Bittorrent on Port-Blocked Network

[VoxAure]

THE SHORT VERSION
I'm trying to use a college campus network for torrents, but no matter what I try I can't seem to make a connection. What am I missing?

THE LONG VERSION
I'm kind of a media buff, but my place is so far out in the country that even a dial-up connection can only manage a pitiful 25Kb/s. Wah-wah-wah-wawawawawawaaaaa.

Enter stage left: a local college campus and their big, fat, juicy T3 line! Also enter: a locked-down network and sysadmins with mysterious magical powers to thwart logic - the plot thickens.

The computers as-is are hobbled nearly to death with ridiculous Windows 7 malarky and nearly two dozen programs, all of which are bloated and required by some corporation or another. Usually I just stick in a bootloader and run Mandriva. (Some of these computers have i7 cores! Cool.)

I started up Transmission and tried it out. Nothing. Did some port scans and found nothing, nada, zilch. How am I getting an internet connection if there are no open ports? *shrug* Anyway.

Tried protocol encryption, tried a proxy, tried SSH tunneling, port forwarding and VPN - nothing, nothing, and nothing. Most of the time the client can't even find the tracker.

So I went back to Windows and ran a USB version of uTorrent through the same paces - again, nothing. Tried NETSTAT and found there were some ports open, but when a torrent client requested access, it gets denied. Even a USB version of Firefox gets access, so why can't uTorrent?

For the sweet frosting layer on this frustration cake, I whipped out my cell phone and connected to the WiFi. Booted up aDownloader, and voila! Torrents ahoy! Of course, on their hack-job of a WiFi network that method tops out around 50Kb/s and is limited to the 16 gigs that my phone can hold.

I have a 1TB external drive that's just begging for me to fill. How in blue blazes is this possible, and what can I do to bypass it?

FURTHER DETAILS
Although the admins have prevented me from torrenting, they're pretty harmless. I have it on good authority that all decisions are made at the state's main office, and our on-site techs don't even have admin passwords. All they really seem to do is flash towers and sit around.

I don't want to get into an ethical discussion about torrenting or 'abusing' public networks. When 80% of all the kids in the library are fist-pumping bros who watch sports videos on Youtube and play flash games off their Facebook, I don't feel like I'm harming anyone's education by sucking up a little more bandwidth than usual.

I don't consider myself a super-user or anything, but I like to think I'm smarter than the average bear. I'm not going to school for computer programming or anything, but I work closely with them. (Electrical engineering) I can navigate the command-line as well as the next guy, but I'm using about 10% of the functions in my copy of BackTrack.

CONCLUSION
Suggestions? Questions? Remarks, comments, donations or libations?
:pirate

[Drumm]

So your phone is able to directly connect to torrent ports without issue? Sounds like they have relaxed rules for their Wi-Fi policy.

[Mark]

Also enter: a locked-down network and sysadmins with mysterious magical powers to thwart logic

Sounds about right. *hi5* fellow techies.

As in regards to your torrenting issue and any properly set up network the only ports you'll be getting access through with be 80 and 443.
The fact that you're booting into Mandriva and able to get access without Proxy details leads me to think you're not going through an ISA / proxy server?
If it is a straight line out which I doubt we must wonder what's throttling you, firstly what I'd suggest is configuring the client to run on port 80 instead of the higher ports it likes to use. What I'd then do is a quick numeration of the network, an nmap scan will achieve this, scan the entire network it may take a while but you'll we'll have something to work with then.

They've probably got QoS or some sort of monitoring, maybe an ntop box on the line somewhere.

[Drumm]

What does Mark know about ntop ?

[VoxAure]

Further information!

I feel a little blind here, as I'm stabbing about running commands I really don't know too much about. But anyway, here's what happened:

Booted up on a CD copy of SuperOS and installed nmap.
Wasn't really sure how to find ports into and out of the network, so I simply pinged myself a few times.

