Campus Network Question

[ArPaNET]

Okay I dont consider myself a "hacker" or whatever, I just like knowing things that most dont! That leads to my unusual "surfing" habbits, I search through a lot of "hacker/cracker" websites, forums, etc...

I was just wondering since I live on campus, connected to a backbone LAN (that you have to register your MAC Address with), do you think they monitor stuff like that? Also can that get me in trouble? If they are watching the things I do on the internet, how can I stop this ie encryption or something of the sort...

[SirDice]

Just searching and looking for info won't get you into trouble. Trying out the things you've read may.

[Nokia]

^ What Dice said.

A rule of thumb you could go by on a Camus, is that of they are not blocking the web site then they obviously don't mind you looking at it.

But yes, if they are so inclined to do so, they can see everything you do providing the traffic is not encrypted but even then they can see where they traffic originated from.

[Raion]

Not necessarily Nokia, on my campus they specifically mention torrent websites as being in direct violation of campus rules however, they make no effort in blocking them just monitoring them.

[nihil]

I wouldn't have thought there would be any problem surfing regular sites. The torrent thing is understandable from a bandwidth and copyright angle?

I don't think that encryption is an option, as the websites would have to support it.

The only "trouble" I would anticipate would be if you got the network infected from one of these sites.

[ArPaNET]

okay so save the downloads for hotspots and home... I like downloading these programs (security programs like cain & abel etc...) to see what they do and how they do it. I dont use torrents or p2p so thats not really a problem, that is kinda messed up that they can monitor whatever sites I visit!

[dinowuff]

I always have a problem with monitoring only. Unless explicitly denied, access is implied. Understanding that colleges have an unique environment compared to the corporate world, but that's no reason to get pissed at a student for hogging all the bandwidth while downloading mp3's. I don't care how many rules and guidelines are published. If it's not blocked - fair game.

Now as to the original question. Can you get in trouble? Not officially, as long as you are NOT bypassing security. But you can get labeled a Hacker/Script Kiddie and denied access to the network all together.

(That's a lot worse)

[ArPaNET]

Well I am not bypassing security, that doesn't interest me really, I just like information! I haven't found any information that is valuable enough to be secured that I care about enough to try and get it lol...

I dont ever use the programs or anything I learn on the schools network, I setup a wargame at my house with a couple boxes with different setups. This way I dont get into trouble, and it is still fun for me =)