Tech School Firewall

[virtual_bouncer]

Needless to say, I'm awful new at this. I do several non-malicious things that require a telnet or ssh connection to various webservers. I mainly use these as 'bounces' to get to a MUD that I play. The school I go to, which just happens to be a tech school, has blocked telnet and ssh services through the router that is nearly 2000 miles away from here. My question is, with massively restricted rights and priveledges, is there a way to connect to (linux command line) bash, or a freeBSD web domain, both allowing me capabilities to use telnet from the remote server. I am unable to install any outside software that requires registry edits, again telnet and ssh is blocked, and I have no access to the router. I've read up on HTTP-tunneling and wonder if its possible with my restricted priveledges. I also have PuTTY on my machine, but am a novice with in depth protocols and completely clueless with tunneling. Any help would be appreciated.

[Connie]

Are you connecting to the Internet with your schools ISP? If so why would you want to violate the Schools policies?

[virtual_bouncer]

Its just a simple request, I have no desire to perform any malicious acts, which is why the policies are in place. A simple way to get around a telnet-ssh block is a small request for $38k tuition for 2 years. I feel like I paid for my share of this, why limit those who wish to use their machines to the fullest -legal- abilities?

[Connie]

Its just a simple request, I have no desire to perform any malicious acts, which is why the policies are in place. A simple way to get around a telnet-ssh block is a small request for $38k tuition for 2 years. I feel like I paid for my share of this, why limit those who wish to use their machines to the fullest -legal- abilities?

Apparantly there are reasons your school placed the policies in place. Many schools have simular poicies. You may be legal in what you want to do but what about the person who wants to be illegeal?

In my opinon what you pay in tution has nothing to do with your problem. If you want to do your own thing, then connect to the Internet through your own ISP. If you want to connect through the School you have to accept the School policy.

For an old Red Neck like me it is pretty simple. Play by the rules of pay to do your own thing.

[Spathiphyllum]

Its just a simple request, I have no desire to perform any malicious acts, which is why the policies are in place. A simple way to get around a telnet-ssh block is a small request for $38k tuition for 2 years. I feel like I paid for my share of this, why limit those who wish to use their machines to the fullest -legal- abilities?

Did a quick search to find out what MUDding is and this popped out:

Basic Information about MUDs and MUDding

"But I paid money for my account! MUDding is a right, isn't it?"

Don't believe that for a second. When you paid money to your school's computer department for an account, you entered into a contract with that department. Most schools have a well written Computer Policy document, that will detail exactly what you have rights to. Most schools classify MUD as a game, and games as non-essentials. Therefore, if your school decides to shut off all games, or disallow you to telnet out to play muds, you're stuck. Don't try to get around it; they'll find you. Instead, try to talk to the Powers That Be, and see why they did what they did. They may have very good reasons for it (such as limited resource that really need to be dedicated to schoolwork).

I'm siding with the Red Neck here. The school is receiving subsidized equipment and connection rates for academic endeavors. Skirting around the rules for such trivial pursuits violates the intent of such subsidies that exist to promote academic work not to mention tying up a limited resource for more legitimate exercises. Sorry bud but goof around on your own connection.

[jason]

Before I say what I am going to say, I also want to state that agree with the first two posters. Your school has its reasons for disallowing telnet/ssh and to try and circumvent those restrictions is a violation of their policy. I work for a university and, while we are very liberal in regards to what we allow on our network, we do have an acceptable computer use policy and we take it very seriously. Violations to that policy can result in having your network access privledges revolked, suspension, expulsion, or criminal prosecution, depending on the severity of the violation. Don't do anything you aren't supposed to.

Now, from a technical standpoint, yes, it is possible to tunnel over HTTP, but in order to do that you would need a server outside of the school's network that is running a proxy server on port 80 (or another port that your school isn't blocking). This server would, essentially, allow you to make a connection to it and then send all of your network data to it. It would then figure out what you want to connect to and make those connections on your behalf, receive the data back from the remote machine, and then send it back to you.

Don't try to set this up on a JPC shared server--you'll get kicked off really quick. You could set it up on a dedicated server if you are willing to shell out $50/month to play a couple of games, but I suspect you aren't. Even if you were, you'd still be in violation of your school's policy, so don't do it. A much better idea would be to pay the $10-$20 a month for a dialup ISP and connect to your games through it. Since they are text-based the performance hit of a 56K connection will be minimal.

--Jason

[phluidphil]

buy off ebay a cheap wireless card and scan your area for a wireless access point to use the Internet to play your games.

or

There are HTTP tunnel free servers out there. A simple google search will reveal them to you if your school is restrcting inbound/outbound ports.

btw, I'll disclaim this all day long. Its iillegal to use someone else's bandwidth without their knowledge and as everyone else stated it is against your school's policy to do HTTP tunneling.

You wanted to know if it was possible and the answer almost 100% of the time is yes.