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University Network Policies and Punishment?
A not-so Anonymous Coward asks: "I'm a student in the dorms at the University of Colorado, where every room is wired with Ethernet. I bought an 802.11b access point and card, and have been using them on the network. 2 days ago, I came home to find out that my network access had been shut off. When I called ITS, they said it was because I was running the access point, and this was against policy. I proceeded to look through CU's site, and read the entire AUP and terms of use. Nowhere in these agreements is any ban on using wireless equipment in-room. When I called back to see when I could get my access turned back on, I was told that the one person that could help me was out sick. So far my access has been off for 2 days and counting, and chances are slim that I'll get it back by Monday, leaving me with a total of 5+ days without access, all for a violation I was unaware of, and had no warning about. Do I have any rights to force them to turn my access on earlier, or do I just sit without access until they get around to helping me?" Now assuming the AP was not completely open to public access, what possible reason is there for such a limitation? Most kids now go to college with laptops, and an AP is probably the best way for them to work (ie, not tied to the wall). My recommendation would be to politely talk to the University IT department? If anyone else has been in similar situations, how did you go about dealing with the University to get your account/email address/network access restored?
total of 5+ days without access
What a whiner! Wait until the appropriate person is well again and stop moaning. Internet access isn't a right.
If you need it for your studies borrow your friends' (if you have any) or go to the library.
Mmmmmmm
on the insecurity of 802.11b
Try hacking your own gateway with airsnort
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Ignorance is no excuse. If it was, we'd all be ignorant and stupid. Shame on you for even posting your sob story on here.
I used to work for a univeristy IT department, while I was there as a student. We often shut off peoples network ports for various reasons: running commercial servers, pr0n, port scanning, mp3 ftp servers, flooding, etc.
:)
We also had nothing about running Wireless APs (hell, they even gave us iBooks with 802.11b cards... we had an AP in our room) But we were also geeks and had it secured (well, as good as it can be)
One problem was people using the campus bandwith for other people... such as setting up a dial-in server on their phone lines to give free access to their friends. Oddly enough, they got their ports shut off too.
You can't really complain about it too much, though. At my university, students were paying about $3 a month for internet access... at 10 Base! (okay, maxed at 100 Base total per building, but still faster than a modem) And the entire point of university networks is for academic use.
So basically, it's their network, their rules. Doesn't mean they have to be draconion, but if they want to, they can.
Oh and be polite when you talk to the campus IT guys... they have to deal with a LOT of crap, and experinced users should know how to be nice. (Unless you want to get your connection back and have it throttled to 1kb/s
Youd better be happy your SysAdmin is not a BOFH. Otherwise, youd have alredy been LARTed.
Ooops, and what is this high-voltage cable doing so close to your antenna? And why have all your files on the campus network been erased ? Oh, and what about the girl you like ? After receiving some e-mails she now thinks youre engaged with another man.
Oh, the joys of being a BOFH.
As per the AUP you mention:
* ResNet services and wiring may not be modified or extended beyond the area of their intended use. This applies to all network, hardware, computer lab and in-room data jacks.
This one is questionable, since it does (or can) extend use outside the room
* ResNet may not be used to provide the University of Colorado computer services or Internet access to anyone outside of the Residence Halls community for any purposes (other than those in direct support of the academic mission of the University).
Aside from the inherent insecurities in WEP, they may not be sure you
are even using WEP, which would (or certainly could) provide access to
others outside of your residence halls
* The University of Colorado specific or commercially obtained network resources may not be retransmitted outside of the University community.
As per the AUP you mention:
* ResNet services and wiring may not be modified or extended beyond the area of their intended use. This applies to all network, hardware, computer lab and in-room data jacks.
This one is questionable, since it does (or can) extend use outside the room
* ResNet may not be used to provide the University of Colorado computer services or Internet access to anyone outside of the Residence Halls community for any purposes (other than those in direct support of the academic mission of the University).
Aside from the inherent insecurities in WEP, they may not be sure you
are even using WEP, which would (or certainly could) provide access to
others outside of your residence halls
* The University of Colorado specific or commercially obtained network resources may not be retransmitted outside of the University community.
And not being sure about the location or range, this could also apply.
So, frankly, don't gripe. Those terms are designed to be loosely interpreted. Point is, while YOU may not feel you violated any rules, THEY do, and THEY control the access. Perhaps you can get approval now, but if not, just accept it and live with it. Life is unfair.