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ nmap www.google.com

Starting Nmap 5.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2011-10-17 19:03 UTC
Warning: Hostname www.google.com resolves to 5 IPs. Using 74.125.225.83.
Interesting ports on ord08s07-in-f19.1e100.net (74.125.225.83):
Not shown: 955 closed ports, 43 filtered ports
PORT    STATE SERVICE
80/tcp  open  http
443/tcp open  https

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 1.36 seconds

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo nmap -sS 127.0.0.1

Starting Nmap 5.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2011-10-17 19:04 UTC
Interesting ports on localhost (127.0.0.1):
Not shown: 999 closed ports
PORT    STATE SERVICE
631/tcp open  ipp

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.11 seconds

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo nmap -sF 127.0.0.1

Starting Nmap 5.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2011-10-17 19:05 UTC
Interesting ports on localhost (127.0.0.1):
Not shown: 999 closed ports
PORT    STATE         SERVICE
631/tcp open|filtered ipp

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 1.29 seconds

I feel like there are important things going on here, but I'm mostly just copy-pasting commands out of this page here. Let's watch as the monkey types a few more commands:

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo nmap -sP 10.0.0.0/24

Starting Nmap 5.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2011-10-17 19:10 UTC
Host 10.0.0.0 is up (0.00049s latency).
Host 10.0.0.1 is up (0.00068s latency).
Host 10.0.0.2 is up (0.00081s latency).
Host 10.0.0.3 is up (0.00061s latency).
Host 10.0.0.4 is up (0.0010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.5 is up (0.0093s latency).
Host 10.0.0.6 is up (0.00036s latency).
Host 10.0.0.7 is up (0.0012s latency).
Host 10.0.0.8 is up (0.0087s latency).
Host 10.0.0.9 is up (0.00097s latency).
Host 10.0.0.10 is up (0.0011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.11 is up (0.0087s latency).
Host 10.0.0.12 is up (0.0013s latency).
Host 10.0.0.13 is up (0.0015s latency).
Host 10.0.0.14 is up (0.0082s latency).
Host 10.0.0.15 is up (0.00068s latency).
Host 10.0.0.16 is up (0.0019s latency).
Host 10.0.0.17 is up (0.0021s latency).
Host 10.0.0.18 is up (0.00060s latency).
Host 10.0.0.19 is up (0.00074s latency).
Host 10.0.0.20 is up (0.0025s latency).
Host 10.0.0.21 is up (0.0026s latency).
Host 10.0.0.22 is up (0.0027s latency).
Host 10.0.0.23 is up (0.0075s latency).
Host 10.0.0.24 is up (0.0077s latency).
Host 10.0.0.25 is up (0.00034s latency).
Host 10.0.0.26 is up (0.0033s latency).
Host 10.0.0.27 is up (0.0056s latency).
Host 10.0.0.28 is up (0.0037s latency).
Host 10.0.0.29 is up (0.0038s latency).
Host 10.0.0.30 is up (0.0048s latency).
Host 10.0.0.31 is up (0.0049s latency).
Host 10.0.0.32 is up (0.0050s latency).
Host 10.0.0.33 is up (0.0051s latency).
Host 10.0.0.34 is up (0.0053s latency).
Host 10.0.0.35 is up (0.00069s latency).
Host 10.0.0.36 is up (0.0032s latency).
Host 10.0.0.37 is up (0.0049s latency).
Host 10.0.0.38 is up (0.0050s latency).
Host 10.0.0.39 is up (0.0032s latency).
Host 10.0.0.40 is up (0.0033s latency).
Host 10.0.0.41 is up (0.0063s latency).
Host 10.0.0.42 is up (0.0064s latency).
Host 10.0.0.43 is up (0.0066s latency).
Host 10.0.0.44 is up (0.0067s latency).
Host 10.0.0.45 is up (0.0068s latency).
Host 10.0.0.46 is up (0.0069s latency).
Host 10.0.0.47 is up (0.0070s latency).
Host 10.0.0.48 is up (0.0072s latency).
Host 10.0.0.49 is up (0.00087s latency).
Host 10.0.0.50 is up (0.00099s latency).
Host 10.0.0.51 is up (0.0033s latency).
Host 10.0.0.52 is up (0.0034s latency).
Host 10.0.0.53 is up (0.0025s latency).
Host 10.0.0.54 is up (0.0054s latency).
Host 10.0.0.55 is up (0.0013s latency).
Host 10.0.0.56 is up (0.0036s latency).
Host 10.0.0.57 is up (0.0085s latency).
Host 10.0.0.58 is up (0.0086s latency).
Host 10.0.0.59 is up (0.0087s latency).
Host 10.0.0.60 is up (0.0089s latency).
Host 10.0.0.61 is up (0.0090s latency).
Host 10.0.0.62 is up (0.0091s latency).
Host 10.0.0.63 is up (0.00050s latency).
Host 10.0.0.64 is up (0.0036s latency).
Host 10.0.0.65 is up (0.0028s latency).
Host 10.0.0.66 is up (0.0029s latency).
Host 10.0.0.67 is up (0.00079s latency).
