Damn the University IT blocked my Internet access

[MobiusPizza]

Your port has been blocked due to a suspected breach of acceptable use policy.

Acceptable use policy

So unlucky these days

I admit I used Bit Torrent for "Linux ISO"s
Anyway I wasn't abusing the network at all. The overall bandwidth (upload + download) seldom exceed 20kb/s

I don't understand why they blocked my Intranet as well. Can't even retrieve e-mails and time-tables

I don't get why such restriction is in place. My friends from other unis don't have these restrictions. The most severe restriction is only the around 10GB/month data transfer which I would prefer than mine one.

 

[brtspears2]

Go cry to your ResNET folks? It clearly says you cannot use p2p apps but you choose to.

 

[Cheetah8799]

You need to talk to the IT folks about it if you are certain you weren't doing anything illegal.

You'd be suprised how big of a problem internet bandwidth usage is at schools. It costs a fortune, and most of it is used for non-university related junk, a lot of which is illegal content...

 

[randal]

Maybe it's because downloading copyrighted material is illegal. This is not a "WE HATE ANNIHILATORX AND WANT TO MAKE HIS LIFE MISERABLE;" it's very obvious that it is a catch all blanket designed to stop people from creating a potentially serious situation. Call the helpdesk, let them know that you are not an er33t hax0r and maybe they'll help you out.

Whatever you do, don't try to circumvent their network - I'd come kick your butt personally 😉

 

[AmberClad]

Wow, that's strict. We can get about 800MB - 1GB of bandwidth a day before our IT people start complaining. And I haven't heard of a case where someone loses their access simply by using P2P, unless they receive a complaint from the RIAA/MPAA, which is rare.

 

[BDawg]

Did anyone notice that Linux ISOs was in quotation marks?

 

[Exsomnis]

Unacceptable Use

* Using Peer to Peer file sharing applications (e.g. Bittorrent, Kazaa, Gnutella, DC++)

You linked to the acceptable use policy and it's written right there, it even says Bittorrent specifically as one example. What on earth posessed you to go and do it anyway, what did you think would happen?

You need to go beg for your internet priviledges back, but I'm affraid I won't sympathise if they say no.

 

[MobiusPizza]

I am sure it wasn't really the illegal issue that they care about; They had been wetting their pants try to isolate performance issues.

I am not too sure. Since there's no way I was overloading the network at 20kbytes/s. It is definitely stricter than other University. And AmberClad this is UK so even if we have 100GB traffic limit we won't ever reach that cause Internet here are at ADSL speed.

And Randal I ain't too sure about that 😛 My friends had been using BT, DC++ etc as much as I do. May be I'm just damn unlucky. Lady luck isn't with me for quite a week already

Earlier they did not have DC++ the P2P program on their list; Literally people shared several terrabytes of movies, games, p0rn there on campus; since it's within the campus it's a local area network. The file transfer rate were at high as 8MBytes/s. Then no long later they listed DC++ on the AUP as well.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: Exsomnis

Unacceptable Use

* Using Peer to Peer file sharing applications (e.g. Bittorrent, Kazaa, Gnutella, DC++)

You linked to the acceptable use policy and it's written right there, it even says Bittorrent specifically as one example. What on earth posessed you to go and do it anyway, what did you think would happen?

You need to go beg for your internet priviledges back, but I'm affraid I won't sympathise if they say no.

The point I was trying to make was that they didn't mention blocking the intranet access, which to me is unreasonable ...

Anyway I am not arguing about anything, just feel like blogging about it 🙁

 

[AmberClad]

What if you were using an legitimate app (ssh, etc), and you had set it to use the default BitTorrent by mistake? They still would cut off your network access?

 

[Juice Box]

at U of Illinois we get 750mb total BW before they knock us down to 32k/s 🙁

If we reach 1gig, we get knocked down to 10k/s which is shared between everyone else in that rate class 🙁

And it goes on a 24 hour grid, so if you DL 500 megs in one hour...that 500 wont get subtracted from your total until 24 hours later 🙁🙁

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: BDawg
Did anyone notice that Linux ISOs was in quotation marks?

XD good find
I was about to download some but before I could do that it's blocked
Anyway the stuff I was downloading before that was in grey area in legal terms so

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
What if you were using an legitimate app (ssh, etc), and you had set it to use the default BitTorrent by mistake? They still would cut off your network access?

Set ssh to use BT? hm what does that mean?

 

[AmberClad]

When you run an ssh server, you can specify that it uses a port other than port 22. Some admins might do it for security reasons because script kiddies tend to scan for open ssh ports on port 22. I'm guessing that your University monitors which ports are receiving traffic, and they saw the default BitTorrent port. Which brings up two questions:

- What if someone runs their ssh server using the BitTorrent port by mistake?
- What if someone sets BitTorrent to use something other than the default BT port?

 

[Juno]

Originally posted by: Juice Box
at U of Illinois we get 750mb total BW before they knock us down to 32k/s 🙁

If we reach 1gig, we get knocked down to 10k/s which is shared between everyone else in that rate class 🙁

And it goes on a 24 hour grid, so if you DL 500 megs in one hour...that 500 wont get subtracted from your total until 24 hours later 🙁🙁

sh!t, that sucks.

at RIT, i can download as much as i want. if resnet finds out then my account will be suspended until i whine to get lifted.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
When you run an ssh server, you can specify that it uses a port other than port 22. Some admins might do it for security reasons because script kiddies tend to scan for open ssh ports on port 22. I'm guessing that your University monitors which ports are receiving traffic, and they saw the default BitTorrent port. Which brings up two questions:

- What if someone runs their ssh server using the BitTorrent port by mistake?
- What if someone sets BitTorrent to use something other than the default BT port?

I don't know how it works. But I doubt it is checked through ports. I would think it's checked through packet inspection like look for patterns in packet headers. Because when I used BitComet I used a non-standard port of 50000. Default BT port is 6881

But I remember that there was an option to encrypt headers in Bit comet. I think mine was set to auto

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: jewno

Originally posted by: Juice Box
at U of Illinois we get 750mb total BW before they knock us down to 32k/s 🙁

If we reach 1gig, we get knocked down to 10k/s which is shared between everyone else in that rate class 🙁

And it goes on a 24 hour grid, so if you DL 500 megs in one hour...that 500 wont get subtracted from your total until 24 hours later 🙁🙁

sh!t, that sucks.

at RIT, i can download as much as i want. if resnet finds out then my account will be suspended until i whine to get lifted.

Do they not even asked you a question when they lift it for you?

 

[toekramp]

ah, the gold old days... at VT we could get 300+ gig a month with no issues 🙂

 

[Juno]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX

Originally posted by: jewno

Originally posted by: Juice Box
at U of Illinois we get 750mb total BW before they knock us down to 32k/s 🙁

If we reach 1gig, we get knocked down to 10k/s which is shared between everyone else in that rate class 🙁

And it goes on a 24 hour grid, so if you DL 500 megs in one hour...that 500 wont get subtracted from your total until 24 hours later 🙁🙁

sh!t, that sucks.

at RIT, i can download as much as i want. if resnet finds out then my account will be suspended until i whine to get lifted.

Do they not even asked you a question when they lift it for you?

they told me not to waste bandwidth next time so my account got lifted. that was two years ago. 😕

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX

Originally posted by: BDawg
Did anyone notice that Linux ISOs was in quotation marks?

XD good find
I was about to download some but before I could do that it's blocked
Anyway the stuff I was downloading before that was in grey area in legal terms so

I don't feel bad then. When it's your network, you can do what you want.

See if they'll let you terminate a T-1 in your dorm room.