<p>also, nothing in their policies restrict what content you access so long as its legal.</p>
<p>Folks, here is some information about the UFW and DHNet networks that will likely be helpful:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>DHNet is owned and managed by the UF Department of Housing. It is a true gigabit-to-the-desktop network for every wired port, and also maintains a large, independent (from the rest of campus) wireless network. It is almost entirely based on Cisco 6500/4500-series equipment. It is beautiful when it’s angry ;). </p></li>
<li><p>UFW is maintained by Campus Network Services, and falls under its control. They use different network products, different enforcement products and different policies.</p></li>
<li><p>Red Lambda’s ‘Integrity’ application and ‘cGRID’ platform are the commercial offshoots of the ICARUS software developed at UF Housing. Red Lambda was founded in 2005.</p></li>
<li><p>UF Housing uses a roughly 3-yo version of Integrity from what I can tell. It is strictly used to automate policy stuff (port deactivations, quarantines, etc.) and track user location/registrations. That version does not have the application aware-deep packet inspection engine in current versions as far as I know. UF Housing appears to be using a ‘VLAN steering’ model, which means you are dynamically moved to a restricted network, forming a true, layer 2 control. This makes it exceptionally difficult to bypass once restricted.</p></li>
<li><p>UF Housing added Audible Magic’s CopySense appliances in 2008 to give them the ability to inspect the actual content being transferred. (see: <a href=“Redirect Notice”>Redirect Notice) It’s a pretty serious privacy invasion as that is likely logged and associated with specific people. I would strongly recommend turning on encryption and security features to protect yourself when using ‘suspicious’ applications.</p></li>
<li><p>Neither CopySense, nor Integrity are operating on the UFW as far as I know. There are some internally developed tools in operation that appear to be based on Perl because of their slow performance. The UFW, and the UF networks in general, are MUCH less restrictive than Housing is.</p></li>
<li><p>Ironically, the University of South Florida uses Red Lambda’s Integrity application also, except they don’t restrict access or block traffic in any way. According to the company’s website, USF was still able to reduce file sharing by almost 90% just by trusting its students to make smart choices once well-informed. Fancy that.</p></li>
<li><p>Policies at UF Housing appear to have gotten substantially more draconian over the last five years or so, looking at the rules and regs. They are even banning things like Folding@Home and games. Years ago, there were ways to get an exemption for research, games, etc. I knew a bunch of people that did it. </p></li>
<li><p>There are ways to bypass CopySense ;)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>YMMV, hope this helps</p>
<p>So, what does that all mean?</p>
<p>What can/can’t you do?</p>
<ul>
<li>CopySense appears to be based on the Palisade Systems Packethound appliances:
[Audible</a> Magic - Partners - Palisade Systems](<a href=“http://audiblemagic.com/partners/palisade-systems.asp]Audible”>http://audiblemagic.com/partners/palisade-systems.asp)</li>
</ul>
<p>Here is the Palisade patent:
[Network</a> Connection Blocker, Method, And Computer Readable Memory For Monitoring Connections In A Computer Network And Blocking The Unwanted Connections - Patent 6044402](<a href=“http://www.docstoc.com/docs/46401730/Network-Connection-Blocker-Method-And-Computer-Readable-Memory-For-Monitoring-Connections-In-A-Computer-Network-And-Blocking-The-Unwanted-Connections---Patent-6044402]Network”>http://www.docstoc.com/docs/46401730/Network-Connection-Blocker-Method-And-Computer-Readable-Memory-For-Monitoring-Connections-In-A-Computer-Network-And-Blocking-The-Unwanted-Connections---Patent-6044402)</p>
<p>Certainly dated technology, they have made little further <em>patented</em> advances. Of course, that means next to nothing since they could just be keeping those as trade secrets.</p>
<p>Basically, in the dorms, what you can do is different from the rest of campus.</p>
<p>If you are trying to be good, then just use commercial sites/apps to get your media, porn, and software.</p>
<p>If that is not your style, then it’s going to take some work and research IMHO :)</p>
<p>I’ve been torrenting through UF dorm internet 24/7 for the last year or so.</p>
<p>heres the setup, no fancy 3rd party redirect or proxy needed.</p>
<p>first off i use ubuntu, not windows, so I use the transmission torrent client…</p>
<p>limit down speed 2000kb/s, limit up speed 50 kb/s
enable block list, enable auto updates
require encryption, use PEX, use DHT
use random port on startup, dont use UPnP
max 60 peers per torrent, max 200 peers overall
proxy settings blank (non needed)</p>
<p>I get pretty ludicrous speeds</p>
<p>boss status. i think requiring encryption is your best defense. if i didn’t have 2 flags already (neither bittorent related ironically), i’d give it a try.</p>
<p>and how to encrypt the Internet connection?</p>
<p>Damn I got 2 violations because I uploaded a <em>.torrent however I did not know what was triggering it until days after it happened. I went to Housing and they want to look at my computer to tell me what I violated. So I did. I was running Ubuntu at the time but the *</em><strong>er decided to look on my Windows partition and found “The Matrix” or some movie like that. Then he said this proves I was torrenting even tho I had not booted windows since the summer. I was still baffled and he did not give a **</strong> he just said I knew what I did and I need to stop it. I asked him point blank if FTP would trigger it and he said no. Well that ****er lied to my face. I went back to compare the times of the violations with the timestamps of the files on the server and they where the same. So moral is always encrypt! I was using unencrypted FTP and they just read *.torrent and flagged me. Now I use SFTP or FTPS for EVERYTHING I upload.</p>
<p>oh yeah, i got flagged for uploading a torrent file i think. i did it via a java vnc client. since both are sort of against the rules, i’m not sure what i got flagged for there.</p>
<p>Is it ok to use websites like mediafire and megavideo/upload to watch or download things? I use it all the time at home, I was wondering if its ok here.</p>
<p>That what I would use (mostly rapidshare at the time). They’re more concerned with P2P sharing.</p>