NEEDED: Firewall breakthrough assistance

My school has decided to enforce a nazi-like "study only" policy on the school network, they have putup a firewall to disable anything except web use. So, I can't use anything I desparately need to for for work, study, or just general friend contact, including IRC, ICQ, FTP, or anything from the school network, and since my home computer runs on a modem line that costs a shitload of money I don't have, that's out of the picture. I need some sort of software or ability to bypass a school-network based HTTP firewall and get access to these features I am in great need of, without them noticing and throwing a fit over it. Please send a PM or just reply here with your assistance. It would be greatly appreciated.

 

All depends on which ports and protocols the firewall blocks. You need ports 20 & 21 for FTP (some server configurations need other ports, eg. the TB Zone one), 80 for WWW, and (usually) 6667 for IRC. If you want to DCC on IRC, some other local ports must be unblocked too. Try setting up a proxy, too - if the firewall allows port 8080, 3128 or 1080 connections.

If you have WWW access, you have access to pretty much everything - provided Java applets aren't turned off or blocked by firewall software. There are web clients for IRC (example: http://www.romix.com.pl/irc/irc.html - yes I know it's in Polish, just Google for more; you can also install this applet in your own webspace, it's free and available in many language versions - just search for the source) and ICQ (the ICQ2Go service on mirabilis site).

The only problem I see is with FTP; you haven't said what kind of FTP access you need - access to your FTP account or just tp download files from one? If the latter, web browsers can act as (crappy) FTP clients; if it's your FTP, try to look if your provider has a web-based uploader (some ISPs have those). If you have a shell account, try telnetting (port 23, and the protocol is just 'telnet') - depending on your user account config, you may be having access to IRC and FTP clients through text terminal if the above port's open on your local machine.

One more thing, is the firewall installed locally on each machine (with rule distribution) or is it installed on network internet gateway? Stating your operating system is might help too. /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

another java IRC client - http://www.syrex.co.za/irc/

I believe AIM has an installable client and a no-install-necessary client, which uses java on their home page.

Maybe you should just find a nearby net cafe =/

 

Well, some java web irc clients still need open ports on local machines to work properly; some stuff also depends on irc network one's going to use - EFnet is rather easy to access, while some IRCnet servers require additional port scans.

Anyway, it's still too little info from Zero to help her. /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif "How to bypass firewall" type of question is a bit hard to answer without 'necessary data'.

 

The firewall is a server-side deal. I connect to the school network using my Win2K laptop.
The firewall info I input into my browser to connect to the web looks something like this:

proxy.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp port 8080

Do you need any other info?

 

Hey Zero, just a warning not to get your hopes up....while I was at my last college, the only thing I could do was connect to aim/icq. Nothing else /versus/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

If the proxy's an universal gateway to internet... have you tried entering this address in eg. mIRC? File -> Options -> (Category) Connect -> Firewall... then Firewall Support: Both, Protocol: Proxy, Hostname: proxy.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp, Port: 8080... plus any login and password info you need to connect to your proxy server. It may work.

It might work for FTP access too, just use a client that allows connecting through firewalls or proxies; you can also browser FTP servers through web browsers like IE or through some download managers. One note though, most proxy servers don't allow access through FTP protocol if they allow http:// and vice versa. If it doesn't, post and I'll try to work out something else. Same goes for irc part above.

And why not try to charm the school net admin too! You never know what you can achieve. /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

No

 

Hush, you... net access is THE most important thing. /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

I have entered all the info into my various IRC applications, but every time I attempt a server connect, I get a "blocked by firewall" error message. That's the main problem I'm trying to work around.

 

Do java-based web irc clients work? And what about ICQ2Go?