Managing Peer-to-Peer Applications in Dormitory Networks

Network security for dormitory networks have similar but special network security implications than the typical network. Most universities are less restrictive on user policy and dormitory networks are even less restrictive because it is a semi-private network, since the dorm residents own the workstations but the universities own the network. This makes it hard for universities to control what applications are installed and running on a dorm resident's computer. There is a need to manage the usage of P2P apps because it is used illegally by a majority of the dorm users to illegally trade copyrighted material, which could make the users liable and possibly the universities liable. Though the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) does not have an estimate of how much of the illegal P2P music files are downloaded by dorm residents, a significant amount of the 2.5 billion downloads that occur each month are from dorm networks (Mark).