Newsgroups connecting over port 80...

[Rossmac]

Hey folks,

Girlfriend is in America on a uni campus and they've blocked port 119 for normal connections and blocked port 563 for ssl connections (these are the ports used for my usenet provider).

I moved the non-ssl connection to port 443 (alternate port from my provider) and it works but I always like to use ssl and so the only other alternate port is 80.

Do you reckon it'd be smart to use port 80 and would it be highlighted on the network admin's usage stats or anything (if this is even possible?)? It's obvious they've tried to stop usenet by blocking those ports or would you reckon they've just done a "block every port except 80"?

I just don't want her losing her internet privileges by downloading over port 80 using an ssl connection.

What are your suggestions/comments?

 

[Chris1712]

If its SSL, they'll be able to see a lot of traffic but no more than that. Could just be downloading HTTP linux iso's all day .

 

[Rossmac]

that's what I thought. So it'd show that she's just downloading something through that port? Which could be conceived as http downloads? Linux ISOs are so "pro" is all I can say!

 

[slylittlefox]

As long as it's SSL, they won't be able to prove it's anything but legitimate traffic (i.e. not illegal).

However, they're sysadmins, they probably have counters on a dedicated monitor that show everybody's usage. As soon as they see 200GB of HTTPS data over the course of a week, I doubt she'll still have a working internet connection

With that said, it could be an entirely hands off affair, that is, everythings blocked apart from 80, and nobody monitors. Guess the only way to find out is try

Plead ignorance at all costs!

 

[Rossmac]

As soon as they see 200GB of HTTPS data over the course of a week, I doubt she'll still have a working internet connection

Well, I wouldn't think she'd be going over 1 or 2gb a week, if half of that really!

Plead ignorance at all costs!

Well, she's absolutely beautiful (haha, I love my arrogance), so I'm sure she can flick her hair and twirl it whilst pleading ignorance!

 

[Chris1712]

Yeah the only problem would be bandwidth flags I'd say, I remember Zefan getting a 24h ban at our campus because he downloaded something ridiculous like 30gb in an hour.

 

[Stelly]

Yeah the only problem would be bandwidth flags I'd say, I remember Zefan getting a 24h ban at our campus because he downloaded something ridiculous like 30gb in an hour.

classic... 30Gb in an hour, fantastic... yes it can be done

Stelly