Disabled P2P on campus internet - no way around?

The craziest thing happened. I have recently moved to Portugal for a one semester exchange program and opted for accommodation with that which the university had to offer. Problem is that the P2P ports are blocked for the local internet and I have recently received a Diablo 3 beta invite (just my luck ). As you can imagine, I cannot download anything with a p2p connection, let alone a 14GB client. Can't even play SC2 in offline mode.

So, I went to the IT department and been told that it is the only thing they can offer. Not surprisingly they also told me that the internet is for "academic purposes only" at which point I felt kind of weird.

Wired internet is out of my reach. The local ISPs offer long term contracts for their data plans (1 year) and I'm only going to be around until late January + I don't think they would even drag a cable around the residence.

Later, I looked up what the mobile carriers had to offer with their 3G internet, but it seemed kinda expensive for their unlimited data plans (35 euro s per month and an additional 30 euro s for the dongle).

I'm not looking for a long term solution and I can really do without p2p internet until January, but the beta won't last that long and I'm dying here to try it out. I also promised that I will update NBR with anything concerning the beta - in case I receive an invite.

So what are my options guys?

 

If you're willing to pay

google "hidemyass VPN"


Or PM me for a TPB link

 

Desktop or laptop?

Laptop -> go find free wifi somewhere. Tons of places: restaurants, hotels, etc. have that available.

If you have a desktop, you'll have to figure out how to work around the p2p limitation. I'm sure we can help with that. TPB is still torrent based, he might as well just download it from the proper source, that doesn't help him. The problem is blizzard's game download client is torrent based.

Another strategy would be to scour the web for a normal web download of the file. or find someone you trust anywhere else in the world, but not on campus, give them your login credentials, have them download the thing, and then provide you with an http download link (they would upload the file to a host private host)

 

I had a similar problem last year and I couldn't find any work around. Luckily the ports were only blocked for a couple weeks before the whole campus was in an uproar and the IT department was forced to unblock the ports. I looked at 3g as well and found it was ridiculously expensive, not to mention I had to pay per GB of data used over 2GB. The only advice I can give is to go somewhere that offers free wifi and download the beta there. Do you need internet access to play the beta?

You could always send me the beta and I'll let you know how it is

 

Also, in addition to my post. Try this pro xpn

 

I'm on the move, so laptop. Thought about using a public place, but 14gigs will take some time. I also think I need a constant p2p link in order to play it, so it could take some time and I don't really want to leech around/ sleep in a public place for that long.

Thought about using proxies and Hidemyass looks ok, but can anyone shed some experiences with their paid services? I would like to have at least one thought on this before I dive head on.

Will try ProXPN now.

 

btw, don't use proxpn. here's a better one its hidden

5gb limit per day tho :/ 100$ per year for unlimited bandwidth

 

If your paying for some sort of http tunnel, that's gonna be rough. Can you figure out what they blocked exactly?

 

If there is anything specific you want to know and you want me to diagnose the network, please point out what I should use in order to do this. It may be easier for both of us.

 

I don't think you need the common p2p ports open just to play it, btw. It's just the download client that requires that.

 

If you are just trying to download something (some f2p games use only torrents for their downloads), use a torrent proxy (plenty free ones available). Here is one that worked for me:


EDIT:
I may have misunderstood the OP. Have you downloaded the game, and are unable to play it? Or are you not able to download the game at all? Either way, this may help (free):
http://download.cnet.com/hotspot-shield/?tag=mncol;2

 

I agree that p2p won't be necessary for running the game. Also, utorrent isn't going to help the OP. He has beta access. The game download is offered using a custom p2p client, you can't use utorrent.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, but I already tried Hotspot Shield. I cannot establish a connection. I keep getting the "connecting" message with several attempts until it disconnects entirely.

As masterchief said, the game download is using a custom p2p client and the server is also separate just for the beta.

I tried HMA's VPN service, but the game client download does not start. HOWEVER, I managed to get SC2 working with VPN. The game initiated it's patch client and downloaded the latest updates (1.4.0 and 1.4.1). The game connection was still slow. Did not try multiplayer yet, but I managed to log in. I could not even use offline mode without VPN so if p2p is not necessary to run the game, maybe it is something else.

I still have yet to try their PPTP service, but so far, I could not establish a solid proxy connection and while most of them connected, they usually dropped within a few minutes. Closest proxy supported by the software is 182 km away.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that before VPN, the diablo 3 beta client usually prompted me with the message: "ERROR: Unable to initialize streaming. Please check your Internet connection. If this problem persists, please contact Blizzard Technical Support. (CreateStreamingManifest::Execute)". With VPN enabled the game does not prompt me with any message. It just says: "Installing" with no visible progress on the bar.

It would be ideal if I could download the client from another source.

