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Internet allowance management

Every student is allocated an internet allowance of $8 for the year which allows you to access at least 8 GBytes of metered internet data. You can check your balance and pay for additional allowance through myUniSA

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

International students who are studying on-shore receive an additional internet allowance. This may not appear straight away but is normally added within 2 weeks of completion of enrolment.

• What is your internet balance and when is it reduced?
• Find out your internet balance
• What happens if you use all your internet allowance?
• School funded increase to your internet allowance
• Increase your internet allowance
• Reduce your access costs
• Further information

What is your internet balance and when is it reduced?

Your internet balance is reduced when you use the UniSA wired or wireless network to access material from the internet except for those educational and research sites to which access is free. Access to most educational sites from the UniSA network is free and is not counted as part of your internet allowance.

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 internet allowance. 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 allowance system so that messages sent to and from your UniSA email account will not reduce your internet balance.

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

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

Find out your internet balance

Logon to myUniSA where your current internet balances are displayed under my Resources

You will receive warnings via email when your internet balance becomes low. If your balance falls into negative you will not be able to access the internet from the UniSA network unless you pay for more access.

What happens if you use all of your internet allowance?

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 allowance will also be reflected in myUniSA 1 hour after you pay for additional access. You should monitor your internet balance through myUniSA regularly.

School funded increase to your internet allowance

Schools can fund extra internet allowance for you as an individual student, or students in specific courses and students in specific programs. An authorised manager from the School needs to fill out the School Funded Student internet OR Printing Allowance form. You should discuss this with your School.

Increase your internet allowance

Log in to your personal account in myUniSA

• Your current internet and printing allowance balances are displayed in the my Resources

• Select to top up the appropriate allowance type and follow the prompts. You can opt to increase your internet allowance by any amount between $5 and $50

• Choose whether you wish to pay for your update immediately via WebPay, or defer payment to your next invoice

• For the purposes of keeping your account secure you will need to enter your user ID and password to authorise the transaction

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

UniSA partner institution (e.g. CELUSA, SAIBT and Le Cordon Bleu) students are not able to top up their printing and internet allowances online and need to visit Campus Central to top up their allowances.

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: 

   • http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au
   • http://tucows.com.au

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

   • http://www.excite.com/
   • http://www.google.com.au/
   • http://www.yahoo.com
   • http://yellowpages.com.au
   • http://www.anzwers.com.au

   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 while using the UniSA network. 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 internet allowance. 

   • You can get more advice on creating passwords at Frequently Asked Questions (Password) or go to AskIT and search for "password"
   • You can change your password at Change My Password

Further information

The University is connected to the internet via the AARNet 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 internet allowance system is not designed to raise revenue for the University but to cover excess internet expenditure.

You can find more information about accessing the internet at Frequently Asked Questions (Internet connection)

 

 

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