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Torrents in College

Fazzl

Fazzl

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 13, 2007
580
4
Can anyone help out fellow college students here? My University has 801.2 (or something similar to that forgot the exact name) login for our wireless network. Either that or we can log in using Cisco VPN.

Is there any way to hide my torrent activity? My school does not block ports or anything so I can dl torrents easily but I want to hide it so my school cannot monitor what i am downloading. Because in the previous years they sent me letters showing exactly what i was downloading along with times etc and this is no good.

Thanks.
 
Fazzl said:
Can anyone help out fellow college students here? My University has 801.2 (or something similar to that forgot the exact name) login for our wireless network. Either that or we can log in using Cisco VPN.

Is there any way to hide my torrent activity? My school does not block ports or anything so I can dl torrents easily but I want to hide it so my school cannot monitor what i am tracking. Because in the previous years they sent me letters showing exactly what i was downloading along with times etc and this is no good.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I believe you probably signed something relating to their ability to track what you do on their network. If you don't like it then get off their network. And before you ask, yes I went to college and used their network and signed such consent ... hence me knowing and not supporting your cause.

Frankly, any purported illegal activity that you may want to hide will have to be hidden after you do your own research as I do not believe this type of discussion is permitted here.
 
i never stated i was doing anything illegal did I?
 
Fazzl said:
i never stated i was doing anything illegal did I?
Click to expand...

Then you should probably specify the kinds of torrents you want to DL behind the school's back, lest we assume the worst, and Jessica is right, its not supported here.

If your motives are legal, it would be in yours, and your education's best interest to not DL anything you dont want your school to see on their network. Dont take the risk.
 
Fazzl said:
i never stated i was doing anything illegal did I?
Click to expand...

But it is clear that you are trying to circumvent monitoring. And since you are already clearly trying to break the rules at your university, it is a very logical step that you are trying to do so to hide bad behavior. It is an easy step from there to illegal downloading.

Please grow up. We aren't going to help you do something illegal, and trying to trick people into it is just further dishonesty, and rather a weak and contemptible attempt.
 
Assuming you are going to download 100% legal stuff...


I am assuming you will need to enter your user name and password to access the network? if this is the case, then the issue is a bit difficult...mmm...have you tried using a proxy to navigate through the network and then download the torrentz?

Edit: if this works, there is still a risk, the Uni. may have an intelligent IT personal who may still able to track you. Just to warn you.
 
Fazzl said:
i never stated i was doing anything illegal did I?
Click to expand...

Attempting to bypass your school's IT policy may not be "illegal" but it's against policy ... another thing I am a fan of.

Let's be real. If you weren't doing something kind of wrong would you really care if your school knew what you were up to?

thegoldenmackid said:
I guess I have never been at a school like that. You would think they would just block the OP, rather then give him/her a printout of what he/she has done.
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I don't think the printout was to show what he is doing wrong, just what he is doing. It may be standard. I can get one at work if I find someone who is doing 1/2 the work everyone else does.
 
jessica. said:
I don't think the printout was to show what he is doing wrong, just what he is doing. It may be standard. I can get one at work if I find someone who is doing 1/2 the work everyone else does.
Click to expand...
But I don't understand why that would be bad, unless the OP was doing something illegal or against the rules.
 
I couldn't agree with you more. I am simply stating, and I think you're stating it alongside of me, that I believe the printout is just to show him what he does. It's not intended to be something that is showing he is doing something wrong. However, coming here and trying to find a way to bypass what I consider to be policy ... that speaks volumes.
Personally, I couldn't care less what he does. I am simply saying that it's not something I've seen around here as acceptable discussion. I am not a mod therefore I cannot be 100% sure but I've had my fair share of time to read some rules. ;)
 
One way they can tell if you are using torrents/p2p is if there is a sudden burst of connections being made by your computer. Because most regular apps usually won't be making 20+ connections to different addresses within 5 seconds, it would most likely signify that you are using torrents/p2p.
 
get hotspot shield. i'm able to visit all the sites that my school blocks. it also conceals all the legal ;) stuff i download. but seriously, it actually is legal.
 
Buy a seedbox for 20 bucks a month and download your "legal" torrents to your computer via FTP. Really though, if it was legal content, why would you worry about your school tracking what you downloaded? :D

Oh, and by the way, even Stephen Fry admits to downloading TV shows via BitTorrent...P2P is not necessarily a bad thing if you're trying to catch up on a TV show that you missed or if you use it "fairly" but reselling copyrighted content is just wrong and which I find disgusting. :mad: Just my opinion...
 
Fazzl said:
i never stated i was doing anything illegal did I?
Click to expand...

Colleges don't send the type of letters you admit to receiving unless you are downloading copyrighted material. They have automatic filters in place that examine the file names of your torrent downloads and will detect violations. I was never into that sort of thing but in my various experiences living in college/university dorms, I know many other people who received similar letters.

Just don't do it.
 
I work in an IT dept. at a university. We do not allow file sharing software, however they have caught a few students trying to get around it and their mac has been blacklisted. We had a student get their e-mail account hacked into from some kind of bad malware they got and his e-mail account was used to send 100K+ spam messages, thus causing our domain to get banned from hotmail, yahoo, etc..... for quite some time. I don't know the policy of your schools IT dept., but I would suggest not getting caught whether it is legal or not.
 
If its legal torrents then it should be a problem, if you downloading music then it might be a problem Might being that the only people I known to have received warnings were sharing music, people I know who strictly download without sharing seem to be safe for now at least.
 
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