Blocked from college network for using uTorrent

[Fuzzyblob]

My college recently caught me using uTorrent on the campus wide wireless network and blocked me from said network. My connection has since been reactivated, but with the warning that if I get caught again, they'll block my laptop for the rest of the semester. Needless to say, torrents are an essential part of my frugal yet media rich life as a poor college student, and it would really suck to not be able to use them anymore. Is there any way to use uTorrent on the college's wireless network without getting caught again?

Some additional info that may be useful: After being blocked, I manually changed my MAC address in the Windows 7 registry, which I thought would fix the problem, but to no avail.

[Mr. President]

I would say use a *virtual private network (vpn) to download your torrents and you should be fine, changing mac would be no goods because your still downloading the torrent to your school computer directly.

Some vpns are free well others cost money so you well have to search around a bit but there are lots out there.

Thats my two cents but wait for some of the more advanced members to post and see what they say.

*edited thanks my bad

[Mark]

How do you log onto the Wireless network? Is it a standard passphrase or do you authenticate with a RADIUS server and domain controller?
They're obviously noticing spikes in network activity and have pin pointed it on you, you could try limiting your down speed in uTorrent so that it almost looks like normal network traffic.

*VPN = Virtual private network.

[latch]

Honestly, I wouldn't even mess with it. Just connect to another network- if there is a residential area anywhere near where you frequent, there will be oodles of wifi out there and some of them have to be WEP which is easy to crack. I live in a cul-de-sac and I see 9 networks and oddly today(silly me the adapter I was using to view them just then is too old to recognize wpa) all of them are WEP- I've cracked 2 of them.

Anyways, point is- aim for the path of least resistance. The admins can see every packet if they want to- no sense in trying to defy them if they've caught you twice already.

[Fuzzyblob]

How do you log onto the Wireless network? Is it a standard passphrase or do you authenticate with a RADIUS server and domain controller?
They're obviously noticing spikes in network activity and have pin pointed it on you, you could try limiting your down speed in uTorrent so that it almost looks like normal network traffic.

*VPN = Virtual private network.

The network is unsecured.

---

Honestly, I wouldn't even mess with it. Just connect to another network- if there is a residential area anywhere near where you frequent, there will be oodles of wifi out there and some of them have to be WEP which is easy to crack. I live in a cul-de-sac and I see 9 networks and oddly today(silly me the adapter I was using to view them just then is too old to recognize wpa) all of them are WEP- I've cracked 2 of them.

Anyways, point is- aim for the path of least resistance. The admins can see every packet if they want to- no sense in trying to defy them if they've caught you twice already.

The problem with that is that my school is in a very rural area, and to get to another network I have to take a 10 minute shuttle ride into the nearest town, which is inconvenient.

---

I would say use a *virtual private network (vpn) to download your torrents and you should be fine, changing mac would be no goods because your still downloading the torrent to your school computer directly.

Some vpns are free well others cost money so you well have to search around a bit but there are lots out there.

Thats my two cents but wait for some of the more advanced members to post and see what they say.

*edited thanks my bad

How would I go about setting up a VPN?

[Mr. President]

How do you log onto the Wireless network? Is it a standard passphrase or do you authenticate with a RADIUS server and domain controller?
They're obviously noticing spikes in network activity and have pin pointed it on you, you could try limiting your down speed in uTorrent so that it almost looks like normal network traffic.

*VPN = Virtual private network.

The network is unsecured.

---

Honestly, I wouldn't even mess with it. Just connect to another network- if there is a residential area anywhere near where you frequent, there will be oodles of wifi out there and some of them have to be WEP which is easy to crack. I live in a cul-de-sac and I see 9 networks and oddly today(silly me the adapter I was using to view them just then is too old to recognize wpa) all of them are WEP- I've cracked 2 of them.

Anyways, point is- aim for the path of least resistance. The admins can see every packet if they want to- no sense in trying to defy them if they've caught you twice already.

The problem with that is that my school is in a very rural area, and to get to another network I have to take a 10 minute shuttle ride into the nearest town, which is inconvenient.

---

I would say use a *virtual private network (vpn) to download your torrents and you should be fine, changing mac would be no goods because your still downloading the torrent to your school computer directly.

Some vpns are free well others cost money so you well have to search around a bit but there are lots out there.

Thats my two cents but wait for some of the more advanced members to post and see what they say.

*edited thanks my bad

How would I go about setting up a VPN?

Ah if the others didn't mention it i am not sure if it would work, it seems like a good bet to me but i am the leasted experience member here.
you can give it a try here are some free ones they are slower and some advertise well you use them but there free Hotspot shield, ProXPN and theres more out there, they have instructions on site for use and install.
If your a rich bitch there are really good vpns out there for $10 a month super fast, and lots of locations and are encrypted. hide my ass pro, ghost vpn and more but they are really expensive

I would wait for another member to post and see what they say before you start downloading stuff to your computer though, it might not be this easy.

[Pack3t SynAck3r]

Even if you are using a VPN, if you are connecting through the college's network and they are already suspicious of you, then they will be monitoring/logging. You are ultimately still using their bandwidth for purposes they deem to be unnecessary. This is a problem that would require more information than you are probably capable of supplying if you are in here asking that question to begin with. There are always ways around things, but you probably need to raise your skill level a bit before you are even ready to hear about some of the things that are possible. The odd thing is that they let you do it in the first place, if someone who is running a network doesn't want torrent traffic, they should be filtering all of the high level ports for everybody to begin with, which would never have allowed you to do it in the first place. They are running a reactive system of defense as opposed to a proactive system. Reactive systems are much easier to skirt through.

[latch]

Even if you are using a VPN, if you are connecting through the college's network and they are already suspicious of you, then they will be monitoring/logging. You are ultimately still using their bandwidth for purposes they deem to be unnecessary. This is a problem that would require more information than you are probably capable of supplying if you are in here asking that question to begin with. There are always ways around things, but you probably need to raise your skill level a bit before you are even ready to hear about some of the things that are possible. The odd thing is that they let you do it in the first place, if someone who is running a network doesn't want torrent traffic, they should be filtering all of the high level ports for everybody to begin with, which would never have allowed you to do it in the first place. They are running a reactive system of defense as opposed to a proactive system. Reactive systems are much easier to skirt through.

This is the long way around repeating the gist of what I said.

[Mark]

If you're flooding the network with torrent traffic they're going to know, they'll be looking for high port activity usually in the 6000s. The only sure thing I can think of is changing the port even to 80 and limiting your speed to try and get in under the radar.

Just wondering, how did they warn you? Was it face to face?

[latch]

If you're flooding the network with torrent traffic they're going to know, they'll be looking for high port activity usually in the 6000s. The only sure thing I can think of is changing the port even to 80 and limiting your speed to try and get in under the radar.

Just wondering, how did they warn you? Was it face to face?

Now this is a pretty good low tech(This is not a snub on Mark- its no nonsense easy and quick) answer. If you are getting your media fairly slowly then there is no reason they would be watching. But if you are serious about finding out ways around this, Pack3t is the de facto network master. He won't waste his time though if you just want a glib statement about what to download to solve the problem. There may be quite a bit of work and learning involved on your part.

Is it important enough to you to continue trying after it gets difficult?

Insatiable learners are always welcome. Posers get nothing.