Any way around blocked POP3 access on my campus?

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: archcommus
Behrend, huh? I've got quite a few buddies up there right now as freshman. You might've already met them!

This is exactly what angers me, though. If so many other campuses allow it just fine, W-T-F is my school thinking. They're the only ones around that feel POP3 is unsafe?

Really? Huh, cool coincidence. (Any idea what "Behrend" means though?")

However, I shouldn't complain, they gave me $2500 worth of computer equipment.

:shocked:
Where's that other icon, the one that blinks, with the mouth gaping open? Need that one here too.
The only things they give out here are bills - technology fees, parking fees, activity fees.....etc etc.

There were no problems when you checked the school out.
There were no problems when you visited the school, brought your PC along, and stayed there for a day trying out their network.
There were no problems when you talked to members of the staff and faculty.
There were no problems when you talked to current students.

Why is there a problem now?

Edited for clarity.

I say you should really consider paying for your own DSL or Cable internet. Universities are getting into this new mode of thinking where they decide that highspeed internet on campus should provide you with nothing but http access. Bulls%$#. 5 years ago they could afford to let everyone game online and run as many f%$#ing fileservers as they wanted, and nobody had a problem with it. Now, suddenly, "it costs too much." Right. Either the Universities are full of crap, or the broadband companies are taking advantage of them. Someone is profiteering here, and the students are bearing the brunt of it.

Government funding for education isn't as much of a priority anymore. Less money from government to the colleges means either raise tuition, or cut costs.

The landscape of free for all internet has drastically changed in the last 5 years, thanks in part to P2P.

Fine. Would it not be possible to simply block all outgoing ports except primary types - 21, 25, 80, 110, whatever SSL uses, etc? Maybe even leave 25000 open for Counterstrike and a few other popular games. They seem to rely mainly on pingtimes, not raw throughput.
And Penn State implements a monthly bandwidth limit. 1.5GB/month ingoing, 1.5GB/month outgoing. Exceed it, and they knock you down to 56kbps and issue a warning.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Fine. Would it not be possible to simply block all outgoing ports except primary types - 21, 25, 80, 110, whatever SSL uses, etc? Maybe even leave 25000 open for Counterstrike and a few other popular games. They seem to rely mainly on pingtimes, not raw throughput.

Getting around firewalls like that isn't hard, some applications are designed for it. Products like packeteer are a much better solution.

And Penn State implements a monthly bandwidth limit. 1.5GB/month ingoing, 1.5GB/month outgoing. Exceed it, and they knock you down to 56kbps and issue a warning.

But that doesn't cover local traffic, none of these technologies do. And that's the key.

You're at college (if you aren't, just go with it for the moment). College is supposed to be a place where diversity and individuality shine. A place centered around the free exchange of ideas.

So exchange ideas, with the other people at your college. Setup a dorm FTP server and let people know. Setup a campus counterstrike server, and let people know. The speeds, lag, etc. should be great. The selection of "things" on the FTP server should be amazing too.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: archcommus
Trust me, I want to, but money is too tight to just go tossing $30/month around for that. Plus I'd need a modem, and I'd probably have to get a full year contract, and end up paying for it when I'm not in school.

Under Federal law, if you move you can move your service with you. If the company cannot or will not move the service to your new residence then you are legally entitled to cancel the contract without fear of an early termination fee or anything else. I'm not sure if you're willing to take your Cable/DSL with you, but at the very least if you can't use it you won't have to pay for it.

Also, SBC still has a $14.95/month plan going for Pro DSL. That's cheaper than AOL Dialup. If they offer service in your area you should be able to afford it.

EDIT: Or are you that poor?

I could but that's almost definitely 768k. Here I'm getting over 4 Mbps. Just wouldn't be worth it.

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: yukichigai
I say you should really consider paying for your own DSL or Cable internet. Universities are getting into this new mode of thinking where they decide that highspeed internet on campus should provide you with nothing but http access. Bulls%$#. 5 years ago they could afford to let everyone game online and run as many f%$#ing fileservers as they wanted, and nobody had a problem with it. Now, suddenly, "it costs too much." Right. Either the Universities are full of crap, or the broadband companies are taking advantage of them. Someone is profiteering here, and the students are bearing the brunt of it.

So... yeah, DSL or Cable.

Trust me, I want to, but money is too tight to just go tossing $30/month around for that. Plus I'd need a modem, and I'd probably have to get a full year contract, and end up paying for it when I'm not in school.

And OMG. Now even GMAIL'S WEBSITE isn't working half the time. I have to refresh it like a dozen times to get it to load. In the meantime, it keeps showing me this. What bullsh!t.

Man, I hate to see you in the "real world." You're just not gonna make it.

Not to harp, but hopefully you can get the help and or medication you require.

Unplug dude. There is a whole world of friends and meeting new people and developing a personality out there. Not to metion getting laid.

I mean for fvck's sake. There is this whole world out there for you to discover and it doesn't revolve around a computer.

Wow, the great spidey07 just predicted that I need medication and I'll never succeed in life, SIMPLY based on the fact that I want NORMAL internet access! What mystical powers you possess!

