Network Costs for the Faculty of Medicine

The Faculty of Medicine currently pays nearly $400,000 per year in network costs. Being responsible in how we use the Internet can significantly reduce these costs.

These costs are broken up in to two areas: Socket Charges and Internet Traffic Costs.

Socket charges ($227,000 for 2002) are a cost for networking infrastructure and are charged per network device, generally computers and network printers. The cost is $175 per year per device connected to the UNSW network and $100 per year for devices that use the UNSW network for Internet access but are directly connected to non-UNSW networks such as an Area Health Service Network. This cost is collected by the UNSW Communications Unit.

Internet Traffic Costs ($170,000 for 2002) are charged to the Faculty based on the amount of information our computers bring into the UNSW Network and where it comes from. If you request a web page from outside the UNSW network (for example loading the http://www.smh.com.au web site) information is retrieved from the smh server and sent to your computer. The cost for loading the front page of the smh web site is less than 1 cent. This is due to the limited size of the front page and because it is from a server within Australia. There is no additional cost for leaving the front page of the web site on your computer, the information needed for the web page is only downloaded once and then it is displayed until you request more information by going to another web page or refreshing/reloading the existing page.

Opening the Microsoft web site in the US costs around 5 cents. This is partially because the front page of the MS web site is larger then the smh front page but mostly because the MS web server is located in the US. Information from the US costs 5-6 times as much as that from Australia.

Using the network to continually download information, such as listening to the radio over the web, can be very expensive as information is continually downloaded and the total amount downloaded quickly builds up over time. Listening to the radio via the Web from overseas can cost $5.80 per hour or more.

The Faculty pays for the amount of information, or network traffic, that is downloaded by your computer. Thus, the more complicated a web site, the bigger the file or the longer you download information, the more expensive it is.

The average cost for a Faculty of Medicine user is only a couple of dollars per quarter. The costs can, however, add up quickly and reach several hundred or even thousands of dollars if you are downloading large amounts of information, particularly if it is from overseas. If you are just opening and viewing web sites, it is hard to build up more than a few dollars per quarter. To build up significant costs you generally have to be listening to music, watching videos, or downloading files.

All network traffic from within UNSW, UTS and Sydney University is free.

University policies on the use of the UNSW network is available at:
http://www.infonet.unsw.edu.au/poldoc/indcompu.htm

What does this mean in ‘real’ terms for your internet usage?

For example, loading the http://www.smh.com.au web site costs less then 1 cent, opening the Microsoft web site in the US costs around 5 cents and listening to the radio over the Web from overseas can cost $5.80 per hour or more.

See the table below for more examples of traffic costs…

Activities that are free or incur a minimal cost:

Email

Email is free if going through a University mail server. Using Hotmail does incur a minimal cost as the traffic is to the US.

Having your browser open

Just having you browser open doesn’t incur any cost, unless the website is continually changing, even then it would generally incur a minimal cost.

ICQ, Chat, IRC etc

All incur minimal costs, if you are not transferring files.

University Downloads

Downloading files, Web browsing, audio and video from within UNSW, Sydney University and UTS is free.

Ways to save on Internet Traffic Costs:

Internet access is now an essential part of University teaching, learning and research, yet the resultant costs are of concern. Please keep the following in mind while you are using the network.

Music, Video or Audio Streaming

Be aware that downloading large amounts of MP3 files (ie. using Napster, Limewire) and continuous Video or Audio Streaming (ie. Playing a video via RealPlayer from the web; listening to your favourite radio station) either here or overseas starts getting expensive fairly quickly.

AARNET

The AARNET Mirror site provides users with an archive of popular commonly accessed objects such as programs, data and study resources. Check the AARNET Mirror site first before downloading (especially is software is located overseas), as information stored here can be accessed for minimal cost to the University. Regularly used sites are copied and archived on the AARNET Mirror Site to reduce University download costs. Another benefit in using AARNET is that download speed is significantly faster than overseas. http://www.mirror.aarnet.edu.au

TUCOWS (The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software)

Tucows, which earned its name early on for being the first to provide software on a “freeware” or “shareware” basis, now offers 30,000 software titles through its network of more than 1000 partner sites globally, providing users with fast, local downloads. Pretty much any type of software is available here, be aware that some links may take you overseas. Before downloading check the URL to see that your still on the Australian (au) site.- http://tucows.mirror.aarnet.edu.au/