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Internet allowance management

Overview: Internet Access For Students Increased for 2011

The University provides access to the Internet to all enrolled students using computers on the University's network and manages this access by providing every enrolled student with an Internet allowance for the year. From 2011 Internet charges are being reduced and Internet allowances increased.  When you complete the enrolment process you will receive an Internet allowance of $8 for the year which allows you to access at least 8 GBytes of metered Internet data.  This is 4-fold more than in previous years and should be sufficient for most students to be able to complete their authorised academic work. Note that access to most educational sites from the UniSA network is free and is not counted as part of your Internet allowance.

International students who are studying on-shore receive an additional Internet allowance 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 your allowance your Internet balance will be negative and you will not be able to access the Internet from on campus 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 student Internet allowance, as these charges are incurred by your ISP account.

Access to your Internet allowance 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 allowance 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 Internet allowance system is not designed to raise revenue for the University but to cover excess Internet expenditure. 

Who Does The Internet Allowance Apply To?

The student Internet allowance 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 allowance 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 Internet allowance. 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 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.

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

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 Internet balances are displayed on the my Resources page.

What Happens If You Use All Of Your Internet Allowance?

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 allowance debt which will show up as negative balance when you check your Internet balance the next day.

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

Schools Can Fund An Increase To Your Internet Allowance

You should contact an academic staff member in your School to determine whether your School can fund extra Internet allowance for you. Procedures have been put in place to permit Schools to fund increased allowances, 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 School Funded Student Internet OR Printing Allowance form.

How To Increase Your Internet Allowance

Log in to your personal account in myUniSA....

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.

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.

Please note that 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.

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. E.g. 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 Internet allowance. 

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