College Computer Lines Clogged by Music Swapping.

AN epidemic of music-file swapping on local college campuses is overwhelming universities' computer networks, prompting school officials to take actions aimed at curtailing students' use of such file-sharing programs as those popularized by Napster Inc. and Gnutella.

Last week, Occidental College officials announced they have purchased and installed an innovative software program called Packet-Shaper, which narrows the bandwidth available to file-sharing programs, making the downloads for those services long and tortuous.

It's not that Occidental officials are sadistic. Internet access at the Eagle Rock liberal arts college slowed to a crawl this fall. After an investigation, officials learned it was caused by file-sharers.

"All educational institutions, like Occidental, that have high-speed networks in the residence halls started noticing last year unexpectedly high growth in usage," said Thomas Slobko, Occidental's vice president of information and technology services. "The problem was due to music trading."

At Occidental, 48 percent of inbound Internet traffic was being used by students to exchange music files. Outbound traffic was also dominated by music, with some 90 percent of the college's bandwidth being tapped to supply music-to-music swapping programs.

"When school opened this year, music-trading traffic swamped our network," Slobko said.

Occidental officials considered banning Napster outright, but then rejected the idea.

"It smacked of censorship," Slobko said. "It didn't feel right to any of us to ban it."

On the other hand, beefing up the network's capacity to handle the explosion in usage didn't seem justified, Slobko said. After all, swapping Beck for Smashing Pumpkins isn't exactly an exercise in higher learning.

PacketShaper, a product of Cupertino-based Packeteer Inc., cost the college around $10,000 to purchase and install. The software doesn't turn Napster and other file-sharing services off; it simply slows them down.

Are students OK with the change?

"No one has complained to me personally yet," said Slobko, who has received about a dozen e-mails, half of which came from "irate" students. "Students understand that the (file-sharing) activity is illegal and not directly related to activities of the college."

USC banned student use of Napster at all but one or two campus computers, having instituted the policy last year in the wake of a lawsuit filed against Napster by the rock band Metallica.

USC officials are apparently uncomfortable discussing the policy. Questions about bandwidth, network slowdowns and the Napster ban on campus were referred to USC attorney Carol Mauch. She was tight-lipped and referred all questions to a university press release issued in April.

According to that release, Napster can be used "only for demonstrably legal purposes from designated university personal computers and under university supervision."

The press release also states that the policy "is not a final or permanent determination by the university but rather will remain in effect until the legality of Napster use can be clarified, either in one of the several lawsuits pending against Napster or otherwise."

Mauch refused to elaborate on the press release.

The computers where Napster may be used at USC are in fact "one or possibly two" located in the university's main library, and they're hardly ever used, according to USC sophomore Brendan Loy.

"For all practical intents and purposes, Napster is banned," said Loy, an assignment editor for the student-run newspaper Daily Trojan.

When the ban was first considered by USC, students lashed out. "There was a huge outcry on a campus that tends to be apathetic," Loy said. "It galvanized students more than anything I've seen."

In the wake of Napster's near death, students have been investigating other file-sharing services and have realized that Napster is not a lone wolf.

"Students don't need Napster anymore," said Loy, who pointed out that other music file-sharing services like Gnutella are not banned and are widely used on campus. "People who want to share files still can."

If anything, Loy added, USC's Napster ban has made students more tech-savvy, "sending them out there to find out about all the alternatives."

While 40 percent of colleges and universities in the United States have, like USC, banned Napster, UCLA is Napster-friendly. Officials announced in early October that the university would not ban or restrict use of the file-sharing service.