College is blocking downloads?

Question

My college blocks every kind of download possible. My computer says that it's being controlled by the administrators "group policy." I've tried proxy servers and it just doesn't work. I want to download a torrent for a game, but have no way of doing so. It always says, 'download was cancelled by peer'. Any suggestions/solutions?

Im using a computer I brought from home.

Is there anyway to go unnoticed by the administrators? Like hide my computer or something?

Answer 1

Do you log in to the school's network? If so then their group policies apply. If you are the administrator of the computer (which I would say you are, as it is your machine) then you can look at the security settings they are using. Run MMC from the start menu and/or run some of the administrative tools from the computer's start menu.

Try not to log in to the school's network and just access the internet from your machine. If you can do that you might by-pass the login scripts that are changing the Group Policy settings. Some networks may not allow internet access without a login, but most networks do not limit internet access to local usernames.

As for what the college can limit, they can limit anything they wish and can do so quite easily. All they need to do is to configure their routers to only allow outgoing connections on limited ports. You could try some other ports for your incoming/outgoing connections. Examples include 81 (alt HTTP port), 8080 (alt HTTP port), 443 (HTTPS port). Not sure if they would work. But P2P programs need to have routers configured in many cases to allow ports to be forwarded. Being behind a router/switch means they can set any limits and/or settings they wish.

Answer 2

Short of getting to know the IT guys, and having sex with them, there is probably no way for 2 reasons.

1. Colleges are being sued left and right because of students using the college network to steal music, software, games etc by P2P (Limewire) or Bit Torrent.

2. Colleges must protect their network from malware (especially worms). A single student's infected computer could conceivably infect the entire network. Pirated software is often loaded with viruses and other malware.

Answer 3

There is nothing you can do. If the network administrator blocked it in a group policy there is nothing on your end you can do to get around it.

This was a smart thing done by the administrator. Frustrating to you I'm sure but it is done so that the whole network isn't ruined by viruses and also it keeps bandwidth available for more important things.

Answer 4

My advice is to go into your computer and view the control panel. Once there you should see an icon to click on that will lead you to your firewall options. At this menu you should be capable of turning off your firewalls that are currently enabled. Once you have done so then return to the WoW Launcher and when the patch starts to download it should hopefully work. If you are still having problems then you should try asking the administration at the college to manually add the site that the patch is downloading from. You are capable of doing this as well on the Firewall options page.

Answer 5

Their computers, their rules. The proxy rights are something that cannot be circumvented because it's local set by the server, not a proxy setting.

THese are school computers, not personal computers for games. Follow the rules and do your gaming on someone else's machine. ]]

Answer 6

What kind of computer are you using? If you are using a school's library computer they probably have a heavy duty security system on there and it will probably be hard to bypass. Just wait until you get home to play it. You wouldn't want to be blamed for getting them a virus would you?