lab, in first term.  The switch, which was UTCNS property, has now been replaced, and access to the server has now been very consistent.

 

  1. Blocking of port 25 (SMTP, outgoing e-mail) on the Trinity firewall/gateway

 

Andruchow asked why port 25 was being blocked at Trinity’s gateway to the U of T backbone, preventing any Trin student from using alternate U of T SMTP servers when Trinity’s SMTP server was inaccessible.  Morgan said that U of T maintained numerous SMTP serves that should be accessible to students.  Seaborn said that this was a U of T policy, implemented after some cases of e-mail impersonation.

 

  1. DHCP Server at Trinity

 

Andruchow complained that Trinity’s DHCP server appeared to be very unstable, and that he had fixed many individual’s connections by manually entering in their IP numbers.  Verghese said Trinity was running out of IP addresses, and that this was an ongoing problem. Verghese mentioned that to address this problem, next year they might issue fixed IP number, assigned to each jack.

 

  1. Future of the Computer Labs

 

Seaborn said that the Trinity computer lab was underused, but that the St. Hilda’s computer lab had a higher volume of use.  Seaborn said that when the computer lab was first installed, it was used often, but since ResNet has been installed, usage has dropped off.  Lush said that the computer lab was still very important to those students who didn’t have computers of their own.  Seaborn said that there was an option of making Trinity’s computer lab an extension of the Info Commons, eliminating the need for a Trinity account.  Oakden said that some students like the prestige of the Trinity e-mail account, and therefore they should be maintained.  Andruchow complained about the complicated method required to get a Trin computer lab account, whereby you must retrieve a random number from the bursar’s office and use that number to sign up on a web site.  Seaborn said that you had to come to the Bursar’s office to put money in your Trin printing account anyways, and therefore it shouldn’t be too much of a hassled.  A complaint was made about the reliability of the computers in the computer lab, and Morgan said that few students reported broken computers to Doma.  Verghese said that some computers were monitored using a program called Big Brother (www.bb4.com), which could send an alert if a computer went offline.  Lush asked if more computers could be made available at St. Hilda’s.  Seaborn said they were restricted by the size of the computer room at St. Hilda’s.  Seaborn said that they would probably maintain the lab at Trinity, but reduce it in size.  Seaborn said that the Lab Attendants were not being used, and therefore they had cut them.

 

  1. Installing a repeater between sub-networks to rebroadcast NetBEUI broadcasts to allow Window's NetBEUI Browser services to work between sub-networks

 

Morgan asked whether Trinity’s three sub-networks could be bridged using a repeater.  Verghese suggested a software solution using WINS.

 

  1. Web space for student clubs

 

Doma said that all web content had to be approved by Kartini Rivers, the Provost’s Secretary.  Any club could e-mail the web pages to her, and she would then arrange for them to be put online.  Morgan asked if clubs could have direct FTP access to their files, and Verghese said this would not allow for the approval.

 

Draft 4. Revised March 19, 2002.