 

Blizzard downloaders can disable P2P and download directly from their servers. Look for an options menu in the launcher and uncheck the box that says "Enable P2P Transfers". I had to use this when I lived at university housing.

 

I actually tried accessing the "Downloader Preferences", but this option is grayed out. It is there, but I can't open it.

 

bem vindo a Portugal
welcome to Portugal. yes there's many ways around.
It really depends on where you are trying to access. eduroam network does not block p2p... and every university in Portugal uses it.

 

Wait- so you can't play SC2 without going through your network tunnel?

Why is that? You need to go back to IT and ask what ports exactly they are blocking.

 

I can't play SC2 without my network tunnel.

The ports used by Blizz for all their services are: 1119, 1120, 3724, 4000, 6112, 6113, 6114, 6881-6999. I can't guess which ones aren't blocked, but I don't think it is that easy just to walk into the IT department and demand to know which ports are blocked.

Could you also share more info on eduroam? Could youse the help.

EDIT: I'm also waiting for a response from Blizz Tech Support. I filed them the error.

 

Check those ports with canuseeme.org or something similar to see which are blocked. You can also look up the ports for D3 and see which are blocked. Your VPN has a lot of control- in addition to blocking ports, they could also simply block access to blizzard's servers by name.

 

just ask them for the eduroam credentials. then you'll have no problems.

 

i dont no about the diablo 3 download client but the SC2 one has an option to turn off p2p downloading and then it just downloads like a normal https download dont no if this is possible in the D3 client thou.

Also the best tool i have found for getting around blocked ports or uni filters is Hotspot shield you download it. I have found it really useful in the past

 

If the IT department said that the provided internet is for academic use only then you should respect that and not try to get around it. When you finish university and pay for your own connection then you can do whatever you want with it, but when you share a connection with others you should respect the rules.

You will have the rest of your life to play video games so a few months without Diablo won't kill you. Maybe go out and enjoy your time abroad instead of playing games.

 

Yeah! Let me know if you need suggestions on what to do in Portugal, especially Lisbon. It's a wonderful country

 

Like I said, this is temporary. Neither am I looking for a long term solution, nor am I trying to do anything illegal. The school internet is my last resort. Besides, the beta can be bled dry in 1 day, but that is not the point. I've received this beta for a reason and, like I said, I would have liked to keep NBR posted on this.

I would have gotten an expensive 3G data plan if the situation would have been that desperate. As for my time abroad, I think I'm doing pretty well. Visited Lisbon a month ago, went to Porto recently for 3 days and climbed Torre last weekend. I already booked tix for Madeira in late November. I don't know where all this prejudice comes from. [Insert anti-social gamer jokes here]

Thanks for the advice, but you may have misunderstood my post.

 

He is paying for it and I've never heard of a college or university that restricted use of the internet to academic uses. Makes no sense.

Regardless, irrelevant to the thread.

 

He's paying for what, exactly? Most colleges and universities monitor and control their networks. Some monitor and control more than others. Many restrict P2P usage.

 

The argument that he's getting anything for free at college is absurd. I don't see a problem with restricting P2P, but saying that a student can only use the internet for academic purposes is silly.

 

If it were wifi in a lecture theatre then that I could understand, but given that students live there for a vast amount of time saying that "it's only for academic use" is a little unfair. University isn't all about education.

Also, yes he is paying for it, just like eveyone else is. It's not like anything you get from university is actually free.

 

P2P is banned at my university too. We get blacklisted it we are running P2P software. I'd like to find a way around this so I can use it again.

 

For the time being you could use some MAC spoofing software.

 

NBR will last without your diablo "updates"
Just focus on school for once and have a life?

 

Uhoh, doombug, looks like your mom found this thread.

 

cough buy a $1-$5/month low end (linux) box from Low End Box - Cheap VPS Hosting Providers Listing & Reviews. run everything through it like a proxy/ssh tunnel. might be slow, but I can get at least 300kb/s sustained transfer from my VPSes, which should be good enough. of course ping/latency might be an issue, so get one close to your location

 

Sounds legit. How difficult is it to setup? I've never used anything like that before, but if it's relatively easy to get working I'll try it out.

 

While I agree that it would be nice to provide unrestricted internet access at universities, it certainly isn't a requirement. If you intend to live on campus, I would look into universities that provide good services, including laundry in your building, easy access to food, and Internet. You should evaluate these things BEFORE you sign up, because these services are not provided universaly. The argument of entitlement by payment doesn't apply here, because although I'm sure he paid plenty to attend the university, he did not specifically pay for unrestricted internet access.

So when you say he deserves it because he's paying for it, you're unfortunately incorrect. Again, many colleges and universities have similar policies.

