Internet Access from UofT Residences

The following are policy statements regarding Internet access from University of Toronto residences.

1. The University of Toronto does NOT provide unlimited access to the Internet.
2. UofT provides Internet access from student residences for the purpose of furthering the academic careers of students. Recognizing, however, that a student residence is in effect the students’ home away from home while at the University, some personal use of such access will be permitted, provided that it is legal and restrained so as to not consume excessive bandwidth, which is a shared resource used by all members of the University community. Examples of uses that consume excessive bandwidth are peer-to-peer protocols, such as KaZaA, BitTorrent, Gnutella, eDonkey and the like. Use of such protocols, frequent transfers of large files, receiving or sending continuous live audio, video and movies should be avoided or at least confined to the early hours of the morning, between midnight and 8 A.M., when the academic business of the University is less likely to be affected.
3. To help ensure that the University’s networking resources are being efficiently utilized for the legitimate benefit of the community, CNS has implemented Traffic Management policies that include Traffic Filtering and Shaping. Details of these policies can be found at:
   http://www.noc.utoronto.ca/net-ops/performance/bandwidth.htm
   Moreover, traffic anomalies (including excessive traffic) that may be detected are subject to the Host Blocking Procedures described at:
   http://www.noc.utoronto.ca/net-ops/security/traffic.htm

4. Students are encouraged to use their Internet access appropriately, with due consideration to the impact that excessive use may have on their fellow students and the rest of the University community. Inappropriate use may result in the student’s network connection being suspended.

5. Note that individual residences will have their own policies on network use that are more restrictive than the above in order to accommodate local network resource constraints. Consult your residence policies for more information.