I was banned from my University's network a couple of days ago after an e-mail incident - a large university announce-only mailing list had been accidentally left unmoderated and was being flooded with rubbish from all over the campus. I posted a message explaining what had happened (for the benefit of the users asking "Why am I getting so much mail!?") and suggesting everyone just wait it out until the list admins re-moderated the list.
As you can imagine, I was pretty surprised when my room connection stopped working and I recieved an e-mail informing me that I had been banned for a week!
After a short e-mail exchange with a network admin it became apparent that someone had sent an abusive message to the (now moderated) list using my name as their signature. The message had been picked up by a list moderator who suggested I was banned along with the other public abusers of the list. E-Mail headers were checked, my name was cleared and my connection was reinstated (the guy who pretended to be me could be facing a £250 fine though).
The point of this rather uninteresting story? University network admins are reasonable people, but you have to aproach them in the right way. I was painfully polite in every one of the e-mails I sent them, I explained my circumstances in detail and made sure to thank them for their time. Provided you put your case in a clear, concise and above all polite manner you should be fine. What you SHOULDN'T do is go demanding better treatment and quoting University rules left right and center - that won't help your cause in the slightest.
However, in their terms of service, they say the access is a "privelage" not a "right". That could probably be argued as long as *you* are paying for the services of the university - why should it not be a right?
What you're describing really isn't a case of access being a "right"-- which would make the subsequent denial of that access a 6th amendment issue-- but of breach of contract.
If the University agrees to provide you with internet connectivity in your room in return for your tuition or housing fees-- either as a separate itemized fee or as part of a package of services-- then you have a contract with the University. If the University violates their terms of this contract, then you have a legitimate grievance against them.
But the key there is that the University, in turning off your service, has to be in violation of the terms of the contract. In order for this to be true, two things must also be true:
1. The University's provision of access to you is an explicit term of your housing contract, like electricity.
2. The University's contract with you does not have a discretionary clause.
The University, however, is probably smart. They probably do have a discretionary clause. I haven't read any of the documents linked to in the original post-- 'cause I'm lazy-- but it's probably in there somewhere. "We provide this service to you at our discretion, and may disconnect or discontinue this service, temporarily or permanently, at any time... " and so on.
So basically, no, internet access in your dorm is not a right, and it's probably not something that you can fight on contractual terms.
At UMKC (umkc.edu) the IT department has just recently instituted this policy. The staff has had wide speculation but the one that seems to make the most sense is.... Money. The university is currently charging $450 for a quickly one hour drop of a new CAT5 port. Not only does this finance the people doing the drop, but also the subsequent equipment upgrades required to provide consistant 10 megabit access. While I do not agree with my university's methods or logic, I do see where they're coming from. There is probably something similar occuring at the Univ. o Co. You should consider asking what the cost of a new port is...
This is relatively suprising that he got 'caught' considering the length of time the CU ResNet and ITS takes to find things like this.
It took weeks, months, and more for them to actually send an email to the guy running a CounterStrike server down the hall, and it took them even longer to find my server.
It seems the CU ResNet policy is to give the student the runaround whilest not providing any information or help at all. I've heard a few different situations that come up:
Server Is found:
* ITS sends email to user explaining they are in violation of the AUP
* ITS shuts down all external access to user dropping all packets from and to outside networks, and sends email like above
* ITS shuts down all external access without any explanation
* ITS literally disables the port the offender is on, after the one or two of the above procedures.
Which happens is anyones guess. Will the offense actually be recorded or not is anyones guess.
Here's my experience:
I was running a mp3 ftp server. I know. AUP violation plain and simple. So i'm suprised, but not perplexed when my connection gets turned off. I call ITS to see whats up (and how long I'll be down, etc.). They have no record of the violation, and they can see my machine, MAC address, etc just fine.
They come out and test the connection by plugging in their own equipment and everything works. I show them I still get link light on my machine, and the switch I have attached (another little linux box I have for development). They connect through the switch and still they work. They give up and go back to research some stuff on the internal routers.
Two days go by.
We finally get a call back from the techs. They explain my machine was blocked off at the external routers, the same procedure if we were to be 'blackholed', except the record was never entered. The tech who finally found the problem removed the block, and I was back on instantly.
So in general, suprising he got to even talk to someone.
Anyway, as to his specific problem though, I would think that if he can prove his access point was secure, so that nobody outside the campus, could get on (the only way they could is through a NAT or if they set up their machine with the dhcp servers on the network. You must register your MAC with those servers to get access outside the campus), he should be fine. There were many of us in the dorms that had more than one machine hooked up on switches, and no complaints there.
--onyx--