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Is AIM Really a Bandwidth Hog?
Crispen asks: "A mess of schools, especially K-12 schools in the US, have banned instant messaging, claiming that it is a huge bandwidth hog. Is it? If you block ports 4443 (images) and 5190 (file transfers), how much bandwidth does AIM really take?"
If you meant outoing to port 5190, well, that would be a quasi-effective way to block AIM.
Now, granted I haven't tried this, but I believe you can always reconfigure AIM (and gaim, of course!) to use a different port, so that doesn't really block AIM. Now, I don't know much OSCAR (the AIM protocol), but it's possible that it uses incoming port 5190 to recieve file transfers...but what are people going to be transferring from school, anyway?
amazing, just amazing... of course if it was the RIAA or MPAA asking for who sent xyz avi or mp3 aol would bend over backwards to provide data, no doubt.
Without file transfers IM doesn't take much bandwidth. Think about it, messages of of a few dozen bytes only take 1 packet to send! No, you'd have to have hundreds of IMs to add up to a few piddly Kbps. Problem is allowing IM and diallowing file transfers. Or, as one poster stated, monitoring IM traffic. In that case, they could run their own jabberd server, and with firewall rules force users to use it. Since it's GPL/OS they should be able to modify the code to allow "snooping", if jabberd doesn't already.
The burden is on you, the student, not on the netadmin, to demonstrate how AIM makes you more productive in the middle of class.
Otherwise, AIM is a distraction like passing around a porn mag in the back of class.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Let the porn mag pass if that's what they want. If they don't wanna learn, they won't learn whatever you do. Enforcing people on certain behaviours only creates stress and fear. So you get apart from inability and unwillingless to learn, fear, stress and hate on top
If you want my advice, set up an IRC server and teach people how to use it. It should be exceedingly easy for you to track all of it's usage. True it might not exactly facilitate people communicating to/from off-campus but it would solve your accountability problem. You could even use Trillian as the client, thus giving people that "IM feel".
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Sure lets block email too! Email costs productivity!
I used IM and EMail regularly throughout the day to communicate with my teachers and fellow students. My productivity would take a big dump without either technology. If I lost both, well fuck I might have to use a telephone! Hey everybody lets ban all forms of communication other than written mail! Wake up.
Using AIM during a lecture is a totally different problem and shouldn't require BANNING it from the lab. IMNSHO it's no different from using a CELL PHONE during a lecture and the teacher should deal with the problem accordingly. And if it's a lab where people are typing anyway and the teacher can't tell that the student is IMing then who cares? Students aren't robots and you can't FORCE them to learn no matter how hard you try. If they can IM in lab and still pass then more power to 'em. If they fail then too damn bad, it's their own damn fault.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Schools are for learning; IM doesn't improve that. On the other hand, starvation and constipation don't improve learning function either (try learning something when you really need to go to the loo).
If you really categorise basic bodily functions in the same "lump" as IM, then I'm really fearful for you. Get a life already. :-)
Seriously though, if you can show how IM is an "essential" function which should be every schoolkid's right to use during school hours, then I'm more than happy to hear it. We tried, and couldn't find a reason to keep it (and teachers complained about the distraction), so out it went.
Who said thier limitation was technological?
If they don't have the staff to monitor instant messages then it is impossable for them.
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And cars can be used to ram people. Should we ban them from the American public? You can drop chairs on people, use paint from art class to vandalize the school, stuff people in lockers, etc.
AIM et all should be banned from installation on institution owned student computers, or at the very least, used in a very selective manner.
At some point, you have to place some responsibility on the students. You can't simply control them throughout school (and then expect them to suddenly mature on graduation day).
If people are going to screw up, they're going to do it. I've never understood why IT personnel (more than general managers in the workplace or teachers in school) feel a deep-seated need to try to control behavior like this.
May we never see th
Uhm...no. I am a high school student. I have no rights. There is no statute of limitations for violations of school rules. That means the keyboard I inverted the number pad on freshman year is grounds for suspension my senior year. I know they monitor student's habits. I have gotten booted after a look at Snopes of all things. Why? It isn't a crime, we are students, we are using computers other then our own, but I do wonder about students who are 18 though.
I wish I did have rights though...
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