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Almost No-Cost Web Traffic Management

Learn how to effectively manage web traffic and resource allocation in educational settings using innovative strategies developed in 1996. Explore solutions for optimizing bandwidth, student quotas, lab bookings, and proxy server configurations with no cost involved.

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Almost No-Cost Web Traffic Management

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  1. Almost No-CostWeb Traffic Management Mark Bizzell & Matthew Mengel University of Southern Queensland

  2. 1996 - The Problems • Enormous growth in Internet traffic charges • growing academic requirements for access • but have you checked your proxy logs lately? • increasing bandwidth capacity • local, national, international • more and more students “discovered” the net • ease of use of tools (browsers, etc)

  3. 1996 - The Problems

  4. 1996 - The Problems • Limited Access Points • computer laboratories • lab seats taken up by Internet users • required for booked sessions • required for other academic tasks • assignment preparation • programming • modems • limited number, always jam packed

  5. The Task • Find a way to manage Internet (i.e. Web) traffic before it became a financial problem • Also manage the limited laboratory and modem resources • By the way, your budget is…

  6. $ 0 (or thereabouts)

  7. The Concept - Traffic • Student Quota System • daily “allowance” • accumulation capped at 10 days worth • allocated once daily • once over quota, no more access • quota excess capped at 7 days over • simple and effective • no money involved • can be extended to staff • fair?

  8. The Concept - Access • Lab Booking System • 3 modes of access • bookable open Internet access • quota Internet access • no Internet access • addresses issues of balancing Internet and other activities • modems • too hard (for now)

  9. The Solution Lab Booking System Log Processing Proxy Servers Authentication

  10. MS Access database Predefined list of Labs Web access Nightly Update of booking information Today + 6 days Lab Booking System

  11. Proxy System • Squid Proxy Servers • Reconfigure daily with lab bookings ACL’s • Allow user to authenticate • Cache Authenticated access for 5 minutes • Rotate Log files every 10 minutes

  12. Authentication • Only required from the labs and modems • LDAP Server • Authenticates Staff and Students • NT Domain • Alternate Staff authentication • “No proxy” group membership

  13. Log Processing • Logs files collected every 10 minutes • Processed by the quota system • single perl script • < 400 lines • Update “No Proxy” LDAP group • LDAP ldif file

  14. Information Out • Students can query their remaining quota • Students can see their traffic download volumes for the month • Some staff query tools • All perl-based cgi scripts

  15. Tools • Squid proxy server • Netscape LDAP server • ssh – Secure shell • perl

  16. Issues • No perfect system • No online quota updates • Two hour modem limit for students • no “interactive” modem access restriction • Updates only done once a day

  17. So did it work? • June 1996  40 Gb • June 2000  180 Gb • Costs are acceptably under control • as defined by management • more use • more bandwidth • increase in quota from 1 Mb/day to 3 Mb/day

  18. So did it work? • Lab use acceptably moderated • Modem congestion still a problem • So, broadly speaking, Yes.

  19. Future direction • Rewrite the lab booking system • Integration with Active Directory • Quota system “database” • replace current flat file structure

  20. Acknowledgments • Peter Dobson • ex-ITS, USQ; now DEC, USQ • original concept and lab booking system • Scott Sorley • ex-ITS, USQ; now NextEd • original ACLs when using Netscape proxy • Dennis Rochford • ex-ITS, USQ; now NextEd • original lab booking system

  21. Acknowledgments • Mark Bizzell • ITS, USQ • Squid proxy implementation, use of ssh • Matthew Mengel • ITS, USQ • original quota methodology, wrote quota system

  22. Questions? bizzell@usq.edu.au Matthew.Mengel@usq.edu.au Quota system perl is available on request. • Use at your own risk, and let us know if modifications you make are useful.

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