My college will not allow installation of BOINC/seti@home on my office computer or our lab classroom computers for the following reason:

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Due to the network restrictions we will not install this. Application uses too much bandwith.
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Is there a simple resolution to this problem?

I have also been told by IT administrators that these applications use college resources, and the school is "not getting anything for it." Any suggestions for counter-arguments?

EdR

The first rule of BOINC is:

Run BOINC only on authorized computers

Run BOINC only on computers that you own, or for which you have obtained the owner's permission. Some companies and schools have policies that prohibit using their computers for BOINC-based projects.

The simple solution to this problem is not to use it. We aren't going to tell you to break the rules.

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And tell them that BOINC itself requires very little bandwidth. By far the greatest part of the bandwidth requirement is for the science applications and data that BOINC is simply managing.

Do some research on the various projects which can be run on the BOINC framework. Try to find one which both (a) has relatively low data requirements, and (b) is in a field of scientific research that has some sort of relationship with the classes being taught in the lab in question. Then go and talk to the educationalists (not the administrators) about how beneficial it would be for the students to see some real scientific research happening on their computers.

Administration should exist to facilitate primary purpose, not the other way round.