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Internet quota management

Overview: Internet Access For Students

The University provides access to the Internet to all enrolled students using computers on the University's network and manages this access with an Internet quota system.  Every enrolled student is provided with a quota amount for the year.  From 2008 your Internet quota will provide you with 12.5% more download capacity and if you need to purchase additional Internet quota it will cost less than one third of the rate charged in 2007.  When you complete the enrolment process you receive an Internet quota of $7 for the year which allows you to access at least 1,000 Mbytes of Internet data (an average 2.8 Mbytes per day).  This should be sufficient for most students to be able to complete their authorised academic work. 

International students who are studying on-shore receive an additional quota because analysis has shown they have additional Internet requirements relating to the fact they are away from their home country.  This may not appear straight away but is normally added within 2 weeks of completion of enrolment.

You can monitor your Internet balance to see how much you have left. In addition, the system sends you warnings via email when the Internet balance becomes low.  If your usage exceeds the quota, your Internet balance will be negative and you will not be able to access the Internet unless you or your School pay for more access.

If you connect to the University network from home via an Internet Service Provider (ISP) account, you will not record Internet usage against your quota, as these charges are incurred by your ISP account.

Access to your Internet quota is one of many reasons that it is important for you to change your password from its initial value to something that only you know and which is difficult for others to guess. If other students are able to guess your password, they will be able to use your Internet quota, and potentially misuse other computing facilities in your name.

The University is connected to the Internet via the AARNet (see http://www.aarnet.edu.au ) network, an Internet "backbone" which provides access for Australian Universities and other research organisations. AARNet charges the University for Internet access on the basis of the amount of information accessed. 

The quota system is not designed to raise revenue for the University but to cover excess Internet expenditure. 

Who Does The Quota Apply To?

The quota applies to all undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students. Postgraduate research students and Doctoral coursework students will operate under the same conditions for Internet access as staff and will not be subject to the Internet quota system provided that they have a current research degree enrolment activated at the Course level.

What Is Your Internet Balance And When Is It Reduced?

Your Internet balance is calculated by subtracting your recorded Internet usage from your quota. Your Internet balance is reduced whenever you use a computer on the UniSA wired or wireless network to access material from the Internet except for those educational and research sites to which we have free access from on campus.

Web pages within the University's domain (web servers whose names end with unisa.edu.au) do not reduce your Internet balance. Download traffic from web sites in Australian universities is also free and not counted against your quota.  The same is true of many other research and university sites across the world.  For more information on these "on-net" sites check our AskIT frequently asked question What Internet sites can I access from UniSA for free?

Email is exempt from the Internet quota system so that messages sent to and from your UniSA email account will not reduce your Internet balance.

Note that any material "viewed" on the Internet is accessed by the viewing software; hence web pages you visit use some of the quota. 

Data sent by you to the Internet does not reduce your Internet balance.

How To Find Out Your Internet Balance

You can logon to myUniSA at www.unisa.edu.au/myunisa where your current quota balances are displayed on the myResources page

What Happens If You Use All Of Your Quota?

If your Internet balance is reduced to zero (or below) you will not be able to access the Internet from University based systems the following day. Note that  the restriction is applied overnight so it is possible to run up an Internet quota debt which will show up as negative balance when you check your quota the next day.

See the section below to find out how to pay for additional Internet access.

Schools Can Fund An Increase To Your Quota

You should contact an academic staff member in your School to determine whether your School can fund extra Internet quota for you. Procedures have been put in place to permit Schools to fund increased quotas, by an amount nominated by the School, for individual students, students in specific courses and students in specific programs. An authorised manager from the School needs to fill out the Increase Student Internet Quota (school funded) form.

How To Increase Your Quota

Log in to your personal account in myUniSA in the usual way (http://www.unisa.edu.au/myunisa/default.asp)...

Alternatively you can increase your quota by paying for additional Internet access at any Campus Central. If you prefer to pay by credit card, you will need to fill out the Application for Increased Student Internet or Print Quota and fax it to your nearest Campus Central office.

If you allow your Internet balance to fall to zero you will not have access to the Internet again until at least 10 minutes after you pay for additional access. Additions to your internet quota will also be reflected in MyUniSA 10 minutes after you pay for additional access.  You should monitor your Internet balance through myUniSA regularly.

Please note that UniSA partner institution (e.g. CELUSA, SAIBT and Le Cordon Bleu) students are not able to top up their print Quota online and need to visit Campus Central to top up their quota.

How To Reduce Your Access Costs

  1. Where possible, use sites within Australia. These can be identified by the 'au' component of their domain names. Eg aarnet.edu.au

  2. Use local 'mirror sites'. A mirror site is an identical copy of another site; many sites that offer software downloads, for instance, have local mirrors. The charge for accessing content from outside Australia is three times that for downloading content from within Australia.

    Some local mirror sites from which software can be downloaded are: 

    Popular Australian search engines (and local mirrors of overseas search engines) include: 

    Some of these sites allow you to limit search results to domestic sites, further helping you to reduce your download costs.

  3. Use the Internet only in relation to your course of study at the University.

  4. Do not access your private email accounts from University computers. The University provides you with an email account for University related work.

  5. If they are not essential, set your web browser not to display images, or play sound or movie files.

  6. Protect your password to prevent other users from using your quota. 

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