Re: Gaming and dorm students

[Jeff Kell <jeff-kell () UTC EDU>]

We actually prioritize games... their traffic is minimal.

We use a Procera, and block P2P, but permit the Blizzard (World of
Warcraft) updates; it has a specific client string.  We don't however
prioritize that along with the game traffic, we just permit it to pass.

In the grand scheme of Netflix/Youtube/Hulu/Pandora/etc streaming media
traffic, gaming is a drop in the bucket. 

We also prioritize Skype (contrary to our initial reaction at it's
introduction).  A surprising number of students depend on it to phone
home and keep in touch, and it too is relatively low in volume.  Just
take precautions against the old Supernode promotions (does that even
happen after the Microsoft takeover?).

You can create a number of happy campers just letting it go :)  They
won't all be happy, but you'll have fewer pitchforks outside the door.

Jeff

On 1/14/2013 9:23 PM, Bob Williamson wrote:
> I am the network admin at a small K-12 private school.  We have about
> 90 dorm students.
>
>  
>
> A problem I am running into is enabling the dorm students to be able
> to use normal games like "World of Wrcraft", "League of Legends",
> etc.  It seems a lot of these games are using bittorrent on the backend.
>
>  
>
> Without digging into the specifics, how are others handling the
> dormers requests?  Telling them no does not seem appropriate, but not
> letting them play seems bogus.  I was toying with the idea of having
> the individuals sign a sheet saying they will not use bittorent for
> illegal purposes.
>
>  
>
> Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
>  
>
> Note that I am using a Palo Alto so can handle filtering by user and
> app level.
>
>  
>
> Bob Williamson
> Network Administrator
> Annie Wright Schools | 827 N Tacoma Ave, Tacoma, WA 98403 |www.aw.org
> <http://www.aw.org/>
> D: 253.272.2216 | F: 253.572.3616 | Bob_Williamson () aw org
>
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