 

It's still absurd to expect a resident student to not use the internet aside from academic uses and no American school I've heard of or gone to has such a policy. I'm not saying he deserves P2P access because he pays tuition, I'm saying it's unrealistic and unfair to expect students not to use the internet for entertainment purposes.

/derail

 

So in the states I'm not aware of the rarity of strict academic use only policies for Internet usage. I do know that it is common in the USA for universities to block p2p completely (although mine did not). I believe academic use only policies are more common outside of the USA, but it's up to the institution either way.

 

I agree, I just thought the argument that the internet was free to him was ridiculous, as is the notion that students should not expect to use the internet for uses outside academic pursuits.

 

I'm from Portugal and I can clearly say that THIS IS NOT a normal situation. I've been in literally more then 100 universities here and they DO NOT block anykind of service or port or they do anykind of traffic shapping or forbig the usage other then strict academic. Actually I was NEVER ever unable not to log in and use p2p. Sometimes we even make small lan parties.
THIS specific thread is about a very specific exception. The op does not have direct access to an account. That's why there's a problem for him. If he had he could access not only get full access in his university but could with the same credentials get access in every other university in Portugal and even others in many parts of the world.

 

whoops, i meant 300kbps

(most hosts have either a 1gbps or 100mbps shared among the VPS... one server might have 32GB memory / 128mb vps = 256 clients + overselling = 300 clients sharing that pipe)

if you just use simple SOCKS proxy, it's easy... just set up an ssh tunnel ( eg use putty, with a port forward). no setup/knowledge of ubuntu required

HOWTO: Secure Firefox and IM with PuTTY | Thinkhole Labs

if you need more than SOCKS (like some programs don't allow you to configure), then you could install OpenVPN on the server and make ALL internet proxy through the OpenVPN <-- more complicated, need to follow instructions like Install OpenVPN on Ubuntu, Hulu Outside the US and Network Security | Ventanazul

 

Now that I think about it, you're right. I have been to 5 or 6 universities here in Portugal, and in all of them my username/password credentials for the "eduroam" network were accepted, and I got access to the Internet. However, I never tried to use anything like p2p there, so I had just assumed that all universities block it.

I can, however, confirm that I never had any problem with port-blocking in the universities even though I use a few non-standard programs (like LogMeIn, Putty, etc).

 

So you will restrict your education because they block P2P? Ok, makes sense.

And entitlement does apply. Restricting internet for "educational" purposes only is like saying you can only talk about your curriculum, no small talk, can only use electricity for educational purchases, and all phone calls have to be strictly related to education.

Heck even some classes have you play a certain game as part of the curriculum. What if you're in video game design, network design, or anything that would require p2p?

In any case, hope OP gets it worked out.

 

What?

All portugal's universities are on a single registration system, but also offer public (restricted) access to anyone. Is this what you're saying?

Also- any institution that provides Internet access for over 1000 people uses traffic shaping. There would not be any obvious way for you to know as and end user.

 

Check Eduroam network website and you'll understand how it works and you can check the universities in use. But basically if you are a professor or a student you get the credentials that allows you to connect to any eduroam network, that means you can access in thousands of universities around the world, mainly in Europe. In Portugal I do not known any university that doesn't have their network connected to Eduroam. Free access everywhere, anytime, without any limit.

Traffic shapping as a meaning to restrict P2P or other uses it is not used. But it depends on the institution. Most cases access we have a 1gbps connection. Being upgraded to 10gbps in some. But it variates a lot.
I use it all the time either on my notebook or in my cell phone. It's really good since I really don't make any calls using my carrier, I use voip instead and save hundreds, since most times I'm at home or at university.
Also in some places you can access using a lan instead of wifi. Really great speeds and pings =)

Universities around here work very differently from USA ones. Education here is supposed to be universal and free for everyone, like healthcare. Usually the fee that you pay is less then 750€ per year.

 

so if he doesn't have eduroam, how is he connecting at all?

 

eduroam > faq

What is eduroam?

eduroam (education roaming) allows users (researchers, teachers, students, staff) from participating institutions to securely access the Internet from any eduroam-enabled institution. The eduroam principle is based on the fact that the user's authentication is done by the user's home institution, whereas the authorisation decision allowing access to the network resources is done by the visited network.

He's using another network inside the university. Often there are several networks, not just one. He doesn't have eduroam access.

 

There is one on our campus! I noticed it on my iPod Touch when I was in class. I thought it was someone's tethered 3G phone at first!

 

If your an engineering major, I think those are mutually exclusive?

Also blocking P2P makes no sense....there is a lot of open source software that requires P2P....and a lot of it is academic and/or helps with academics? One of my engineering professors made me download something over p2p.

And if you are staying in a dorm you are paying for your internet.....

 

we've already discussed this particular point.