ITS email

snoki · Post by **snoki** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:45 pm

With regard to a call that you logged with the IT Service Desk (reference
00087909) on 11/04/2006:

We are very aware of the current degradation of performance on ResNet. The
network team are investigating to find the cause of the problem. We believe
it is a mixture of things which is causing the issues.

1. Possible Virus like activity
2. Peer to Peer applications
3. An application called Skype which we believe is causing problems when it
is left on constantly. We are advising
residents to switch of skype when it does not need to be used and to try
there internet connections when this
application is not being used.

In light of this will be re-instating the Traffic Shaper, with rules
applied, ahead of schedule.

This will take place at 15.00 today, Tuesday 11th April 2006.

It is essential that we understand the impact this change has on service
prior to the start of the next term, so
would be very grateful if you could provide any feedback via the feedback
forum on the Student Computing Website, by
replying back to this email or emailing studentcomputing@warwick.ac.uk

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/ ... /residence
s/feedback/.

We will provide further updates regarding the recent performance issues on
the Student Computing website and we shall be sending out another email to
all residents of changes we have made over the easter and the plan ahead.

Regards,
Bee Mistry

To my best knowledge and although the technicalities of the subject escape me:

-Downloading torrents has been banned
-Access to DC++ has been banned
-Downloading .torrent files has been banned (!)
-Socks5 proxy access seems to be banned(?) or limitted (tried a couple that pass the WHOIS check)

If anyone has any ideas..

P.S.: I like the capitalization in

Traffic Shaper

echelon · Post by **echelon** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:15 pm

yes we're aware of this email. And ur assumptions are basically correct! Except the Penguins with Tux as their Mighty Deity will never be stopped!!

snoki · Post by **snoki** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 9:33 pm

inside info says they MIGHT not keep it on because they are experiencing some "problems"

Post by **astropoint** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:54 pm

Down with the Traffic Shaper!

Viva la revolucion!

zola_25 · Post by **zola_25** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:17 pm

any way around the TS at all? socks5 doesn seem to work anymore either. what about that ftp clien? is it still up?

Post by **BigG** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 9:22 am

They can't easily ban you from downloading .torrent files. The have most likely just throttled all of the main torrent sites to death so the request merely times out after the download is requested

Edit: hmmm looks like they've purchased some leet kit then...

Blood God · Post by **Blood God** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 11:30 am

ITS traffic shaper works on traffic signatures rather than ports (if what I remember being told is correct)... so it should do the job pretty well.

snoki · Post by **snoki** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:32 pm

I had someone email me the .torrent file since I haven't yet found a way to download them. I have tried to use download accelerator under a proxy connection but no success there... And btw I have tried to use very rate torrent sites but it still won't download.. (http://www.blue-whitegt.com it's Greek)
I have tried to use BitComet using Socks5 to resolve tracker connections and it seems to work, horridly.. 8 hours to download 112MB with an average speed of 3KB/s.
The torrent I was downloading had very few seeds though. So that could have caused the slow speed.. I just keep on posting these in case someone gets an idea to circumvent the system..

Post by **astropoint** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:50 pm

BigG posted a torrent on his website as a test to see if I could download it, and it just timed out after a while, so the torrent files themselves are blocked.
By the way, socks5 does work, you jsut have to fine a working one. There are a few people on twofo at the moment using it

NIKITA · Post by **NIKITA** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:38 pm

Could someone explain to me how to access DC using socks5 please?
I tried to change the settings to socks5 when opening DC but I got this message:

*** Connecting to twofo.kicks-ass.net:4145...
*** Socks5: Address not available

...

Post by **astropoint** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:39 pm

Use a different socks5 server then

Post by **BigG** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:21 pm

I'd listen to Blood_God as he knows what he's talking about more than I do

Blood God · Post by **Blood God** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:18 pm

BigG wrote:I'd listen to Blood_God as he knows what he's talking about more than I do

I'm only relaying information that I heard from someone I know who works for ITS. It could be in no way reliable.

Sentance · Post by **Sentance** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 9:57 pm

astropoint wrote:Use a different socks5 server then

could sum1 maybe give us the address of a working server? else tell us how to find one. i don't pretend to really understand socks5, but i googled for servers once, and that didn't return anything useful.

echelon · Post by **echelon** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:19 pm

Blood God wrote:
BigG wrote:I'd listen to Blood_God as he knows what he's talking about more than I do
I'm only relaying information that I heard from someone I know who works for ITS. It could be in no way reliable.

Well it's as reliable as any of the rest of us will get, since we're relaying information as well

Sentance wrote:
astropoint wrote:Use a different socks5 server then
could sum1 maybe give us the address of a working server? else tell us how to find one. i don't pretend to really understand socks5, but i googled for servers once, and that didn't return anything useful.

Most of the ppl on twofo using socks5 have just googled them. The other way that I use is personal socks5 servers, but I am not about to hand out the address to any of my personal servers or any of my friend's servers. So keep googling until u find something you can use!! oh and try something other than UK socks5.. I'm afraid u brits don't know wat u're doin