College limits gaming bandwiths

Students wishing to relax and play online video games have been denied access to the college’s online network on three separate occasions during the first term, prompting outrage among the campus’s devoted online gamers.

While the first two periods lasted only three days each (Aug. 8-11 and Sep. 2-5), the third incident lasted two weeks (Sep. 7-21).

Louis Tiemann ’12 first discovered the problem while working as a consultant for the Helpdesk over the summer.  On Aug. 8, Tiemann tried unsuccessfully to connect to Xbox Live using the College’s Internet.

“[Library and Information Services (LIS)] didn’t seem to have a consistent explanation as to why this keeps happening,” said Tiemann, “they kept blowing smoke at me.”

As students began arriving on campus, Tiemann and the other student consultants working at the Technology Helpdesk received a flurry of complaints from gamers across campus. The Helpdesk received 33 official complaints, but Tiemann believes many more students were affected.

“They are discriminating against a certain subset of the population, specifically video gamers,” he said.

According to Howie McCausland, the senior network architect for LIS, the connection problems stemmed from an unplanned restriction of online gaming applications by the College’s Internet traffic shaping software. McCausland relates software shaping to cars waiting to get through a tollbooth, with web and e-mail given precedence — like cars with EZ Pass — over online gaming.

“At any given time, only one packet of data is being transmitted … and these packets can be characterized in different ways,” he said. “The way these traffic prioritizers work is by fiddling with the order of who gets to go first.”

One student waiting in the tollbooth line was Steven Marino ’12, an avid Xbox Live player. Marino arrived on campus four days early, but was distraught when he was unable to connect his Xbox to the campus network.

“I didn’t really feel like I was being helped that much,” said Marino. “They [LIS] gave me an excuse, and then didn’t do much.”

Marino says that prioritizing general Internet use over gaming is not fair because many students aren’t using the general Internet for academic purposes.

“I could go to a game website and take priority over someone who is playing Xbox,”
he said. “Being limited and prioritized is frustrating.”

Dean of LIS Mike Roy points out that traffic shaping software is necessary and that most colleges and universities use them in some format.

“You can’t allow a free-for-all,” he said. “When we are trying to get all of the new students on the network … getting the Xboxes to work didn’t make it to the top of the list.”

Tiemann says gamers realize that Xbox Live and other online games should never be prioritized above academic Internet usage, but are frustrated with the lack of answers they have received from LIS.

“What angers me the most is the lack of transparency and accountability,” he said. “If there are actual reasons or infrastructural limitations that justify it [limiting gaming bandwidth], then I’m OK with it. I just want LIS to notify me.”

According to Tiemann, most online gamers with whom he has spoken gave up trying to play online during the two-week ban and now feel deserted by LIS.

McCausland received many of the complaints, but asks students to be patient.

“I hope people understand where our priorities have to be as far as keeping the College as a whole functioning,” he said. “[Gaming] is always going to take a lower priority than the College’s academic mission.”

Roy says the accusations directed at LIS are upsetting.

“I saw some e-mail that suggested it was some sort of nefarious plot, that we were trying to stomp out Xbox use,” Roy said. “I can assure you that this is not the case.”

LIS lifted the network restriction on Sept. 21, but gamers are skeptical that gaming access will last.

“It is working for now,” said Tiemann, “but the only future concern is — will they try it again, and if they do, can we expect a more prompt and transparent response?”

McCausland says that the College is working to improve traffic flow so that restrictions won’t happen again, but since the Internet is always evolving, access can never be guaranteed.

“We’re in the process of reviewing the whole traffic management policy,” he said, “[but] there’s stuff out there in the Internet that’s beyond out control.”

Roy says that LIS is not blind to the needs of students, and in the future LIS will work with students through the Helpdesk to ensure a balance between academics and recreation.

“You study here, but you also live here,” Roy said. “People here like to relax and play games, so we have to find a way to allow that.”