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The internet is shutdown in my room at the dorms and when I called they said it was due to an overwelling amout of traffic coming from my pc, Now all I have been doing is downloading is my microsoft updates and and some small programs (zone alarm, spy bot, ad-aware), also activating some software on my pc(win xp, adobe Creative suite, and some other programs.

Now would the downloading of those programs cause this.


The company said they will hook the Internet back up, but if that traffic contiues, they will have to shut down my connection again because I could bring down the server.


Any Ideas whats up with my pc.


Second question
Since the school says all there rooms have internet for there students for free(I know its in the student cost some were), am I able to patition the school to find another way for me to connect to the internet since there network can't haddle the load.

If the internet cost is in your student fees then they should offer you a substitute. One question though:

Are you running a wireless router in you dorm room for a laptop? If you are then there is a good chance that someone else is jacking into you router and using your bandwidth to avoid getting themself cut off. There of course is also the chance that someone has hacked into your box and is using it as a high bandwidth conduit, but thats more unlikely. Hope that helps.

nope, no wireless here.

What if there is no proof that it is in the student fees.

The college says they give you free internet service through such and such a provider.

But the way I look at it the college isn't about to give something up for free so I feel that it is in the Dorm fees some were, just not documented as Internet connection.

I was also thinking in the contract states nothing about the internet. So by saying there is free internet service for students in the dorms, would that be a contract.

First question.
Find out how much their overwelming amount of traffic is. If you have not updated your PC lately and you have XP you might have had to download SP1 (up to 140 meg download) plus other updates you could get over 200 meg easy ask them if they have a local server to get your windows updates from so you are not taking so much bandwidth over the internet.

Make sure you are not running kazza/winMX/edonkey/any other file sharing software that might be getting hits/bandwidth.

EDIT: and run a full system virus scan with updated dat files. If you dont have a virus scan software or your can not update your dat files use something like AVG Anti-Virus

Question 2.

No.
Even if they should be required to they will not.(I am not saying that they should be)

Presuming you have been patched for the worms that came out a few months ago (Blaster, Welchia, Sobig) than I don't see how you could be making a large dent on the traffic on your network, unless of course, as mentioned you are using wireless and someone is stealing bandwith.

As far as your recourse goes I wouldn't say you have much. My schools network is administered but a bunch of moron and I have been forced to use dialup. Being that you pay the fee (usually like a "technology fee") they'll probably just tell you to use the computers in the lab or library or whatever. Your only other option is to go to dialup as I unfortunately have been doing.
HTH
-Pete

If they keep logs like my school does, they should be able to tell you exactly what IPs are contacting you (or you contacting IPs), or things like that. Try asking them if they have any more information as to what might be causing the problem. If anything, have network operations look at your computer themselves, they may be able to determine more concisely what is happening.

Make sure there are no bridged connections (i.e. if you have a laptop, if you are broadcasting wireless, or if you have two ports connected to the computer) ... it is detectable if you have Windows. Netops here doesn't like that because it is an unauthorized access into the school network.

Did you ask them for their definition of "overwhelming amount of traffic"? Do they have a set amount of bandwitch you can use every month before they shut you down? Even if it was a ton of windows updates I wouldn't think it would be enough for them to cut you off but maybe they can at least tell you how much bandwitch you sucked up to cause this so you can get an ide of whether it was just the updates or if there's something going on in the background on your comp that you don't know about.

We've turned off close to 200 students in the past 2 weeks for "excessive traffic." That's over 3% of our residential population, assuming everyone has a computer which they don't. Every single one of them had either Blaster or Nachi, some with other viruses as well. Download Stinger from McAfee and see what it finds. Most kids had no idea that they had a virus... On girl said that she knew she had it but that she didn't want to bother to clean it off. I guess shutting down her port forced her to clean up.

No way no how are you getting money back from the school. We charge a $50/semester technology fee for everyone living in the dorms. That not only covers the bandwidth, but the infrastructure (wiring, switches, routers), support personnel (me), card swipes to get in the doors, labs, printers, etc. Everyone pays the same fee whether they have a computer in their room or not; it's just a service that comes with the room like electricity and a phone line. We've had kids ask for their money back for being down for a day or two -- that'd come out to less than a dollar even if all $50 of the fee went to their bandwidth.