<p>At Preview, they had a presentation on Internet safety & included was that UF was going to scan our computers. They said that if we use Frostwire or any other (illegal) downloading sites, they would kick us off the Internet.</p>
<p>Is this said to scare us and an empty threat? Do people really get caught for downloading music? </p>
<p>Also, I remember they said something about they check Windows computers for something. If I have a Mac, can they even check?</p>
<p>I think what they’re talking about is and BitTorrent application in general. They don’t want people using them because they’re a security threat if people don’t take the time to make sure there aren’t viruses in what they’re downlaoding, they’re a liability given that most people download things illegally, and—the biggest problem—they hog the network. Due to the nature of a torrent, they use a lot of the networks resources and if a bunch of people were using them, it would slow down the internet for everyone on campus.</p>
<p>So, if you illegally download music from say, a web page, I don’t think there will be a problem, as long as you don’t do too much, but it’s torrent use that they will notice and they will punish you for.</p>
<p>Basically, regular downloading, like something you’d do if you just downloaded something off a webpage, is fine, just don’t use torrents. That said, if you subscribe to a torrent box, that is how you’d get around that.</p>
<p>What about if we use proxies?
Also jcold, if you want to be on the safe side, a really easy way to download music free in a way that should avoid this hassle is to Google search, “album name blogspot [megaupload/rapidshare/etc]”. You’ll get links to blogs that post albums with links to the storage file site download link.</p>
<p>A proxy wouldn’t even remotely matter in this case. They’ll know it’s you from the wireless logon, it doesn’t matter what computer you do it from or what your MAC address or IP is, just the log in. </p>
<p>Your best bet it to just download it off some free wifi or go war driving.</p>
<p>Proxies don’t help with torrents because it’s still using the BitTorrent protocol, so it will still take up network resources. If you must use a torrent, look into a torrent box.
Basically, what happens is you pay a monthly fee for a private computer housed somewhere in the world; torrents you want are downloaded to there, but then you download the finished file to your computer just like you would download a file off the internet—that way, your on-campus computer isn’t using the BitTorrent protocol.</p>
<p>That said, if you have friends that also with to download stuff, you could split the monthly cost with several people to use one.</p>
<p>…I can’t believe I’m actually doing this, I never support the act of illegal downloads.</p>
<p>even with a seedbox, you can get in trouble. there are a number of protocols that DHNet disallows, including VNC, which is somethings required for seedbox users depending on your service provider. but in general, if you’re only using a HTML based webui, you’re safe.</p>
<p>they were not kidding about the internet access. UF housing probably has the most draconian internet policy of any large university in the southeast, and they certainly do within florida. they require you to install spyware to check and make sure certain software is or is not installed on your machine, and very vigorously (albeit, automatically) monitor what protocols you’re using. you WILL get caught for using a banned protocol. thus, DO NOT USE ANY P2P SOFTWARE on their network. this includes games that update via bittorent (blizzard games are big offenders).</p>
<p>they don’t, however, make any effort to prevent you from downloading via HTTP. as long as you’re only dealing with that, theres no worries. a seedbox can be used very successfully, but rarely go for less than $15/month, and are frequently not very user friendly.</p>
<p>UFW, the non-housing campus network, however, is a totally different story. using bittorent and whatnot is not mentioned in their TOS specifically even (though pirating is a violation–they can rarely detect it). i know people who have had letters sent to the university because of piracy, and they were temporarily banned from UFW, and i’ve personally recieved emails from UFW’s administration telling me not to do stuff (i don’t remember what exactly), but unless the university is notified by a third party that you’re abusing UFW, you wont get in trouble.</p>
<p>it should be noted that network policies at UF change more or less every semester, so anything i say is subject to change.</p>
<p>wait so you’re telling me I can’t watch streams or anything on veetle, justin.tv or stuff like that?</p>
<p>^ way to not read a single post</p>
<p>any program that uses p2p technologies will get you in trouble.</p>
<p>i should mention also that their policy is that you’re not allowed to use anything that could be used to share copyrighted material. they once got me on a false positive and tried to blame it on dropbox. it wasn’t and they didn’t hold it against me, but i’m under the impression that if they’re checking your machine, they reserve the right to ban you for whatever they find on your computer that might be used to share data. i think a friend of mine got in trouble for sending a file via aim once. but other times it’s gone through.</p>
<p>i personally would recommend making any media files you download encrypted to obscure what kind of files you’re transferring. they’re able to detect file names.</p>
<p>I don’t use any torrents or P2P technologies but I use Dropbox and I get my music to there by using YouTube converters. Will that get me in trouble?</p>
<p>Someone mentioned above that you are forced to install software that checks what you have installed. Can someone verify that as true, and is it a one time scan, or is it something that I must always keep on my computer?</p>
<p>The software runs constantly on your computer. If it’s not running and in memory then you will be locked out of the network. It’s how they’re able to do things like force you to have updated virus software running, and stuff like that</p>
