GC Network Performance

Information Technology Services makes network performance a high priority for everyone on campus, including all students, faculty, staff, strategic partners, and official visitors. To that end, we plan, budget for, deploy, maintain, and administer a network infrastructure capable of handling the demands of our many customers. However, there are many things that we have little or no control over, and which invariably have a negative impact on some or all of our customers. The primary areas that impact us are malicious software, rogue wireless devices, rogue peer-to-peer software (especially gaming, lately) and unauthorized activity.

We have instituted several IT policies over the years to help minimize the risks and negative impacts of these activities on other users. These policies basically help you help us! However, we know that there are many policies to read, and little time to do so, so some of these stipulations can go unnoticed by many. Unfortunately, recent network performance problems have been a direct result of a small handful of users that have wittingly or unwittingly not adhered to such policies. We will continue to analyze and correct such problems as they occur. Here is a summary of the policies listed in the links below, in the hopes that it might help prevent these issues from popping up again:

It is very important that everyone keep up-to-date virus and adware prevention software on their computers. One or two infected machines are a risk shared by all, and can use up a significant amount of bandwidth, putting machines in a building or our entire network at risk.
It is also important to password protect your computer and any associated resources (including integrated wireless or Airport devices), and do NOT share your computer or network user password with anyone, as you will be responsible for any activity they perform under your name.
Do not plug in a router or any wireless device without coordinating it with ITS, who will configure it so it will not interfere with the local network--every term several dorms lose their connection to the network and Internet because a student tries to configure the device themselves, unsuccessfully.
Do not "host" multiplayer games or run ANY peer-to-peer music, video, television, multimedia or software sharing programs, or at least turn off the peer-to-peer functionality--people all over the Internet can download information from your machine, which puts your data and identity at risk of theft. It also utilizes bandwidth that is intended for Georgetown College customers, not international downloaders of game maps, copyrighted music, television broadcasts, or software. BitTorrent, personal tv channel broadcasting, and similar technologies may sound awesome, but they have significant negative impacts on college networks (as you can see in this wikipedia article).
Likewise, do not run any "server" applications or software without coordinating such use with ITS, especially if it requires the use of workarounds or special measures to circumvent network infrastructure and security measures (such as the use of VPN or an external proxy to tunnel through to such an unauthorized server). This includes ANY sort of gaming or multimedia "host" or server, where other users are connecting to your machine, especially from outside the network. The proper place for such a server is OUTSIDE the network, so that it doesn't allow valuable network resources to be shifted to external Internet users instead of our valued internal customers. If you're the first one in a game room, you probably became a host--exit immediately and go to another room (let some other people take the bandwidth hit).

Please read the following for additional, critical information about protecting our network services and data. As always, you can rest assured that the networking team will continue to monitor network performance and activities, and ensure that the necessary resources are available to all our customers, when they need it most. While there may be a few spikes caused by these sorts of outlet-level problems, we have every indication that our network infrastructure is properly scaled and configured, and that we have more than sufficient bandwidth campus-wide to meet our current and near-term demand--future upgrades will further enhance our current design.

Thank you for your assistance in keeping our network running smoothly and safely, now and in the future. Should you experience problems, do not hesitate to call the help desk, or contact us with a detailed explanation of the problem at networking@georgetowncollege.edu so that we can start working such issues as soon as possible. Here is an example of the details we generally need to know.