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Have a question? The Help Desk is your first step in resolving computing issues. Contact them at 775-4827 or visit in 025 Library Annex.
Questions About the Acceptable Use Policy
Users may not share files/folders on their computer with other users.
Question: Does this mean that we are not allowed to share files/folders
with Microsoft Networking ("Network Neighborhood")? If not, why is
this feature enabled on the network?
Answer: This part of the policy is attempting to address the issue of copyright infringement. File sharing is network option that you can set up on your Windows machine. File sharing is not enabled or disabled by the network, it resides on the client's machine. You may choose to use Microsoft Networking, but if it is set up incorrectly, you risk someone hacking into your system. Also, if we find that you are sharing copyrighted material, you will be liable according to policy guidelines.
Sharing copyrighted material such as MP3's and software is strictly prohibited.Question: As you probably know, any shareware/freeware we could download is copyrighted, meaning the rights to distribute, modify, etc. belong exclusively to its creator. The same is true for MP3's made freely available from such legal enterprises as MP3.com. Surely the policy is not referring to these kinds of downloads? Similarly, does this policy refer to legal audio/video streaming offered by many web sites?
Answer: You may choose to download MP3's from MP3.com provided there are no copyright violations. If you are found to be downloading or sharing copyrighted material, you will be liable according to policy guidelines. Although some sites may stream audio/video files legally, you may still be using a large amount of bandwidth. The Residence Network is for academic use. You may not do anything that will interferes with the network and cause problems for other users.
The network is a shared resource. Excessive use of network resources that interferes or inhibits the use of the network or access to University resources by others is prohibited. This includes but is not limited to applications that use a large amount of bandwidth (for example, Quake, Half-life, downloading MP3's and MPEGs).Question: Does this apply to the playing of games (or other data transfers, assuming they are legal) between *only* residents' computers? If so, why is the IPX protocol enabled/supported?
Answer: IPX is a protocol available on each subnet. Gaming between resident's computers is still prohibited if it is interfering with the network in any way. You may play games on your machine whenever you want, just not across the network.