UCF NOC defines "P2P software" to include any software that is designed to share files among multiple users in an uncontrollable way.  "Uncontrollable" meaning that standard networking tools cannot stop the files sharing because the software was written to circumvent all standard methods of controlling network traffic.

The following are examples of P2P software and are all actively monitored:

Ares, BitTorrent, Direct Connect, eDonkey/eMule, FastTrack (Kazaa), Gnutella (including e.g. Limewire, Bearshare, etc.), Soulseek, DAAP (myTunes/ourTunes), MP2P (Blubster, Piolet, etc.), PPLive, WinMX/WinZO, Filetopia, WASTE, IRC XDCC Send/Receive, NNTP alt.binaries or ARTICLE downloads

Why prohibit P2P traffic?

Specifically in the dorms P2P traffic from all of ResNet has become overwhelming to the internet connection that serves ResNet.  Student complaints that the internet in their dorm rooms is unusable has become significant.  Continually adding more available internet bandwidth has only resulted in more P2P traffic using up that new bandwidth instantly.  The network connections in the dorms are provided for students primarily to facilitate their education, other uses are secondary.  P2P programs and traffic are not considered useful to student education and are the largest abuse of the ResNet network bandwidth, the result being poor to non-existent network performance for all ResNet users.  This potential also exists for the rest of the UCF network outside of ResNet.  Therefore NOC has prohibited the use of any P2P traffic.

Game Updates and other software:

Since we are going after the protocol and not the content, some programs that use P2P as part of their programming will not be exempted or permitted.  For example, World of Warcraft uses BitTorrent to distribute its patches by default. However World of Warcraft also has a setting to use standard web downloads of updates and not P2P protocols, as do most major games.  Check your documentation for how to disable P2P protocols in all software you own.

NOC does not keep a comprehensive list of every program or activity that uses the above protocols. We do know that while Skype used to use a version of FastTrack, we don't detect the Skype version. iTunes also uses DAAP for sharing our your iTunes library in some situations.  It is up to the student to understand what software they are installing and running on their PC's and to make sure any of the above protocols are disabled.

Contributions:

Any student that has instructions or tips to help others disable their P2P the NOC will gladly review and post here:

World Of Warcraft:  

How to disable the Background Downloader.  This is the part of the program that downloads the new patches using Bittorrent connections. 

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=21074&categoryId=2326&parentCategoryId=2316&pageNumber=1

The second link is to a wikipedia style site that gives alternate links to be able to download the updates using http connections through a browser.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Patch_mirrors
 

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