Napster at MSU?

[Edward Glowacki]

On Wed, 1 Mar 2000, Jeremy Bowers wrote:
> I was going straight to Doug Nelson about this issue, but perhaps it would
> be better to run it past a technically competent group first, also hopefully
> more friendly then the msu.misc crowd would be.

Doug is the official word, but as I work directly for Doug, I think can
share some information.

> in time for the Febuary spike that has not ended since.  Since that spike
> has occurred, network connectivity has been shot to _hell_ around here.  The
> MSU web page doesn't even _load_ sometimes, images can be dropped, and other

This is a known problem that is being worked on.  The timing corresponds
to the Computer Center being moved from FDDI to gigabit ethernet.

> I experience this in McDonel, I experience this in the Nisbet building, and
> I experience this in the engineering building.  Am I the only one who thinks
> the network's shot around here during the day?

The problem is campus-wide.

> Now, back to the graphs. If you look at the weekly graph, there's a strong
> negative blip over the past three or four days I can't explain, but I don't
> care about; the net still didn't work.  Then traffic skyrockets again.  Keep

The negative blip is probably due to counter rollover.  As traffic passes
through the router, the router keeps track of it, but the field it uses
isn't big enough, so it tends to roll over between visits by MRTG (the
monitoring software that makes all the pretty graphs).  So it's not less
traffic, it's more.

> in mind that while it may not look like we're saturating the link on the
> weekly graph, if you look at today's graph you can see it hit the maximum
> data rate, and presumably exceeds it.

Maximum real-world data rate on a 100mbit link is higher than 50mbit, more
like above 70mbit, so I don't think that link is saturated.

> Now, some points (again, correct me where I go wrong):
> 
> - If the recent network problems were solely due to routing issues with
> Merit, then we should expect to see network graphs looking like last
> Saturdays... low, flat, non-activity as nobody can get in or out.  Instead,
> we see traffic skyrocketting nearly all of last month.  I am concluding that
> we have a traffic issue.

I think this is the same problem as above.

> - I can't _prove_ it is Napster, all I'm saying is that based on the
> experiences of other Universities, it is a likely explanation.  If it ISN'T
> Napster, I _still_ want to know what it is.

There is very likely Napster traffic passing through our campus, but
it's not the current issue.

> - If... if if if it is Napster, then I want it banned or throttled
> immediately. Let the students whine about censorship; let them first
> look up the definition of censorship before they do so, because
> banning Napster ain't censorship by any stretch of the imagination.  
> I've got projects that are suffering because the network is being
> toasted.

We're all suffering, no need to get upset about it.  Bear in mind that
converting our campus to gigabit ethernet is no small task.  Also keep in
mind that our link to Merit is going to be gigabit too, and our former
45mbit link to Ann Arbor (via Merit) is now 155mbit OC3.  All MSU's
network capacity is rapidly increasing, and with any major renovation
there are usually a few problems.  The current issues with MSU's network
are known and being worked on.  I'm sorry I don't have more details or any
idea when everything will be fixed, I'll try to pass on more info as I
hear it.

> Now, I'd like to ask Doug about these things directly, and ask if he's maybe
> afraid of student backlash or something.  Me, I just want the damned network
> to function like it's supposed to.

Like I said, Napster isn't the issue here.

> Are there any obvious flaws, other then the fact that I don't have the tools
> to prove or disprove that it is Napster's fault?

See also Doug's post on msu.misc regarding Napster.

-- 
Edward Glowacki			glowack2@msu.edu
Network Services		
Michigan State University