By Becca Morrison

Staff Writer

Bess, ResNet's filtering service, has been in place at Calvin for over three years, giving students access to the familiar brown dog in place of the occasional desired website. Up until a few weeks ago, complaints were minimal concerning what sites Bess chose to block. However, on Feb. 5, the ResNet Service Specialists started receiving email requests to override Bess for the most unlikely websites. Apparently Bess was blocking sites such as Knightvision and the Yahoo home page.

At the beginning of the semester, Bess's server was found to be full. Calvin's Information Technology Center installed a second Bess server to meet the needs of the filter system. Upon seeing the students' complaints concerning the over blockage, the two staff members in charge of ResNet, Student Computing Specialist Krista Spahr and HelpDesk Specialist Kevin Vanschepen, got right on it and found the problem. The new equipment had not been installed correctly.

``It was fixed within 24 hours. We believe it's been running smoothly since then,'' Vanschepen said.

Last semester, 1400 on-campus students were signed up for ResNet, using sixty percent of the available ResNet hookups. This semester, the number of people connected is thought to be slightly higher, but still nowhere near one hundred percent. However, even though ResNet is not at capacity, a few individuals complained of abnormally slow connections. The problem analyzed was by Vanschepen and Spahr. Nothing was said on the issue for a few weeks, but CIT recently sent out a memo via email to all ResNet users that explained some of what going on.

For all those users who have noticed a less than ideal connection on their computers, it's due to CITs work to ``restructure the flow of network traffic through ResNet.'' As stated in the memo, ``After examining our priorities, we have decided that the purpose of ResNet is primarily for educational uses, and secondly, for entertainment.'' In other words, those students playing games and downloading music files through ``peer to peer sharing'' will get second priority to those students surfing the net.

CIT will regulate use by installing new equipment and network architecture.

``We installed some traffic shaping software that will be able to prioritize web surfing,'' Spahri said.

``Peer-to-peer sharing takes up an exorbitant amount of bandwidth whereas trafficking takes relatively little,'' Vanschepen said. Without installing new software and equipment, they cannot accommodate the amount of space demanded by the students--thus the prioritizing. The evenings are the time where most students make use of the Internet and consequently the time where downloading MP3s may be slow. ``Fifty percent of the bandwidth is saved for trafficking. The remainder is filled up with whatever,'' Vanschepen said.

New students who wish to fill their evenings with computer games may be disgruntled with the new limitations on their activities, but Vanschepen rationalize those limitations on their activities as being justified by the primary reason of the establishment of ResNet as an enhancement to student study. Even though ResNet does cost students a fee by semester, ``the service is cheaper than a regular dial up. We do not make a profit off of ResNet. The money goes directly to the service,'' Spahr said. ``In order to increase the bandwidth, we would have to up the cost. For everyone, even those not playing games and sharing files.''

The definitions of ResNet may change over the summer, but as both specialists said, they couldn't wait until then to resolve the bandwidth issue.

Students who have problems with ResNet should call or email the HelpDesk at extension x8555 or helpdesk@calvin.edu. If Bess blocks a site that should be open, click on the button that says ``Request a review,'' and fill out that web page so that CIT can process and review it.