Circumventing school firewall?

drbadassdrbadass
edited November 2004 in Science & Tech
Hey guys, I'm running into a little bit of a problem.

Basically, it appears that some aspect of my university's network is not allowing me to download any torrents or anything through p2p apps like kazaa. I did a simple online portscan and found that just about every port (except TCP 6969) is filtered or closed. This is exceptionally aggravating, as I use these apps on a regular basis (and haven't been able to since I moved in here). If anyone knows of any way to get around this I'd really appreciate it. Feel free to pm me if you'd rather not post it on the board. TIA

Comments

  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    The answer is no.

    Also, circumventing it will have your access removed. Admins monitor traffic in all institutions such as a university and will not be happy when they see obvious P2P traffic flowing across a port (even if it's a webport).

    Don't risk it, admins won't listen or care, they will just pull your plug. ;)
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited November 2004
    Well I think that the school does that for just that reason. You know we can't endorse you hacking the school's firewall.

    :)
  • drbadassdrbadass
    edited November 2004
    it's alright, i can't expect anybody to help me with that. Thank you guys anyway for not treating me like a jackass. appreciate it!
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    That's not the way we work here :)

    My answer is simply explaining the two problems you will face.

    1. Firewalls (especially in large multi subnet environments) are locked down tight. Despite having some serious bandwidth, it still costs. That's why they block most outgoing ports. P2P could also get them into serious problems with legal authorities.

    2. Traffic monitoring. They will be watching. Hell, I have two firewalls at work and I monitor the traffic on a network of under 100 users. I can spot a problem in seconds.

    They won't tolerate it or care. They will just block your access and that's that. I've heard it many times on several forums. It's policy.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    Most colleges now have gone beyond simple port-blocking and into a technology called "Packet shaping." Beyond the simple concept of "This is a TCP packet" and "This is a UDP packet," each protocol running under TCP/UDP has a specific structure to its packet. The structure is the defining element to a protocol, and it has such things as header, source/destination, data, and CRC. Packetshaping rapidly analyzes the structure of the packet and blocks it based on that. Unless you can reencapsulate a certain protocol's packet into another structure, and have it be reformed on the other end (Unlikely, unless you've specifically designed the source and destination channels) you will never be able to circumvent it.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    I circumvented my colleges firewall via a proxy. You can't go from A to D, but you can still get to D when you go via C as long as B doesn't know :)
  • ClutchClutch North Carolina New
    edited November 2004
    You were lucky that they didn't cut you off. At work, If we see a user on our T1's that is obviously pushing p2p traffic, and lots of it we pull their ip out of the router and no more access. It isn't worth it in the long run.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    They can't cut me off, I was using the machines in the computer rooms, not some sort of dorm :rolleyes2
  • AranyicAranyic Casstown, OH Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    You'd be suprised what they can do with user logon scripts. It's very possible to pull the plug on you.
  • ClutchClutch North Carolina New
    edited November 2004
    Yea I'm sure they can't cut computers off that are in the computer rooms, must be a law *shrugs*
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    Aranyic wrote:
    You'd be suprised what they can do with user logon scripts. It's very possible to pull the plug on you.

    I know exactly what they can do, but the real question is, Would they? and Do I care? I think you'll find those answers rather similar.

    :thumbsup:
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