Written by Gina Cielo
“503 Service Unavailable. Resources to service this request are not available.”Some students have seen the above phrase on their computer screen several times throughout this semester. The problem: Harding no longer has enough bandwidth to satisfy every student’s request through the Internet.About a year ago, Harding purchased 150 Mbps (megabytes per second) with the hope that enough room would be created to allow every student adequate Internet usage. However, when August arrived, the Information Systems and Technology Department noticed it needed more bandwidth.At the end of August, IS&T ordered another 100 Mbps only to find out it could not be installed until December. Keith Cronk, vice president of IS&T, said the department is just as frustrated as everyone else.Cronk said there are many reasons for the problems, the main one being large downloads, such as movies and music.”There is more content-rich material, in particular in the last two years, being accessed over the Internet,” Cronk said.So what exactly does the 503 error that appears on the screen mean? Cronk said it means there is no more bandwidth because the 150 Mbps is currently full. Someone who has access is going to keep his or her access, but those who do not are going to get the 503 error on their screen.Cronk said IS&T has brainstormed numerous ways to overcome this problem, and two ideas will soon be implemented.Copysense, which will most likely go into effect in the spring, is a program that is able to detect when copyright material is being accessed without permission. It is being installed mainly to conform to the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which mandates that universities must implement technological measures to control copyright violations.When the illegal downloading activity is detected, Cronk said students will experience a range of sanctions, from a warning and agreement to comply with the copyright regulations to having all Internet access blocked.In addition to these measures, those who continually access copyright material without permission will have increasingly severe sanctions applied, such as Internet access removal for 10 minutes, 30 minutes or 24 hours.Cronk said Copysense will help in aiding the bandwidth issue because it will control and monitor large downloads, which are typically copyright material, such as movie and music downloads.”Everyone will feel the effect of it,” Cronk said. “It’s not just aimed at students, [but] faculty as well.”During Thanksgiving break, IS&T is also going to apply another idea, which limits each individual on campus to a maximum of 1.5 Mbps. Cronk said this gives everyone an equitable share, and while students may experience slower downloads, they should not experience as many errors.”It’s going to mean very little to most of us, but for those high-usage people, they won’t get as much,” Cronk said.Cronk said the hope is that through these implementations, there will be plenty of bandwidth for everyone have adequate Internet access.
