Campus network questions.

I am a University student in Malaysia, I live in the campus hostel, the university provides cable network. I am new in networking so I don't know what kind of network it is, but there's a network socket in my room, I have a cable that connect my computer with it and I gain network access. They block P2P, so hostel occupant cannot use P2P software. I have some questions to ask about the networks. First, is the what they call LAN (Local Area Network) or does it works like ISP or something else? Second, what method they use to block P2P?

Most likely the type of network would be a Lan. The school probably subscribes to
a main service provider, I dont know of hand if schools subscribe from a backbone
provider but that is possible.

As of Now:
1. The network is a LAN with a backbone provider, meaning there is a central
server(s)

2. The school has all the rights to block p2p software if they want to
most likely through port access

I hope I didnt misrepresent any information but thats what I personally know
do not take that as word of god.

In the schools I have worked for and gone to Generally their network set up is very simple. It is a LAN (local area network). They will have one line comming in from a major ISP in the area (the band width will depend on the school size). From there, most will have it set up so it requires some sort of authentication before getting on to the network (although many dont). and they will have various servers around campus hosting a variety of things, most universities have masive file servers for student and staff use, they may host their webpage, as well as run servers doing various other tasks (email, firewall, proxie, media servers, etc. etc. etc.)

As far as blocking the P2P software they do it several ways. 1st, they will generally block the common P2P ports. This is done for two reasons. 1. to stop the majority of average users from using the service 2. it helps deminsih the arguemnent that you didnt know it was against the rules. From there, many larger schools have monitoring software set up and if any single IP address is taking up X amoutn of bandwidth for X amount of time, it is cut off and the MAC address/Username and Password are now banned until you contact the admins. It is watched especially well if your computer is uploading large amounts of data, not just downloading. Their reasoning may be something along the lines of "it was suspicious activity and also a symptom of possible virus infection. From here, there are suually policies that state you must have one of the helpdesk people/it staff "clean" your computer before unblocking anything. This gives them the chance to look for P2P software and take note of it.

Of course it can be argued that you were downloading legit stuff blah blah blah and they have to unblock you or they can get in trouble.

Warning: Do not use P2P progrmas if your policy states they are not allowed. It is grounds for Fines/suspension/expulsion if you are found out. Although it is a harsh punishment, generally for problems like this schools like to make examples out of people. The reason? becasue your ISP will see the traffic, and generally the school will see a notice saying "this IP address is uploading/downloading pirated stuff. make it stop or we will" (I have seen many of these emails, so we hunt the person down, cut them off or we get cut off.

With many college networks, you have to register your MAC address, as well as log on to the network. Both techniques are used to filter/restrict connections, however, in many cases the 2 are completely separate. For example, any registered MAC can be used with any logon, this allows students to share computers without compromising the administrators' ability to monitor individual activity, or individual network access in the case of shared drives and email for students.

It is a simple matter to spoof your MAC address and use a captured logon.

As for the port blocking, it is usually done at the firewall/gateway, but as fork mentioned, there are other methods.

Getting around these restrictions is usually just a simple matter of port redirection, although I would suggest using encryption for anything you do, mainly because of the distinct possiblity of your connection being sniffed.

EDIT: Yes, I know. I once again posted information on how to bypass restrictions on someone else's network. Screw the ethics, have fun. Don't call me for bail.

i dunno much but, the networksecurity are there to protect you. so, don try to breach the security, if u do so, this like you are trying to expose yourself to threats out there. about the p2p thing, i think your campus must have a network that links all the students.mirc?.so, just use it.in my old place, i used to download pirated stuffs from there.movies,videos, etc. hope thats ok

I'm not saying that you should blatantly break the laws/rules. But, You have to decide what is more important, Your education/career/freedom or your mp3's. To be honest, I chose mp3's and porn.

My school allows the use of p2p, but you can't trade copyrighted material over it. Of course, people have found ways to share files over the network. Out of curiousity, can they see exactly what you download from a p2p network, or would it just show that I was on a p2p network.

Yes and no. If they sniff the traffic and reassemble the packets, they can see what is going over the network. Unless of course it is encrypted. There is software that will do this automatically.

Whether or not they would do this, who knows?

Young folks’ attention is diverted so easy. How about we try a new concept here. All that extra time you would spend on P2P, let’s use that for studying. Seriously, you will have the whole rest of your life to talk to friends. However, only a small portion of your life will be spent on education. Ok so I’m old school!

Regardless, good luck in school!

!~cheers~!

