Welcome to the fold! ouch. The actual amount of data transferred between Stanford and you and back is very little. If by 6.0 you mean 6 mbps dsl, then you're faster than I, and I don't notice any effect on my connection. As far as leaving your pc on all the time, I do without problems. I have mine on all the time for two reasons: I'm an old dinosaur that still believes that the stress and thermal cycling of turn-on turn-off operation is worse than the wear from continuous running; and, obviously, the more it's on the more work it can do. I did some calculations a while back and figured it cost me $11/month extra to keep her on all the time. I think you'll find that folding is a "good thing to do" that has little or no downside for you.