Students will enjoy an improved Ruckus network this year after offering suggestions for improvement during last spring semester’s trial run in Grant and Stevenson towers.

The network worked closely with NIU students by giving them a chance to offer feedback and many of the suggestions are now part of Ruckus. A larger music library, a larger movie library and an option for portability of music files were some of the top suggestions that were submitted.

“Ruckus calls NIU its ‘flagship school’ because the students here have offered significant contributions,” said Cindy Phillips, director of Telecommunications.

Ruckus was introduced last year at NIU in an effort to stop the illegal downloading of music, movies and other multimedia files, as well as a demand for this type of service from students. As a trial period, residents in Grant South tested the network, and by the end of the year, 700 students were connected to Ruckus.

Not all recommendations were implemented. According to Phillips, students expressed a desire for a way to access music videos, an idea that is not yet featured on Ruckus.

The network is now available for off-campus students as well. The movie subscription feature will not be available to off-campus students, but the new pay-per-view component will.

Ruckus, based out of Virginia, is the only company to offer a network where students can legally download and share music, movies, television shows, and other copyrighted files.

NIU first began partnership with Ruckus to deter students from using illegal file sharing programs to download music.

“Instead of just saying ‘You can’t do this’ we wanted to give [students] an alternative to illegal file sharing,” Phillips said.

According to Phillips, last spring semester saw a drop in cease and desist orders that ITS was confronted with due to illegal downloading. Phillips was quick to note that NIU is not sure whether to directly attribute this to Ruckus.

NIU remains hopeful that the network will continue to receive positive feedback.

“As long as students are willing to subscribe, we are anxious to see how they react to it,” Phillips said.

For students the fee for downloading music is $14.95. For movies only, students on-campus pay a fee of $19.95 and for both music and movies the fee is $29.95.

For more information on the service or to subscribe, visit

www.ruckus.com