Re: Blocking P2P

[Daniel Adinolfi <dra1 () CORNELL EDU>]

On Feb 04, 2004, at 11:50, Steven R. Smith wrote:
>  I'm
> wondering what other Universities are doing regarding P2P traffic on
> their student internet connections.

Cornell University does not block P2P software, but we do limit its
effect our bandwidth via packetshaping.  (We have minimum throughputs
that known "good" traffic, such as email or web, can use.  When there
is a need for lots of email traffic, P2P is throttled back to afford
the good traffic that bandwidth.)  Our stance is that P2P software is
not inherently evil (P2P doesn't violate copyright, people do), so
blocking it could impede our academic mission, especially with some
researchers actively working with P2P technology.

We do certainly see our share of RIAA/MPAA complaints, but it is more
common that these complaints stem from compromised systems running
rogue FTP servers than from P2P nodes on campus.

-Dan
_________________
Daniel Adinolfi, CISSP
Senior Security Engineer, IT Security Office
Cornell University - Office of Information Technologies
email: dra1 () cornell edu   phone: 607-255-7657

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