Host 10.0.0.68 is up (0.0037s latency).
Host 10.0.0.69 is up (0.010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.70 is up (0.010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.71 is up (0.010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.72 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.73 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.74 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.75 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.76 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.77 is up (0.0037s latency).
Host 10.0.0.78 is up (0.00060s latency).
Host 10.0.0.79 is up (0.00047s latency).
Host 10.0.0.80 is up (0.00050s latency).
Host 10.0.0.81 is up (0.0018s latency).
Host 10.0.0.82 is up (0.0031s latency).
Host 10.0.0.83 is up (0.00056s latency).
Host 10.0.0.84 is up (0.0040s latency).
Host 10.0.0.85 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.86 is up (0.00069s latency).
Host 10.0.0.87 is up (0.00082s latency).
Host 10.0.0.88 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.89 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.90 is up (0.00095s latency).
Host 10.0.0.91 is up (0.00043s latency).
Host 10.0.0.92 is up (0.0027s latency).
Host 10.0.0.93 is up (0.0044s latency).
Host 10.0.0.94 is up (0.00090s latency).
Host 10.0.0.95 is up (0.00034s latency).
Host 10.0.0.96 is up (0.00072s latency).
Host 10.0.0.97 is up (0.0029s latency).
Host 10.0.0.98 is up (0.00071s latency).
Host 10.0.0.99 is up (0.010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.100 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.101 is up (0.0026s latency).
Host 10.0.0.102 is up (0.00099s latency).
Host 10.0.0.103 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.104 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.105 is up (0.0010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.106 is up (0.00086s latency).
Host 10.0.0.107 is up (0.00097s latency).
Host 10.0.0.108 is up (0.00057s latency).
Host 10.0.0.109 is up (0.00077s latency).
Host 10.0.0.110 is up (0.0045s latency).
Host 10.0.0.111 is up (0.010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.112 is up (0.0020s latency).
Host 10.0.0.113 is up (0.00036s latency).
Host 10.0.0.114 is up (0.010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.115 is up (0.0015s latency).
Host 10.0.0.116 is up (0.0016s latency).
Host 10.0.0.117 is up (0.0093s latency).
Host 10.0.0.118 is up (0.0094s latency).
Host 10.0.0.119 is up (0.00023s latency).
Host 10.0.0.120 is up (0.00071s latency).
Host 10.0.0.121 is up (0.0042s latency).
Host 10.0.0.122 is up (0.0041s latency).
Host 10.0.0.123 is up (0.00052s latency).
Host 10.0.0.124 is up (0.00064s latency).
Host 10.0.0.125 is up (0.0096s latency).
Host 10.0.0.126 is up (0.00076s latency).
Host 10.0.0.127 is up (0.00052s latency).
Host 10.0.0.128 is up (0.0097s latency).
Host 10.0.0.129 is up (0.0098s latency).
Host 10.0.0.130 is up (0.00064s latency).
Host 10.0.0.131 is up (0.00075s latency).
Host 10.0.0.132 is up (0.0098s latency).
Host 10.0.0.133 is up (0.00079s latency).
Host 10.0.0.134 is up (0.00092s latency).
Host 10.0.0.135 is up (0.0012s latency).
Host 10.0.0.136 is up (0.00072s latency).
Host 10.0.0.137 is up (0.00080s latency).
Host 10.0.0.138 is up (0.00093s latency).
Host 10.0.0.139 is up (0.010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.140 is up (0.0025s latency).
Host 10.0.0.141 is up (0.0026s latency).
Host 10.0.0.142 is up (0.0028s latency).
Host 10.0.0.143 is up (0.0029s latency).
Host 10.0.0.144 is up (0.0030s latency).
Host 10.0.0.145 is up (0.0031s latency).
Host 10.0.0.146 is up (0.010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.147 is up (0.0012s latency).
Host 10.0.0.148 is up (0.0017s latency).
Host 10.0.0.149 is up (0.0029s latency).
Host 10.0.0.150 is up (0.00049s latency).
Host 10.0.0.151 is up (0.00062s latency).
Host 10.0.0.152 is up (0.0017s latency).
Host 10.0.0.153 is up (0.00036s latency).
Host 10.0.0.154 is up (0.00063s latency).
Host 10.0.0.155 is up (0.00064s latency).
Host 10.0.0.156 is up (0.00076s latency).
Host 10.0.0.157 is up (0.00064s latency).
Host 10.0.0.158 is up (0.0017s latency).
Host 10.0.0.159 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.160 is up (0.0017s latency).
