In a town hall meeting held last night in Science Center D, representatives from Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) announced a plan to deploy a firewall that would block all attempts by outside computers to connect to computers on the FAS network.

All traffic on the FAS network would go through the firewall, which is a computer that monitors computer data and filters out certain types of traffic.

The new system is a response to burgeoning demands on the FAS network primarily attributed to Napster users outside of Harvard, who download songs from Harvard napster users.

The firewall would prevent Internet users outside of Harvard from gaining access to programs, files, music, and videos contained on Harvard students' computers.

Under this strategy, all students computers would be placed behind the firewall by default, but students could be exempted from the policy after attending a 10-15 minute education session, said Kevin Davis '98, coordinator of residential computing for FAS Computer Services.

The purpose of the session, said Bill Ouchark, HASCS manager of networking and UNIX systems, would be to make sure people understand the enormous impact that outbound traffic is having on the network and to inform them of how they can be a responsible network user.

"We feel it's reasonable to expect people who have carte-blanche access to the network to be educated," Davis said.

In addition, Ouchark explained that the required education sessions are a way to ensure that people don't choose to be exempt from the firewall for the mere sake of being exempt.