People tend to forget that the students of Penn State are, in fact, paying customers. Penn State forgets this fact quite often; the firewall is evidence of this ("Unprecedented security risks prompted need for firewall," Feb. 24). While living in the residence hall, Penn State is your Internet service provider (ISP). In fact, there is no way to live in the dorm without paying for a network connection, even if you do not use it. Most ISPs would not think of implementing such a firewall because they would be providing a crippled service to their customers. Although some people would not notice, many would move to another provider. Fortunately for Penn State, it has a monopoly on Internet access in the residence halls.

I understand that Penn State paid a lot of money for its firewall system. Therefore, it is impossible to convince them they are wrong. I guarantee they will not listen to any reasonable argument, since doing so would invalidate a large expenditure. However, the firewall supposedly exists "to help protect your computers from viruses, Trojan horses and worms that spread solely through the network." It seems to me that I should be able to choose whether I want this protection.

My suggestion would be to allow students the ability to opt out of the firewall. This would be a logical way to approach the system, which is exactly why Penn State will not even consider such an approach.