Host 10.0.0.161 is up (0.00052s latency).
Host 10.0.0.162 is up (0.0092s latency).
Host 10.0.0.163 is up (0.0020s latency).
Host 10.0.0.164 is up (0.00064s latency).
Host 10.0.0.165 is up (0.00022s latency).
Host 10.0.0.166 is up (0.0020s latency).
Host 10.0.0.167 is up (0.00059s latency).
Host 10.0.0.168 is up (0.00030s latency).
Host 10.0.0.169 is up (0.0020s latency).
Host 10.0.0.170 is up (0.00049s latency).
Host 10.0.0.171 is up (0.00037s latency).
Host 10.0.0.172 is up (0.0094s latency).
Host 10.0.0.173 is up (0.0095s latency).
Host 10.0.0.174 is up (0.0017s latency).
Host 10.0.0.175 is up (0.00051s latency).
Host 10.0.0.176 is up (0.00050s latency).
Host 10.0.0.177 is up (0.00063s latency).
Host 10.0.0.178 is up (0.00075s latency).
Host 10.0.0.179 is up (0.00036s latency).
Host 10.0.0.180 is up (0.00048s latency).
Host 10.0.0.181 is up (0.0016s latency).
Host 10.0.0.182 is up (0.00057s latency).
Host 10.0.0.183 is up (0.00073s latency).
Host 10.0.0.184 is up (0.00029s latency).
Host 10.0.0.185 is up (0.0017s latency).
Host 10.0.0.186 is up (0.0089s latency).
Host 10.0.0.187 is up (0.00043s latency).
Host 10.0.0.188 is up (0.00044s latency).
Host 10.0.0.189 is up (0.0089s latency).
Host 10.0.0.190 is up (0.0020s latency).
Host 10.0.0.191 is up (0.00061s latency).
Host 10.0.0.192 is up (0.00094s latency).
Host 10.0.0.193 is up (0.00040s latency).
Host 10.0.0.194 is up (0.00051s latency).
Host 10.0.0.195 is up (0.00053s latency).
Host 10.0.0.196 is up (0.00071s latency).
Host 10.0.0.197 is up (0.00084s latency).
Host 10.0.0.198 is up (0.011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.199 is up (0.00042s latency).
Host 10.0.0.200 is up (0.00054s latency).
Host 10.0.0.201 is up (0.0020s latency).
Host 10.0.0.202 is up (0.00098s latency).
Host 10.0.0.203 is up (0.00045s latency).
Host 10.0.0.204 is up (0.0016s latency).
Host 10.0.0.205 is up (0.0017s latency).
Host 10.0.0.206 is up (0.00097s latency).
Host 10.0.0.207 is up (0.0011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.208 is up (0.00051s latency).
Host 10.0.0.209 is up (0.00023s latency).
Host 10.0.0.210 is up (0.0011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.211 is up (0.00073s latency).
Host 10.0.0.212 is up (0.00084s latency).
Host 10.0.0.213 is up (0.00024s latency).
Host 10.0.0.214 is up (0.00076s latency).
Host 10.0.0.215 is up (0.00088s latency).
Host 10.0.0.216 is up (0.0011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.217 is up (0.00073s latency).
Host 10.0.0.218 is up (0.010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.219 is up (0.00034s latency).
Host 10.0.0.220 is up (0.0012s latency).
Host 10.0.0.221 is up (0.00062s latency).
Host 10.0.0.222 is up (0.00050s latency).
Host 10.0.0.223 is up (0.00092s latency).
Host 10.0.0.224 is up (0.00090s latency).
Host 10.0.0.225 is up (0.0010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.226 is up (0.0011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.227 is up (0.00038s latency).
Host 10.0.0.228 is up (0.0011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.229 is up (0.0013s latency).
Host 10.0.0.230 is up (0.0098s latency).
Host 10.0.0.231 is up (0.00022s latency).
Host 10.0.0.232 is up (0.00034s latency).
Host 10.0.0.233 is up (0.0015s latency).
Host 10.0.0.234 is up (0.00050s latency).
Host 10.0.0.235 is up (0.00077s latency).
Host 10.0.0.236 is up (0.00023s latency).
Host 10.0.0.237 is up (0.0016s latency).
Host 10.0.0.238 is up (0.00034s latency).
Host 10.0.0.239 is up (0.00044s latency).
Host 10.0.0.240 is up (0.00089s latency).
Host 10.0.0.241 is up (0.0010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.242 is up (0.0010s latency).
Host 10.0.0.243 is up (0.0099s latency).
Host 10.0.0.244 is up (0.00056s latency).
Host 10.0.0.245 is up (0.0011s latency).
Host 10.0.0.246 is up (0.0100s latency).
Host 10.0.0.247 is up (0.00050s latency).
Host 10.0.0.248 is up (0.00090s latency).
Host 10.0.0.249 is up (0.00073s latency).
Host 10.0.0.250 is up (0.00086s latency).
Host 10.0.0.251 is up (0.0099s latency).
Host 10.0.0.252 is up (0.00025s latency).
Host 10.0.0.253 is up (0.0012s latency).
Host 10.0.0.254 is up (0.00050s latency).
Host 10.0.0.255 is up (0.00064s latency).
Nmap done: 256 IP addresses (256 hosts up) scanned in 70.56 seconds

