User Error Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 (edited) So about 8 months ago the IT's at my college decided to block all traffic going through the network except for port 23 on intranet only and port 80 and HTTP to go out. The problem is that now Thunderbird, Steam, and most other programs are blocked through the school, and yet about twice a month we have video game night at the school. All is needed is the ability to allow certain programs/services to connect to the internet, and I have been trying to find a VPN service that uses port 80 and is free. The only one i've come across that works is openVPN, but it only allows 100MB on the free version. The internet connection would be used to allow the Xbox's to connect and download updates so that they can work together, and to connect to steam so we can have a networked games b/c steam doesn't allow you to create a network game unless you connect to steam (that and that their are alot of problems that can occur if you didn't run the game you are trying to play and restart steam in offline mode before going to a location were you cannot connect to steam). The schools IT's don't fully understand how to full configure a Firewall settings on the network, let alone how to throttle, which is why they blocked all but port 80 and HTTP(S) going out. The college is incredibly small and their are about 2 IT professionals at the school. They use something called Help Desk that they higher ppl that can only perform basic troubleshooting tasks and are slow to respond to repairs (have had a few teachers happy that i was in their class). When we do the gaming tournaments, its on Fridays after most classes (nearly all) have let out for the week and most people left in the school are at the tournament. The tournament is used as a school fundraiser for student activities and school scholarships. So i was wondering if anyone else has any other ideas of what may be good to try, or another VPN service that may work. connection speed doesn't matter, so long as things can actually connect to the internet. EDIT: Just found out that the network IT is outsourced and none of the in house IT's do anything with the infrastucture Edited September 14, 2011 by User Error Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Steam can use the proxy settings of your browser. Change internet explorer to use a proxy on port 80 outside the schools network, then start steam and it will work for steam alone. However, the games might try to use other ports required for the game servers. How you force them to use a socks proxy might take some 3rd party apps. All of this though, will more than likely slow your connection, and make game play online more or less unplayable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
User Error Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 Steam can use the proxy settings of your browser. Change internet explorer to use a proxy on port 80 outside the schools network, then start steam and it will work for steam alone. However, the games might try to use other ports required for the game servers. How you force them to use a socks proxy might take some 3rd party apps. All of this though, will more than likely slow your connection, and make game play online more or less unplayable. The point is to create an internet connection, the game will be played on a network and steam doesn't allow for any type of network game in offline mode. I prob wont have time to try this tomorrow, but will this work if i use my netbook as a gateway with the proxy settings and hooking up a router on the other end? I dont see why it wont but that also doesnt mean that it wont Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
User Error Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 I've tried a couple different proxies that work on other programs, but so far nothing that works with steam. If anyone knows of proxy servers and settings that work with steam, or another idea, please let me know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 I've tried a couple different proxies that work on other programs, but so far nothing that works with steam. If anyone knows of proxy servers and settings that work with steam, or another idea, please let me know Try setting up a SSH server at home and then use it to connect from your school network. Since the school hasn't blocked ports 80 and 443 you should change the SSH default port which is 22 to either one of those that aren't blocked. Also you should watch some of these episodes to give you a better idea, on how you could set it up. http://hak5.org/episodes/episode-416 http://hak5.org/episodes/episode-504 http://hak5.org/episodes/episode-607 http://hak5.org/episodes/episode-614 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
User Error Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 That was gonna be my backup plan for when i get my own internet access Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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