<p>@isenior, i’ve never heard of someone getting flagged for dropbox, and they won’t notice any youtube converters. if you get a violation and they search your computer and find nothing, i wouldn’t put it past them to blame it on dropbox since it does permit you to share data, which they don’t allow. i wasn’t penalized when this situation arose, though it took them a week to unban me for the false positive.</p>
<p>Sorry for the bump, but I was wondering about the spyware check:</p>
<p>I used to torrent a lot. I haven’t done so in a while, now (thanks to Steam and Netflix), but I was wondering about this spyware check: I have an '08 MacBook with a BitTorrent client on it (Transmission) and PeerGuardian, and some movie/music files, etc. Will I need to delete just Transmission and the .torrent files, or the actual files as well?</p>
<p>Also, will they be intelligent enough to see that I dual boot Windows on my computer, and want to run a spyware check on that partition as well? (It’s basically same deal as the Macintosh side.)</p>
<p>And speaking of Steam, is there any problems with it that anyone knows of?</p>
<p>Could you just run their spyware in a virtual machine; same hardware identifications, different, operating system? :D</p>
<p>Well I think they said there will be basically three warnings, so…
Definitely gonna try the dual boot, and then just download with Linux (they don’t scan that OS I think). Virtual machine is an interesting idea, don’t know if it would work though.</p>
<p>i don’t think theres anything about the VM that would be useful. the VM has to run in an OS, and the software has to run from the OS, not the VM. they are two seperate layers, of which the first (the primary one) is the one that their network interfaces with. maybe its worth a try, as i don’t know enough about VM’s to totally rule that out, but i doubt it would work. to be clear, in order for the internet in the VM to work, you have to connect without the VM, which means that the spyware has to be installed on the primary OS.</p>
<p>as for dual booting windows/os x, whenever you connect to the network they will determine if you’re running the required software, regardless of which OS it is. it doesn’t make any difference whether its on the same machine or not.</p>
<p>in regards to what you should keep on your system: it doesn’t scan files so much as applications. i’ve had .torrent files on my machine while on the network with no issue. HOWEVER, if you get in trouble for some other reason (a false positive, for instance) and they go snooping around your machine to clear you and they find the .torrent file, you won’t be cleared. they’ll ask you to delete them and then wait out your sentence. the actual content won’t raise any flags whatsoever, however. feel free to keep your games and music. you will want to remove transmission and peerguardian.</p>
<p>steam works without issues. i wouldn’t be surprised if they ever switched over to p2p, but i’ve never heard them say they were moving in that direction. pay attention if theres ever something about that that shows up somewhere.</p>
<p>on the subject of linux: there have been some reports that you can use linux if you encrypt well enough. as of last year, they didn’t have software to monitor linux machines, and made no attempts to determine what software you might have installed. that doesn’t prevent them from snooping your traffic, however. you’re liable to get caught if you don’t download .torrent files without SSL and don’t encrypt everything. i have not seen torrenting work on linux first hand, but i believe someone made a post a long time ago about getting it to work. i personally thought it was a stupid thing to try, but i also accumulated about 3-4 flags (some absolved as false positives) before i switched to linux full-time. even with encryption, they can flag you based on traffic. the safest route (imo) would be to use an SSH tunnel, but if you’re doing that you might as well just a get a seedbox.</p>
<p>moral of the story: get together with a friend or two and pay for a $15/mo seedbox and don’t violate the network’s policies outright (having illegal content is technically a violation, but its not as flagrant as using bittorent).</p>
<p>Hi. As part of the Univeristy of Florida staff, it is my duty to report all activity mentioned in this thread to our department of security so we may preserve the integrity and name of the University of Florida as well as prevent our students from engaging in such activities while attending this university. This post shall serve as a warning to the students on this thread as well as other students who have come to read this thread to cease all the aforementioned activity. I would like to take the time to remind you that disciplinary action will be taken if convicted, including, but not limited to, suspension of privileges as well as termination of your stay at UF. I wish you all a great summer and look forward to seeing you at the University of Florida. Go Gators!</p>
<p>and that, my friends, is a valid reason for you to NOT attend this university. also note that when she says convicted, she really means accused. they are the same thing when you are dealing with the housing department.</p>
<p>to summarize what ufgirl08 said, if you get caught using bittorent in their network, you will get banned. feel free to continue the discussion.</p>
<p>on another note, i really hope there aren’t people who get paid to read CC. that would be embarrassing for the university, i think.</p>
<p>Do you have to be on UF’s network for the spyware to scan your computer? Like, for example, if I just went to a friend’s off-campus apartment and downloaded whatever programs/media I wanted, then deleted the torrent software and went back to the UF campus, there would be no way of knowing, yah?</p>
<p>And @ufgirl08, I’d suggest learning how to spell “University” before impersonating a staff member ;)</p>