So it looks like every port is open, but none of them appear to have MAC addresses or anything.

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo nmap -sS -A 10.0.0.1

Starting Nmap 5.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2011-10-17 19:13 UTC
All 1000 scanned ports on 10.0.0.1 are filtered
Device type: switch|WAP|webcam|router|general purpose
Running: Cisco IOS 12.X, D-Link embedded, Linksys embedded, HP HP-UX 11.X, Microsoft Windows 2003, Planet embedded
Too many fingerprints match this host to give specific OS details

TRACEROUTE (using port 80/tcp)
HOP RTT  ADDRESS
1   0.24 10.0.0.1

OS and Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at http://nmap.org/submit/ .
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 5.06 seconds

Okay, so what previously seemed like "everything is open" actually meant "this one thing is open and it filters everything." Am I right?

In any case, I've tried Transmission on every port that seems promising and came back with nothing.

I've been able to successfully use my phone as a tether (picking up WiFi and providing it to a box for a connection) and have successfully run BitTorrent there, however that has two major problems: [1] It requires my phone, and [2] WiFi is still ploddingly slow.

My ultimate goal is to take over a box on campus and allow it to run BitTorrent all through the night, then return with an external HDD the next morning and reap the fuits of the interwebs.

I've also purchased a super-cheap USB WiFi dongle, only to find there are no Linux drivers for it. *sigh*

Any thoughts?

[Mark]

Not too sure why you've rattled off the above.

Log onto one of the machines and do an ipconfig or ifconfig (for Linux), find your IP address and the defualt gateway (router address) this will give you an idea of the IP range. If you're on a 192.168 network such as 192.168.0 then you'd run a 192.168.0.0/24 scan (This will scan the whole network) if like above you've been scanning a 10. IP range then that's a /8 CIDR and not /24 (This is why it's only scanned up to 10.0.0.255)

So, you need to find out the IP range of the network and run an nmap scan.
This thread might be of use: http://mcompute.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=37

10. would be /8
172.16. would be /16
192.168. would be /24

Other than that I'd try using WiFi on one of the machines and see if uTorrent is still blocked. Also once you've got the IP range of the wired network do the same for the wireless. It should be the same but it's more than possible it's different.

How do you log onto the machines? Do you have a network user ID and password or .. ?