Fitz said that the program looks at how much bandwidth people are using and that he checks for patterns of repeated, excessive use each week. He said he contacted the five users after the program showed that they had used excessive bandwidth four days in a row.
"I don't want people to think that we were snooping on them," Fitz said. "We don't look at the traffic, we just look at how many megabits are being sent to and from the computer from somewhere on the Internet."
Fitz added that he is trying to be very careful to protect users' privacy, and that the program only collects information about how many megabits a user is using, not the contents of what they are doing.
"I'm making a point of assuming that the person is not doing something wrong," Fitz said. "I just want to find out why they are using so much bandwidth and how to stop it."
In addition to making an effort to decrease the excessive use of bandwidth by individual students, the College recently signed a contract with Verizon that will more than triple its bandwidth from three megabits to 10 megabits per second.
According to Fitz, one reason the College has continued to have a bandwidth problem, despite its ban on all Napster use, is that many students have not deleted the program from their computers. This enables other Napster users from outside the College to access and download their music as long as their computer is turned on and connected to the Internet, even if they are not online or using the program.
According to Fitz, at least one of the five people using excessive bandwidth had this problem. Fitz said that when he contacted the user, the individual said he was sure he was not doing anything that would use so much bandwidth. However, the person apparently had Napster on his computer, and although he wasn't using it, he had failed to uninstall the program, which had enabled outside users to download his music. Once the user uninstalled Napster, Fitz said the problem was solved. He also recommended that all students uninstall Napster, because they could be unknowingly sharing their music and contributing to the bandwidth problem on a smaller scale.
Fitz added that the implementation of an "acceptable use" policy will be discussed at the upcoming Information Technology Policy Committee meeting. He said that the policy would give him the right to disconnect the Internet service of any user who refuses to stop using excessive bandwidth once they have been contacted and the reason for their excessive use has been discovered.
"I'm not trying to nail anyone to the wall. I just want to make sure everyone has their fair share of bandwidth," Fitz said.