On-campus residents can register and install the program by visiting the Penn State Napster Web site, said Sam Haldeman, assistant to the associate vice provost for information technology services.

The Napster service allows users to stream any song in the Napster library, as well as tune into digital radio stations. On-campus students are being given "all the good stuff," Haldeman said.

The university's agreement gives students the same benefits as the Napster premium service, which costs about $10 per month for most customers.

"Napster didn't alter the premium service in any way," he said.

Users can also make use of tethered downloads, which remain on a user's computer even when he is not connected to the internet; these files cannot be burned to a CD or used by computers not registered with Napster, but they can be transferred to compatible Napster-branded mp3 players.

A third option of permanently purchasing and downloading tracks for 99 cents per song or $9.95 per album is also available to students; these songs can be burned onto CDs and will continue to play even after a student leaves Penn State.

On Friday, John Kalbach, manager of Academic Services and Emerging Technology, said students will be given five free downloads before having to pay.

Students arriving at school this weekend found brochures in their mailboxes.

"The brochure points them to the Web site, and the Web site has all the information that people are going to need," said Robin Anderson, assistant director of information technology services.

Anderson said students will use their Penn State access account ID and password to authenticate with the system. As long as the ID matches with a student registered as an on-campus resident, the Web site will forward the student to a page on Napster's Web site, where the student can choose a user name and password.

"Once you've registered and downloaded the client, all you do is double-click," she said.

Although students must reside on campus to be eligible for the service, once an account is established, the student can access Napster from any computer, even at home during breaks, Haldeman said.

"One thing we stressed with [Napster] is that our students aren't on campus all year round," he said.

Haldeman said Penn State will "hopefully" reach an agreement with Napster allowing continuously enrolled students to keep their Napster accounts active during the summer.

Haldeman said he has downloaded songs from the Napster service in as little as one second.

"We're really expecting [students] not to have any inclination to use illegal services," he said, citing speed and song integrity available from Napster.

To defray the costs of using bandwidth outside of Penn State's network, about 90 percent of the songs students download will be stored on local caching servers located within the university's network.

"You're able to learn through usage what songs students are most likely to access," Augustson said. Traffic between students' computers and the Napster servers within the network will not count toward the weekly bandwidth restrictions imposed on students accessing data from outside the network.

"If you're somebody in the dorms with odd tastes, it's possible you'll hit your bandwidth limit," Kalbach said. "They claim we have the most popular songs [on the local servers]."

Augustson said Napster paid all costs associated with the caching servers.

The Napster client runs on PCs with Windows 2000 or XP, and the Web site details eligibility requirements for the service.

Augustson said the Napster program is currently for use on students' personal computers. "We are not putting Napster in the labs for the spring semester. We may for fall, but there are still some operational issues we would need to work out."