Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) restricted Napster access for the first time yesterday, limiting outbound network traffic for the music-sharing service.

HASCS will not restrict Napster downloads.

Kevin S. Davis '96, the coordinator for residential computing at HASCS, said the restriction was prompted by large volumes of outbound Napster traffic that were slowing down the Harvard network.

He said it probably would not affect Harvard students' ability to use the service. Instead, Napster users beyond Harvard will have a harder time downloading songs off of Harvard computers.

Davis said that Harvard's high-speed Internet connection meant songs on its network were particularly attractive to Napster users worldwide, who could acquire songs faster from computers at Harvard than from other servers.

"Because we have such a fast connection, Harvard computers were showing up very high in non-Harvard Napster searches," he said.

As a result, outbound Napster traffic was taking up 10 megabits per second of Harvard's network connection--20 percent of the traffic on the network, Davis said.

Davis said HASCS has tentatively limited outbound Napster traffic to one half of a megabit per second, although he stressed that number was not final.