Networks Uni blocking all gaming applications

I need big help on this...

I moved into my halls for uni - Liverpool Hope University and I cannot access Steam, Xfire or Starcraft 2.. aka the ports are being blocked or not recognised. I really don't/cant be going without these programs for a year so if there is any ideas at all that may help please post.

In the halls there is problems with xbox live and I've tried xfire on another PC (which doesn't work also) to make sure it's on the server/router side. I've spoken to the IT tech and they only really have knowledge in HTML based ports/proxy's. So if there is any way to exclude myself from the firewall, unblock a large range of ports or anything please let me know so I can either instruct the IT staff or/and do things myself.

Thanks.

 

I've been thinking about this due to moving into halls next week.

Look into a program called Proxifier. I haven't tried it myself, but I've aquired a copy (you know, before port 19648 is blocked).

I plan on tunnelling all data (for every application) through port 80 (HTTP) which should forward properly. Or through the university's proxy details that they give you to put into Firefox/IE/etc. if that works.

 

Do you mean the IT people have no idea on how to setup a network properly??

How did they get the job?

 

opps guess uni want you learning not gaming.

 

But they are learning... learning how to hack the system...

 

we got into trouble for that at high school,

although, technically it wasn't hacking as there wasn't any security,

 

They probably don't want to say it to your face that higher ports are blocked by Uni policy, thus making gaming and probably torrenting almost impossible. It's easier saying "we don't know how to operate the big and complicated firewalls".

Don't think a lot of games are able to operate through proxies. Blizzard's surely aren't.
So, your only choice that I see at the moment is to tunnel your traffic. Getting that set up right will provide a lot more education than what those geezers with their cubic meters of books can conjure. (unless you're studying for something totally unrelated to computers, like medicine or law)

 

I think a proxy is probably your best bet. I nearly bought proxifier before i want to uni, but thankfully nothing was blocked in southampton halls. I was lucky - even torrents worked well, and I only know one person kicked from the network, which was because he left torrents running on his laptop by mistake... 52Gb down and 103Gb up in about 48Hours :O

Gotta love the speed though.

One thing with the proxy - i can't see you getting good enough ping for gaming. I could never get less than 100ms without a proxy in southampton.

Also, i found that once i started my course i didnt have time for games, and pretty much stopped playing until we broke up for summer. I guess that depends on how heavy your course is though.
When we did have time for gaming, a lot of it was done through hamachi with other guys in halls, which was the only way to get a low ping multiplayer game.

 

Okay, I'm trying that proxifier but not really got much idea how it works. I really just want xfire working... then steam etc after. So it shouldn't be too hard right? I'll have to look up how to work it though

Keeps your help coming guys - really need it.

 

Can you get or are you allowed a dedicated phone line installed into your rooms in the hall of residence? (not sure never been to one)

 

not normally. In my halls we had IP phones, and weren't allowed to do anything at all to the rooms.

 

I'm looking up a forum topic to get xfire going via a tunnel proxy however being the first time I've played with proxies I'm having trouble getting stuff going and working around the program.

I've got up to part 4 and I'm a bit lost on the host file, not really sure where to go if it's in the program or am I setting up a file in more the windows files etc? Also in step 3 is it okay to use "192.168.0.1 25999" as the proxy server as displayed in the guide? or do I have to get a different IP?

Bit of a noob with proxies at the moment so any help will be really really good. Thanks!

 

Your hosts file is C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. Just open it with Notepad and add the line at the bottom.

192.168.0.1 needs to be changed to the IP of the proxy server that you're tunnelling through.

You know, if you use Proxifier you can transparently tunnel all connections through the proxy automatically.

 

Sure, just ask the university to unblock them... if they refuse, ask for valid reasons and they'll give you bs. Write to whoever is above them and watch a brickwall of death go flying through their mailbox?

Or are your universities network enginners totally devoid of human life and completly incapable of understanding anything other than binary? If so, Forward them a formal letter of complaint in nothing but binary requesting everything (in full)... 610 pages of abuse from a gamer in binary would be truly fantastic.

 

At Liverpool Hope I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know.

We've had the conversation of uni ports being blocked... Halls networks != academic networks, unfortunately they often get painted with the same brush. Lots of uni students will have a 360 and want to play on Live!

 

Although that is the case that many university students will want to play on Live/download things/play on steam etc. Does not mean that the university accommodation has to provide the ability to do so.

Writing to the people higher up than the IT guys at the halls will get you nowhere (at least in my mates experience that was the case)

For example, Leicester Uni limit your internet use like crazy in their halls. But what you have to bear in mind is that it is their Halls and they are entitled to limit what you do with the internet they are providing.

Yes, I am part of the population that would much rather online games and other such things were allowed in university halls, but at the end of the day, you are at university to learn and not play games, and they will always fall back on that in any dispute you bring up, because you can not call them out on it, and you will not win.

It isn't as if they are impeding on your human rights after-all.

I am not going to sit here and say that you should spend every second you are awake working, I certainly didn't (perhaps if I did I would have done better......) but I guess it comes under - 'when you are under my roof, you obey by my rules'

 

Go and get drunk and do some shagging.

Thatswhats halls are for.

 

Pompy halls are fine with us gaming. We've got a 360 and a PS3 hooked up to the network, as well as God knows how many PC's gaming, we had a LAN game of Halo the other day. It's fairly awesome

 

Yeah good luck with that. It's subsidised university accommodation, not a private landlord. You can't tell them what to do.

They have blocked those ports deliberately so the network is not used for gaming and illegal downloading via torrents, because, you know, they want you to use it for your studies.

^^this - a subsidised bar and 100s of teenage girls all under one roof? With my reputation.....?

 

when i went to uni at cardiff they are all blocked too.

way around it is to use HTTP tunnelling - thats what some people did at my halls.