I complain about my PRIMARY EMAIL ADDRESS, pretty important to most people, not loading half the time and you determine that I need to get out and meet people. I guess I'm the first kid in the world to want to play online games and check his email on campus. :disgust:

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: Mark R
The other security risk of POP3 is that it sends your password in unencrypted plain text - anyone on your LAN running a network analyser can capture your password. With many people using the same password for multiple accounts - this is also a genuine problem (albeit one that is also common to web sites that require login - however, it is more difficult to scan web traffic than POP3 traffic).

Gmail pop is encrypted...

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: spidey07
The landscape of free for all internet has drastically changed in the last 5 years, thanks in part to P2P.

Go design a couple college networks, take into account security and total cost of operation then come back and explain your rash accusation.

You know little of what you speak. Very, very, very little. I'm not gonna poke holes in yor post about "broadband" and even utter the words that you wouldn't even grasp.

there is no profiteering here, there is no conspiracy, put down the tinfoil hat and learn some before you utter such bullcrap.

The entire network communications industry shifted about 5 years ago due to network security wise.

Sorry to be so harsh, but you guys are off your rocker here.

We're sorry, but your argument could not be processed at this time in part because it lacked the following:

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Additionally, the Insult per Word Index (IWI) of your submission indicates you are attempting to sumbit a "groundless flame". If so, you have used the incorrect submission form. Instead please use our Flame Submission Form, which can be found here.

Its not a flame. Just an observation.

 

[archcommus]

Honestly I am not on the computer as much as I anticipated. I expected gaming and neffing a ton in my free time, but instead during the VERY little free time that I have I'm usually out with a friend, or talking to my girlfriend, or doing something with my mentor group/another activity/etc.

But these are BASIC things here. AT LEAST being able to update HL2 and my mapping tools. Being able to check my email through Outlook. And LOOK AT THIS picture if you haven't already. This is what Gmail's website is doing 9 times out of 10 I open it. What the hell could be causing this? Now it's even difficult to check my email that way.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Aves
Sign up for Yahoo! Mail and set it up to retrieve your mail from the POP3 server. Then you can use YPOPs! to get into your mail client.

So is YPOPs! a separate utility that does specifically utilize the normal POP3 port 110?

 

[archcommus]

Well I got a Yahoo! Mail account and set it up to retrieve from Gmail, but this actually doesn't help at all because it still needs to access the same port which is blocked. It's no different from accessing it through Outlook.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
With the unparralleled goodness that is the gmail web interface, why would you want to use trash like pop3 anyhow?

Word yo

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: archcommus
I could but that's almost definitely 768k. Here I'm getting over 4 Mbps. Just wouldn't be worth it.

Ahh, but keep in mind that's 4mbps of http-only access, versus 784kbps of content freedom. It would drive me up the wall too trying to make that decision, but even if you can get around the blocks they have, even if you can come up with a way to prevent them from stopping you, there's a 99.999% chance you can't stop them from noticing you. Unless you can get the IT staff to impliment a policy change you probably aren't going to be able to use that 4Mbps for anything that makes it worth it.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: archcommus
I could but that's almost definitely 768k. Here I'm getting over 4 Mbps. Just wouldn't be worth it.

Ahh, but keep in mind that's 4mbps of http-only access, versus 784kbps of content freedom. It would drive me up the wall too trying to make that decision, but even if you can get around the blocks they have, even if you can come up with a way to prevent them from stopping you, there's a 99.999% chance you can't stop them from noticing you. Unless you can get the IT staff to impliment a policy change you probably aren't going to be able to use that 4Mbps for anything that makes it worth it.

That is an excellent point. And $14.95 a month I can deal with. However, I'm sure they WOULD be able to move my service back home when I came home, I just wouldn't want them to. So...I'd be stuck paying it all those months when I'm at home and don't even need it.

So it'd be around 96 KB/sec of unlimited freedom. HOWEVER, is there any chance the school could not allow me to get my own internet connection at all?

 

[archcommus]

I entered my dorm phone number at verizondsl.com and it said it is currently not available for that line. However, I also tried my home phone number, and it said it isn't available for that line, either, which I'm almost 100% positive is not true. Hmm...

 

[archcommus]

Very odd, it says it's not available at my home address, yet it is available just one block up. Does that make any sense?

 

[Fardringle]

It makes perfect sense. The availability of DSL is very dependent on your distance from the central office/access point. If you are too far away, you can't get a signal no matter how much you ask. It sounds like your home address might be a block outside of the current DSL coverage area (my house is in a similar situation) and if that's the case, DSL won't be an option there until/if the phone company puts a new switch closer to your house.

 

[archcommus]

Hmm, alright then.

So anyway, cheap DSL is NOT an option. I'd have to get Comcast cable at 50-something a month. Not happening. *sigh*

 

[Jeff7]

Looks like the Internet ain't all THAT great here. 1.5GB/week for each of uploads and download. I accidentally exceeded that in 3 days. No filesharing, no pr0n either, believe it or not. Just lots of panoramas from Mars and Saturn, several update files....crazy. I'm stuck at about 1KB/sec now until Saturday night.