Heavy 'Net traffic may force university curbs
EUGENE (AP) - Internet traffic is so heavy at Oregon universities the schools may be forced to cap the volume, slowing the flow of information to students and professors who expect their computers to respond in the blink of an eye.
"We're just barely keeping up," said Joanne Hugi, director of the University of Oregon Computing Center.
Hugi noted that the state of Washington recently spent $52 million to improve networks connecting the state's grade schools, community colleges and universities. Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan also have spent millions to add new fiber optic connections for their education systems.
The Oregon University System, by comparison, has asked for just $600,000 from a fund created in a telecommunications bill approved by the 1999 Legislature.
The bill loosened regulatory restrictions on some of the state's largest telephone carriers in return for cash payments to the Connecting Oregon Communities Fund. The fund pays for Internet connections for the state's K-12 schools and high-speed data links to rural communities. It also sets a portion aside to improve bandwidth for the university system.
"Compared to other states, the amount of money we're putting into computer systems and network capacity is pretty small," Hugi said.
Meanwhile, faculty and students in Oregon may be asked to save some computer chores like downloading music, checking stocks or surfing the Web for their home machines rather than those connected to the state network.
Oregon State University already has had to block a capacity-hogging program called Napster, a kind of music search engine that allows users to scan millions of personal computers and retrieve digital copies of songs. The Corvallis school also is asking its computer users to voluntarily limit Internet use and may put a lid on network traffic.
When OSU officials first noticed Napster last October, it was using at least 5 percent of the university's bandwidth. When they checked again a short time later it was up to 10 percent, and by the time access was blocked in November Napster was inhaling 20 percent of the network's capacity during peak usage.
Officials at the University of Oregon are keeping an eye on Napster and similar programs but say they don't plan to take any action against them for the time being. The university has traditionally avoided filtering Internet content and isn't planning to change that policy. | 
