How do you get through a firewall?

[LiekOMG]

My friend just got a new computer this fall. However he also just started college. It turns out that his college has some kind of firewall in place, and you can't play ANY games online. All you can do is browse the net. Is there some way to get through a firewall so he can play Counterstrike or UT or tribes or everquest(this one monstly) online? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[geoff2k]

What brand of firewall is the college using? Do they allow any other non-HTTP traffic out?

 

[LiekOMG]

I'm not sure what kind of firewall it is. But as far as he told me, only port 80 is open (basically only web browsing). In something like ICQ he can tell it to send files through port 80, but in games you simply can't do that. He tried some kind of program called "fox somethingorother" (don't remember the name), but it didn't work. Any suggestions?

 

[HD2GO]

I am sure there are ways to overcome a firewall from either the inside or the outside. However, I am sure you are aware of the following;

- bypassing a firewall or any security devices from the inside normally results in termination of your usage right in that network and/or termination of your membership in that organization/college/school.
- attempts to break into a network that you are not a member of is a crime.

Good luck.

 

[LiekOMG]

I don't think my friend is planning to break into any office building or anything. He simply wants to know if there is some program that can allow games to be played through a firewall. I know many businesses have firewalls active, and yet people still manage to play online games on them somehow. I'm just asking how this can be done.

 

[cparker]

the secret word is "tunnelling" or more correctly "http tunnelling". This allows an application to send/receive data through port 80 by emulating an http protocol based operation such as a web page to browser communication link. Probably those who play games through a firewall are doing something like that and the game software has provisions for tunnelling. Tunnelling probably takes a big performance hit compared with direct non port 80 communications, but it works through firewalls. Alternatively, if someone controls the firewall he/she can map out a port for the game application so it bypasses the firewall. But, obviously, your friend doesn't control the firewall at his university, so he probably will have to either use tunnelling or not bother with it, and focus on other types of campus fun and games, if not his studies.

 

[LiekOMG]

Well, he's a computer nerd like most of us here, and spends most of his time on his PC. This tunneling software sounds interesting. Can you give any recommendations for programs that do this?

 

[LiekOMG]

anyone? please?

 

[BigToque]

You could ask the guy running the firewall if he (she?) could set something up. That way you dont get in trouble when you get caught.

 

[ctowle]

Sounds like a network admin is finally doing his job. Good luck, but I doubt you will find a way around it.

 

[Russ]

DOACleric,

Did you even read HD2GO's post? If the SysAdmin has a firewall setup, it's there for a reason. Your friend can, and probably will, get his account nuked if he tries to circumvent the security measures the college has put in to place.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Optikal]

if you know the IP address that you are trying to connect to you could easily write a utility that will route the traffic from the game through port 80. In the game you would just type in your own IP address as the one to connect to then have your utility listening on the port that the game uses, and have the utility make the connection to the target IP using local port 80 and have it simply forward all traffic it receives from the game to the remote host.

Of course this is assuming he knows how to program. If he does it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to write such a utility. I've done it before and it was simple.

 

[GL]

If you tunnel through port 80, the admin won't be able to tell that the guy is playing games. I'm not an expert, but I think the way tunnelling works, is the packets sent by the game are encapsulating inside HTTP packets and then send through port 80. Somewhere in the process, the packets must be converted from HTTP back to the native format, and vice versa. Quite honestly, I don't know how to do this in a windows environment. If the guy had a linux box setup I'm pretty sure he could set this up and it would be straightforward. But, as someone mentioned, he'll get a big performance hit. If he wants to play games, maybe he should get his own direct net connection.

-GL