Playing games over blocked ports at University.

[Ursman]

Hey guys;

Lemme preface my HELP question with saying that the world of tunneling, ports, proxies etc. is completely foreign to me. I'm also a MAC user of a little over a year now. What I am trying to say is... if anyone can help me (and I hope you can!) it will have to be by holding my hand.

But I learn quickly... that's the good news.

Ok! Basically here at University they feel it necessary to block ports that are unnecessary (or, so they think!). So... connecting to programs like, World of Warcraft, is impossible to do because they've blocked the port needed to play the game (3724).

I'm pretty sure this is the problem. I'm also pretty sure that I am behind a firewall of some sorts as well. In any case, I need a way to bypass these port settings so that I can play a game, such as World of Warcraft.

How can I do this? What do I need to DL, run, learn... etc. ANY help would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

[Craig R. Arko]

Contact the network administrator and request that the ports be opened. If they won't do that because of the security risks involved you're out of luck.

We aren't in the business of helping people hack someone else's LAN.

[Ursman]

I've called and asked and was denied.

I know you guys aren't in the business of hacking someone's LAN :) (and I would never dream about asking something like that over a forum). It's my understanding that there are legal ways to bypass port settings set by admins (programs to run, proxies to set, tunnels... etc.) The problem is, I don't know how to set up these programs... or even what programs to run.

I could be wrong, however. I'm simply going under the notion that to bypass these settings is entirely possible. If the only way to do it is by requesting then yes, I am SOL.

So, I guess my next question is, would tunneling or port forwarding by an answer to my problem? Or, what "legal" measures can I take? Do I have other options?

Thanks.

[Craig R. Arko]

It's my understanding that there are legal ways to bypass port settings set by admins (programs to run, proxies to set, tunnels... etc.) The problem is, I don't know how to set up these programs... or even what programs to run.


Unfortunately, what's "legal" is decided by the folks who run the network. If they don't allow it trying to circumvent the protections will likely just get you into trouble.

Sorry.

[staypuft]

Have you asked what ports are open? If they allow SSH port 22 or VPN (not sure what port it uses), I think you can tunnel a connection to a computer that is outsite the university LAN. There are even services that provide computers for you tunnel out to. Such as
http://www.anonymize.net/
or
http://www.secure-tunnel.com/
I have not used either service nor do I know if they offer good prices, but I think they will do what you want.

[voldenuit]

There are two parts to your question:

1
You could investigate who gets to set the rules and whether the way things are right now would stand up in court should you see an opportunity to challenge that. Most likely not a good idea, online gaming is probably outside of your universities mission statement for good reasons ;) .

2
You could circumvent the blocking. How "legal" that would be depends, if there is a policy that forbids certain network usages or whether some admin just dislikes the traffic generated and blocked that port.
Getting traffic around the fw would probably require a fair amount of know-how and possibly control over a machine outside the firewall.
Anyway, it's a great opportunity to learn more about the way internet protocols work.
But take care not to piss off the admins too much, you might not like their reaction.

If it's just a blocked port, setting up an outside proxy on another port would probably be all it takes. That will add a significant amount of latency. However, if I was the admin in charge, I'd be able to come up with some extremely devious fw rules to kill that.
The guys with the better network-know-how win at last, but if they're sport, it can be fun.

[Ursman]

staypuft:

There are only three ports open: 548 and a couple of obscure ones.

voldenuit:

So, let's say I had access to a machine on the outside. How do I set up a proxy on the outside (this is prolly good for my general knowledge anyway). Furthermore, once that proxy is setup on a specific port... how do I then access it from my machine under the server with blocked ports?

[yellow]

So, let's say I had access to a machine on the outside. How do I set up a proxy on the outside (this is prolly good for my general knowledge anyway). Furthermore, once that proxy is setup on a specific port... how do I then access it from my machine under the server with blocked ports?

Let's say it was already made pretty clear that we really didn't want continued discussion on how to bypass the firewall put in place by your uni's network admins. Let's say the firewall is there for a reason, right or wrong. Let's say that it doesn't reflect well on the integrity of this forum to allude to how one hypothetically might bypass such a firewall.

End communication.