A new file-trading network has sprung up on Internet2, the university network that offers researchers and students a way to communicate at blazing speeds while avoiding the ordinary Internet’s data traffic jams.
Dubbed i2hub, the network has drawn thousands of students from universities around the country to trade files and chat at speeds that far exceed what even ordinarily swift campus networks can provide. It has drawn rave reviews on student Web sites and from users but has already sparked concern among other Internet2 denizens.
The students involved say they’re simply looking to use unused Internet2 bandwidth, which can be less expensive for their colleges than ordinary commercial Net connections. But some also see it as a way around limitations that many universities have begun to impose on widely used file-swapping applications such as Kazaa.
“Some universities put a restriction on commodity Internet line speeds but don’t put any restriction on Internet2,” said “Ttol,” one of the students managing the project. He declined to give his real name. “The experience of transfers over Internet2 is much faster than on the commodity Internet.”
Universities have been at the heart of the file-swapping, controversies since the launch of Napster in 1999. Armed with fast Net connections in dormitories, students have flocked to peer-to-peer services for free music, videos and software, and they have recently been a focus of record industry enforcement efforts.
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