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Still grinning about the recent LAN Ban cuts? Wondering how the institute suddenly decided to give in to student wishes? InsIghT brings you the inside scoop of the proceedings of the LAN Ban Committee meeting.
Until recently, IIT Bombay had one of the strictest policies in terms of Internet cuts among all IITs. It was widely felt that these cuts were hampering student activities and academic work. A proposal to unblock academic websites through the night was put up by the Academic Affairs council. The proposal, however, was not approved by the Deans’ committee on grounds that it was too complicated to implement and might open technical loopholes that people could exploit. Following that, the need for a revision of the current LAN Ban policies was felt and a meeting of the LAN Ban committee was called by Chandra Mouli, the GSHA.
The LAN Ban committee decides on the details of internet cuts during night times, popularly know as the LAN Ban. It consists of the Dean (SA), Head of the Computer Centre, the Hostel Coordinating Unit-Chairman among other professors.
The first proposal to the committee was the removal of ban on the Internet during the night with a ban just on Local Network access. It was proposed keeping in mind the original intention of implementing the LAN Ban – to curb LAN Gamers from gaming through the night, thereby possibly missing classes in the morning. The committee however felt that the Internet might also produce a similar impact and wasn’t willing to completely lift the ban.
The second proposal sought a reduction in the timing of the LAN Ban. After deliberation the committee agreed to change the LAN Ban timings to 1:30AM – 5AM. Additional requests such as unblocking Internal websites and no LAN Ban during weekends were termed as not feasible by the CC Head as it would involve additional complications and maintenance overhead.
“We now have a fair deal, at par with the other IITs in terms of LAN Ban. A step-by-step reduction in LAN Ban is perhaps the best way as we’re unsure about the kind of adverse effects that removing the LAN Ban completely might have on the students. I’m quite happy with the committee’s decision.” says Chandra Mouli. There has been a good amount of cheering from the students in response to the committee’s decision on Facebook and other media.
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