<p>How is the wireless coverage? I’ve seen this page: [WiFi</a> Hotspots - Davis Wiki](<a href=“http://daviswiki.org/WiFi_Hotspots]WiFi”>http://daviswiki.org/WiFi_Hotspots) but how much is that in proportion to how big the campus is?</p>
<p>Since there’s a lot of biking, would a heavy (5lbs>) laptop not be as much a bother as it would be if I had to walk everywhere?</p>
<p>Does the network throttle P2P downloads? How about torrents? How fast can you download?</p>
<p>[IET</a> : Wireless Coverage Maps](<a href=“http://wireless.ucdavis.edu/maps.cfm]IET”>http://wireless.ucdavis.edu/maps.cfm)</p>
<p>This is the wireless coverage map for the campus, a little bit easier to tell which areas of campus are covered compared to the daviswiki page. I personally wouldn’t want to lug a >5lb laptop around with me all day, but some people do it.
I also wouldn’t risk trying to download torrents off the campus network. It’s a secured network where you have to log in with your kerberos id & password… they know who you are & wouldn’t hesitate to cut off your internet access permanently. But aside from that, I don’t think the download rate is very fast.</p>
<p>Oh man. No torrents?</p>
<p>What about the use of proxies?</p>
<p>Do it if you really want to. My roommate used to bittorrent up to 200 GB/s worth of up/downsteam data and was never caught. You just have to be careful. It’s no easier/harder to bittorrent at home than it is on campus. If the Music/Movie industry catches you, the campus will have to do something about it, in which they will shut your port down until you come talk to them about what you did.</p>
<p>How can you be careful when using bittorrent?</p>
<p>Well, I just advise caution because my internet was cut off when I was in the dorms. I was just lucky that I got it reinstated because they had the wrong IP address… somebody else was downloading, not me…</p>
<p>Pretty much the only way is to download torrents from trusted trackers. Some sites are known for their trackers being plagued with industry bots who log IP addresses. There are programs like PeerGuardian that block government IP addresses from connecting to you, but I don’t believe they work. </p>
<p>From what I see, people who download music are the first, and easiest to get caught. Movies come in second. Applications and games are a distant third. </p>
<p>Oh yeah, one word of warning is to not direct download, because there is a 1 or 2 GB limit / every other day cap on direct downloads. Direct downloads include streaming (Youtube), and anything that you download straight off the browser. If you go over your limit, you will be automatically capped for a day to 30 kb/s (The internet in the dorms are capable of 30Mbps … so about 3 mb/s).</p>
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<p>Do you mean like torrents? Because the .torrent is downloaded through the browser…</p>
<p>What about using proxies? Any way to get torrents? IDK if I could live without them :P</p>
<p>What about small clips off of sites, or downloads under 1GB. Any problems there?</p>
<p>If this is the case then can I get my own internet service? If my roomie wants to, splitting it shouldn’t be too bad if it means I get unlimited access.</p>
<p>I think you can’t get your own internet service provider (i.e. comcast) if you live in the dorms. I’ve never heard of anyone doing it. Once you live off campus, you have to…</p>
<p>Nope, you cannot get your own phone line in the dorms. The .torrent is an example of a direct download, but the .torrent files are only about 5 to 30 KB max. </p>
<p>GlueEater, it’s really not as bad as it sounds =P. I Youtube a lot and it takes A LOT of free time to youtube 2 gigs worth a day. Even being capped at 30 kbps isn’t bad. I spend most of my time surfing the web and chatting on AIM, which would be just as good as if I were capped… you’ll love how fast the internet is =D.</p>
<p>so i’m assuming if ur a gamer, the connection is awesome?</p>
<p>The connection is decent if you’re a gamer. I play TF2 and the ping is decent. It’s about the same latency as home since it ultimately depends on where the servers are located. Also, the whole myth about games being laggy because of shared bandwith is false. Even when my roommate was downloading, I had very stable ping.</p>
<p>So like, what are the limits on downloads then?</p>
<p>Is there some page that lists all of this?</p>
<p>If you are torrenting, it’s pretty much unlimited.</p>
<p>There isn’t a page that lists all this because they don’t condone it. If you’re really scared about it, don’t do it (It’s just as illegal as it is at home than it is on-campus).</p>
<p>I got caught using BitTorrent, but only because I was uploading. Your first offense, you get a slap on the wrist, and them telling you “don’t do that.” Your internet is shut off for a week. The second time you do it, it’s shut off for longer. The third time you can no longer use University internet.</p>
<p>I know people in the dorms that got to the 3rd time, and they’re not very happy now. Don’t be stupid-- you may not get caught right away, but they monitor bandwidth use, so if you’re downloading massive amounts of movies, they’ll catch on.</p>
<p>fooshy</p>
<p>can’t imagine my life without BT.
hey fooshy, when you said “massive amounts of movies”, do you mean like 2GB+/day?</p>
<p>I don’t use BT everyday because I only use it when there is no other way. And the most I download is about 350mb/file.</p>