How to download torrents on a network with admin restrictions

[Shizzler]

Hi guys!

We have a super fast internet connection at the university where I study. I can't download torrents, something is blocking it!

We have a login system called Novell. I don't know what else could be blocking uTorrent!

I feel like I pay the university a lot of money each year and I pay for internet, so I want to download torrents now and then!

Please help

Thanks

[iAmThePope]

Not gonna happen mate. My uni has the same setup. They block the local peer discovery,dht and swarm connections. Your best bet is P2P downloads. But I'm guessing they block the best known file sharing sites also.

Edit: If you were caught downloading illegal content from torrents on their internet their reputation is hurt and you will be held liable.

[Pada]

Shizzler, can you play online games at your University?

Novell has nothing to do with it. They most likely use a firewall where everything is blocked, except for HTTP & HTTPS, which has to go through their proxy server.

[hereticangel]

you could maybe use usenet and use port 80 with ssl encryption to download

[ld13]

Disclaimer: All statements appearing in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to actions, real or fake, is purely coincidental and was probably done under the guise of education and in the name of science ... and stuff.

Back in my university days we used a multi-domain seedbox kind of setup to bypass the firewall. Pure HTTPS downloads FTW! And at R0.01/mb in my days, after hours, they were quite worth it. Then of course we had RooiHub running at all the hostels ... making torrents obsolete. We even had a setup that we used to download, split and email smaller files to our free university emails over "peak" times - thereby bypassing the bandwidth chargers in a way.

So in short, the only way to download torrents on a blocked network is by downloading them via a 3rd party like a private seedbox or downstorm etc.

[Pada]

RooiHub was legendary. A friend of mine wrote it and another friend of mine hosted the installs
IT blamed RooiHub for their network crash, which we still believe wasn't RooiHub's fault.

[Bryn26]

Just use a ZbigZ account. It's a torrent-to-http service that gives unlimited speeds and storage for a fairly low price. I download everything through it.

[ld13]

IT blamed RooiHub for their network crash, which we still believe wasn't RooiHub's fault.

Yea, I remember that. But nah, no one believed them in any case. How come everything was running fine for years then all of a sudden everything was DEAD slow/crashy - during the last of the exams when most students are in any case already off-campus or on their way home? Then they severed the P2P traffic between hostels citing excessive DC++ traffic as the culprit and everything supposedly went back to normal? Yea right. Also ... QoS much?

[froot]

Hi guys!

We have a super fast internet connection at the university where I study. I can't download torrents, something is blocking it!

We have a login system called Novell. I don't know what else could be blocking uTorrent!

I feel like I pay the university a lot of money each year and I pay for internet, so I want to download torrents now and then!

Please help

Thanks

You at Tuks perhaps?
They killed the torrent download ability years ago

[Mr.CookieMonster]

Why not get your own personal internet connection from 8ta or something?

[Flidiot]

...private seedbox or downstorm etc.

+1

It's pretty damn easy to get a cheap VPS, offshore. Setup transmission on ubuntu, run your downloads there and then retrieve your files either via http/ftp/scp.

I used a few VPS hosts, QuickWeb was pretty good but Virpus offered quite a bit of bandwidth for a very good price. $4 per month for 40GB disk space, 512MB guaranteed RAM, 1024MB burst, 1000GB bandwidth monthly etc...
http://virpus.com/budget-vps/

I did it like this for a while, not because of policies etc. on the local network, but because the bulk of the internet traffic is offloaded to a network that can actually handle it

I wrote a manual at some stage explaining how to do everything... Can look for it again if you like?

[Bryn26]

+1

It's pretty damn easy to get a cheap VPS, offshore. Setup transmission on ubuntu, run your downloads there and then retrieve your files either via http/ftp/scp.

I used a few VPS hosts, QuickWeb was pretty good but Virpus offered quite a bit of bandwidth for a very good price. $4 per month for 40GB disk space, 512MB guaranteed RAM, 1024MB burst, 1000GB bandwidth monthly etc...
http://virpus.com/budget-vps/

I did it like this for a while, not because of policies etc. on the local network, but because the bulk of the internet traffic is offloaded to a network that can actually handle it

I wrote a manual at some stage explaining how to do everything... Can look for it again if you like?

That sounds like a lot of effort. For an extra $4 ZbigZ gives you unlimited storage, unlimited usage and an easy to use UI on their website.

[Flidiot]

That sounds like a lot of effort. For an extra $4 ZbigZ gives you unlimited storage, unlimited usage and an easy to use UI on their website.

You say effort, I say interesting learning curve

Just offering alternatives as well - I used to use a service similar to ZbigZ, it does the job - I personally prefer to use a seedbox, others prefer to use a service similar to the one you listed.

[koeksGHT]

+1

It's pretty damn easy to get a cheap VPS, offshore. Setup transmission on ubuntu, run your downloads there and then retrieve your files either via http/ftp/scp.

I used a few VPS hosts, QuickWeb was pretty good but Virpus offered quite a bit of bandwidth for a very good price. $4 per month for 40GB disk space, 512MB guaranteed RAM, 1024MB burst, 1000GB bandwidth monthly etc...
http://virpus.com/budget-vps/

I did it like this for a while, not because of policies etc. on the local network, but because the bulk of the internet traffic is offloaded to a network that can actually handle it

I wrote a manual at some stage explaining how to do everything... Can look for it again if you like?

I use virpus,

However this might be a problem if you read the conditions

No Virpus Networks servers or networks may be used for: - Email spamming
- Warez, Hackz or Serialz sites.
- Illegal content or activities
- Anything IRC releated
- Torrents
- High load applications which may cause disruption to other customers
- Java gaming or applications on OpenVZ plans or Premium OpenVZ Plans. Can only run on Xen and Windows plans.
- Any other type of high packet load or disruptive network traffic or disruptive processes that effect the experience of our other users.
- Ask before you attempt something questionable, it will save us all a lot of trouble.

[Flidiot]

I use virpus,

However this might be a problem if you read the conditions

Hmmm... That is a bit of a let down. Their network must have taken a bit of a knock because of seedboxes. When I had mine running I actually spoke with one of the people there to find out - the dude's name was Kenneth.

I am sure the OP would be able to find something similar though, if this was the chosen route