I am network admin for a small college network, around 2000 students. In the dorm rooms we provide internet access to the students. Over the past 6 months or so we have gotten a couple of copyright infringement notices about movies being downloaded. I am looking for advice on the best way to handle this situation. We currently have a Cisco PIX firewall and no proxy so the students have direct access to the internet.
Do I need to start pushing students through a proxy so I can log which student/dorm room was the one pulling the file? The notice only list the public IP so I currently have no way to tie the notice to an internal IP address. If so any one got any suggestions on a good proxy program for this?
Or is there an easy way using the PIX to block the torrent traffic? My understanding of bit torrents is they can operate on a number of different ports including port 80.
Some direction on this would be helpful. We have a network policy against this type of traffic but I need some way of enforcing it.
Thanks for the help
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The link talks about blocking P2P but not really bit torrent. They are different networks correct? Also I don't really have a Cisco router in line with the traffic I am trying to filter. I think I am going to have to look at other options as the PIX just can't really do what I need in this situation. I'm just wondering what other college environments do in this situation?
really, an IPS is the only way to catch most all of it. You can run bittorrent over commonly allowed ports and people do. You can do de-centralized sharing so an announcing server really isn't needed, granted it still has to go thru other servers to actually connect people.
You can block the common ports, but I wouldn't bank on blocking the illegal ones; more likely you'll be blocking the legal ones that play by the rules. My opinion is invest in IPS or at the very least IDS to detect who's doing it (its reactive but should prove to be cheaper)
I see this is closed already but a proxy would also work for you. You are correct in that torrent can use many different mechanisms to get through but generally speaking they have identifiable headers associated with them that a proxy can block without a detrimental affect on other traffic. ISA server is a good example but most business-class products would do similar.
Keith
I think the question should be whether BitTorrent should be blocked or not.
There are a number of legitimate uses for BitTorrent, including distribution of open source software - which is something that Universities should support, not suppress.
You also should take a look at what is going on in the legal world with reference to RIAA / MPAA and their overbearing crusade against college students, which may or may not be legal and at best is unethical.
The most recent rulings have trended toward slapping down the RIAA / MPAA and record companies/studios. There is a school of thought that the part of the DMCA they are exploiting in their crusades might be unconstitutional, as they are civil cases but are being prosecuted as though criminal, with excessive minimum and maximum penalties.
I would personally be really annoyed if I were trying to download an important pdf from a government or medical institute and I would have to wait a long time because my neighbour absolutely had to have the latest album with Bla and see the latest cam version of the latest blockbuster movie.
If the campus wants to support open source, they can become a mirror and their students would have the software faster.
For music one could allow iTune sharing. I am sure that would give anyone enough music without hogging the network with multiGB downloads.
Believe me I understand both sides of this issue that is why I am bringing it up. I don't want to block the torrent traffic as I myself use it for legit purposes often. The RIAA / MPAA goal with the letters is to scare people into just stopping but people above my head don't really understand the issues and don't want the university to get into trouble. I am attempting to walk the line and try to appease everyone. I know I'm not the first person to run into this issue that's why I was trying to figure out what others out there were doing. The main issue I have is I don't have any type of record of what users are doing at any one time. Since all the outside sees is our public IP address and that is shared by a large number of students I have no way to track usage. So if someone did pursue a lawsuit of some type where would that put the university? What is our, the college, responsibility when if comes to activity of some of our students?
regarding responsibility i don't know - as an uneducated person regarding the merits of Torrent, I keep out of the area. However, as an organisation, we have provided a number of standalone machines (kiosks effectively) that use a broadband connection to the Internet, completely divorced from the internal systems, cabling and infrastructure. they still go out a relatively basic filter but are not enforced to the same policy controls as the internal PC's etc.
Closest we could come to the appeasement route :)
"If the campus wants to support open source, they can become a mirror"
That is resource-intensive - it's something normally found at really large universities like UW, which also happens to do other things for the public good like providing stratum-2 time servers.
The whole concept behind BitTorrent is that you don't HAVE to set up and manage a download site, with the associated load of direct FTP transfer.
If you're worried about a single user sucking all the bandwidth (which seems to be your point) - put a traffic shaper on the network and throttle heavy-use connections.
As to the issue of responsibility - there is none, in my opinion. You've met your responsibility through your acceptable use policy - and are not responsible for individuals that violate that policy. Further, you're not responsible for putting tools in place to track down violators of that policy just because the MPAA/RIAA want you to. You (the college) should respond to the threatening letter with "We are a small college and do not have resources in place for this. If you would like to donate to our institution, with the funds targeted at purchasing, installing and maintaining such resources, send a check to the bursar's office. If the funding received is insufficient to provide the services you desire, we will bill you for the balance."
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by: mplungjanPosted on 2009-01-28 at 01:00:50ID: 23484632
Google is not your friend?
http://www.google.c
gave me this in one step
http://www.cisco.com/e
or does it not answer your question