My school assigning bandwidth priority to browsing and not to instant messaging?

[BurtonCCC]

So my girlfriend and I got webcams so we can see each other and talk to each other "face to face" while we're at separate schools. Instant messaging has always kind of sucked at my school. AIM takes multiple times to log in, Yahoo randomly loses connection, except I can receive what she's saying, but she can't get anything I am. Weird stuff. We've also now found that the webcams work rarely. The school's connection isn't bad either; browsing is pretty quick. Has the school been able to prioritize what applications and activities get the most speed from their connection? I'm sure filesharing is slowed down, but why instant messaging? Some people need that to keep their relationships fresh and exciting!

Is there any way to, even though I'm plugged into their internet, bypass any of their network settings or limits?

Dan.

 

[cayley]

One thing you might try is using the Web based IM clients.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

jeez you're lucky!

at my school, almost all pages are blocked, IM clients aren't allowed, and even some features of Word and similar programs are blocked!

 

[Osarkon]

You could try changing the ports the IM Clients use, although I honestly have no idea if that would help, it depends entirely on how the school have set the system up.

I also am astonished your school allows you to use IM services, my old one was a bit trigger happy with the filtering and we couldn't even use web based IM, and by the end of my school years Ebay was filtered ( that's what you get for daring the I.T teacher to do it as a joke of how silly they'd gone with the filters )

 

[neonblue2]

My school's filtering system has gone crazy lately. I tried to search "women priests" in Google and it came up with the school filtering page. Then my mate next to me tried a favourite forum of his (doesn't usually work) and it worked. WTF!

Anyway, if we find a site we can't get to we just put it in here.
http://www.anybrowser.com/siteviewer.html

 

[Sdashiki]

http://www.meebo.com

 

[LtRammstein]

I am going to take a wild shot at this, and I'm going to say packet shaping. My university used to be as bad as yours. I would use MSN and I would not be able to reply to people I talk to.

I would talk to your resident network (resnet) or IT department and tell them your problem. Hopefully they'll have a big enough heart to help you out.

Until then, I would use these guys suggestions.

Steve