Digital Citizenship 4: Avoiding Bandwidth Wasters

Our growing use of Internet resources brings with it increased network traffic and a concern about Internet connectivity slowdown. WBAIS believes that educating students is the best way to address these concerns so that the same understanding, respect and responsibility that apply to our social, professional, hardcopy world applies to our digital world. The fifth WBAIS Technology Standard, adopted from the International Society of Technology Education (ISTE), includes a statement that students at our school will “advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.”

Digital citizens use technology wisely, responsibly and for the common good. They understand that using a home computer or small home network is different than using a large network devoted to academic purposes. At WBAIS we strongly believe that everyone should strive to be good digital citizens. This includes being conscious of the effect our use of a shared network has on other users.

The amount of data transferred through a network is called network traffic. Just as traffic on a highway can slow down when use is at its highest, traffic on a local area network (LAN) can slow down its users’ connectivity to the Internet. Good digital citizens help to keep network traffic down by avoiding certain sites when on a LAN, such as our school network, which is shared by many users for academic use. Examples of sites to avoid include the following:

Bandwidth Wasters = traffic slowdowns

• Sites that are dedicated to instant messaging and chat should not be used in school. Even running these sites in the background while waiting for contact from another user causes repeated packets of data to be sent to and from your computer, increasing network traffic. WBAIS network users should make sure that these sites (i.e. Skype, msn, icq, etc.) do not automatically open on their computers when started up and that they are not used during school hours, unless a teacher has specified using them for an academic activity.

• Music and video download sites can cause network slowdowns for other users as these files are often very large. Any downloading for academic purposes should be limited to after school hours.

• Network and Internet gaming sites and software which require a constant connection between computers can also increase network traffic as data is constantly traveling between computers. Unless used for an academic activity, we ask that these sites not be used at WBAIS during school hours.

Other Sites to avoid on shared networks

• Time Wasters – On-line game sites and sites about how to cheat at games. Staying away from such sites helps protect our network from spyware that many of these “free games” sites install on computers. Spyware can open a window to your computer from outside and may also send repeated data packets to and from your computer.

• Inappropriate Content Sites – Sites with content of an “adult” nature, bullying and harassment. Other than the fact that they are non-academic in any way, these sites can often install a series of POP up windows that appear automatically whenever using a browser which slows down a network.

• Up-To-No-Good Sites – Sites dedicated to hacking, virus creation, and defeating content filtering are in direct violation of the school AUP. I suggest you check with your home network providers as using such sites may also violate their policy.

Help us maintain plenty of bandwidth for academic purposes. Stay away from bandwidth wasters!!

The Tech Team