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Out of curiousity, can they see exactly what you download from a p2p network, or would it just show that I was on a p2p network.

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Yes. What you are sending and receiving can be read. That is why people encrypt stuff.

miica your school probably does it to avoid having to clean up after malware.............hey you are probably very sensible, but I am willing to bet you can name 10 others who are not ;) unfortunately, we end up paying for their sins :( Also, by blocking P2P they will cut bandwidth usage, and cost?

Thanks everyone for your contribution. My school are blocking P2P mainly because they want to cut bandwidth usage and cost, legit stuffs are second reason. They used to allow P2P just one or two years ago, now they ban it, they said last time there are too many people using it and many times causing the network to overload and shutdown. We still share files quietly (underground) but they are mainly anime and recent movies, no mp3, no ebooks and the files are too little. I am not so needing P2P, so I don't care much (but would also be great if I can know how to circumvent it), I am more interested in how the network works. If it is a LAN, is it that we can sniff packets? because I tried Ethereal and it is not capturing anything! Also can I see who is on the same LAN? Thanks.

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If it is a LAN, is it that we can sniff packets? because I tried Ethereal and it is not capturing anything! Also can I see who is on the same LAN? Thanks.

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yes you can sniff packets, if you on a switch it will be a bit harder than a hub. make sure you have the proper NIC selected in etheral, or it wont work, hehe.

Oh! I am not selecting the right NIC! that's why! thanks, it can capture packets now.

now I want to know how can I see who is on the same LAN... what's the technique?

When I was at uni they blocked p2p but you could easily tunnel through the restrictions with a HTTP tunnel. also once they were wise to this (disturbing that security was so lax for the one of the key UK mirror sites)

However becuase of this it motivated someone to create a p2p program specifically for sharing files within the university network, independant of netbios, it really was a good little program - but unfortunatly only worked due to the infrastructure consisting of hubs, and once these were replaced by switches with the ability to block individual ports this great little program ceased to be a useful (in its hayday there was about 5 terebytes of shared files (yea so they were all copyrighted files, but poor students, who can't get TV reception due to the 60's architure of the place need something to keep them entertained..))

once the switches were inplace it meant that sharing was limited to single accododation blocks, not really that great... there were ways around it (tunnelling again) but the setup needed to make the exisiting program work was to long winded to be useful for the average student, and No had the time (myself included) to create a patch, although I did do some work to see how viable this was - as for explusion, its simple, dont get caught, keep your gob shut and your head down, its usually the gobby idiots that get caught... (I wish to a certain extent I'd taken more advantage of the network and learnt more, but such is life, theres often more important things (drink, work, girls) definatly not in that order!)

i2c

Alright, for a switched network, you will not be able to directly sniff packets, you will have to do some ARP spoofing. Try a utility called Ettercap for switched networks.

If you are not on a switched network, you will be able to see all the traffic on your individual subnet.

Just remember, ARP poisoning is detectable, and it is most likely a TOS violation, and possibly illegal. Be careful.

I attend a nice college in the US.... They do not block P2P but they give you a fair warning that the government is watching university students..... Even if you find a way to break through all the restrictions of your campus's network.... most likely if you are unencrypted, you are at risk of getting caught and I would not recommend using a popular P2P for illegal files or any type of WAREZ.... Even FTP downloads could be risky if the filenames are obvious.... I live off campus so I am fortunate enough to have freedom of download.... If you are on campus.... Find an online buddy that is willing to help you find some of the files your looking for and send them to you encrypted on an open port.... I was actually wondering about this yesterday, Is there a good software for encrypting file transfers or the filenames, etc.? I have an FTP server that I was gonna set up for some buddies of mine that live on campus.... but I don't want anything to be sent non-encrypted through the schools log files..... I was also curious about this, Is it illegal to encrypt data since the DMCA(my least favorite law)... and will you get watched for encrypting data transfers? And one other thing.... Is there anyway to see if you are being watched.... tracert maybe?

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How about we try a new concept here. All that extra time you would spend on P2P, let’s use that for studying.

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Well if my major wasn't Computer Science I would agree with you on that.... but I believe that learning to defeat things such as campus network restrictions would be an educational thing for me to do if I were to persue a career in computer networking?

But I would have to agree with you in general..... Study.... not try to take advantage of your school's bandwidth..... Wouldn't it suck if you were a junior and you got kicked out because you downloaded something copyrighted?!?!? think about losing everything you have worked for and all the money you spent... lost for some file you could have lived without......

L8r,
Nate