With a lot of help, I finally figured out a way around my school's tireless efforts to stop me from using torrents. I commend NetOps on a hard-fought battle, gg. They employed a three pronged strategy:
(If you don't want to relive my drama, skip to the "How to do it" parts)
1. Blocking BitTorrent protocol < Protocol Encryption
To get around the most obvious block, you just need to download the right BitTorrent client(program). Any client that supports Protocol Encryption (P.E.) is fine. I don't know exactly how it works, but it makes it so you can transfer with anyone else that has P.E. enabled. The majority of people that have to use P.E. are the ones blocked on college campuses with very nice connections, so there's a huge amount of bandwidth transfer between them. Note: If any of you norms want to tap into our black-market bandwidth, you just have to enable P.E.
How to do it:
For Windows users, I recommend uTorrent. I like it because it's lightweight and straightforward but still supports the needed features.
http://download.utorrent.com/1.6/utorrent.exe
For Windows/Mac/Linux, Azureus. I used to use this but then I got annoyed with all those extraneous doodads, and uTorrent was simpler to configure.
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/download.php?os=1
With uTorrent, I did the following:
Options > Preferences > BitTorrent > the last frame is Protocol Encryption
Outgoing: Enabled
Allow Incoming Legacy Connections: Checked (I don't know what this is, I just checked it for the hell of it)
If you're not using uTorrent, it shouldn't be hard to find something like that in your client's configuration.
2 and 3. Blocking tracker connections + Blocking download of .torrent extensions < Proxy Server
NetOps changed up their attack strategy a few times. For a while, I couldn't download anything that ended in .torrent. Very few torrent sites have torrents as .txt files, and it was somehow smart enough to block those, too. Some weekends, a new VOD would be released and I wouldn't be able to get a hold of my friends who sent me torrents. In my desperation, I ended up having to download things for people in exchange for a .torrent file.. like a cheap whore for her latest fix. Those days are behind me now.
One day, though, I found that I could actually download a .torrent file. I thought it might be a fluke, so I tried downloading several more. Success! With skeptical excitement, I cautiously opened the files in uTorrent to find... not a single tracker was working. uTorrent would be able to transfer if it just knew who to transfer with. Damn you. Damn you, NetOps, for using such cruel tactics.
I had heard of proxy servers, but the two problems I had were that I didn't have a spare computer off campus to run the server, and I didn't like the idea of my amazing bandwidth being bottlenecked by my crappy connection at home. The Solutions: There are lots of free proxy servers online, and uTorrent lets you proxy the tracker connection without proxying the actual peer-to-peer connections. This lets me hide a connection to the trackers so my torrents can see who to transfer with. Then, Protocol Encryption does the rest of the work.
How to do it:
You can Google for free proxies, but I couldn't get any of them to work. So I used this thing called Your Freedom.
http://www.your-freedom.net/
Once you register, you have access to their network of proxy servers. Then they have you download the Your Freedom program, which connects you to the optimal server.
Then you have your torrent program connect to the Your Freedom program. With uTorrent, I did:
Options > Preferences > Connection > the second frame Proxy Server
Type: Socks4
Proxy: localhost
Port: 1080
(make sure to have "use proxy server for peer-to-peer connections" UNchecked)
Connect Your Freedom and start up your torrents, voila.
I also imagine that if .torrent files are blocked again, I can just connect FireFox/IE to the Your Freedom program to download the file.
If your campus employs other tactics, post here. I'm sure the Proxy Server/PE combo can find a way around it. If not, we'll just have to find other ways to stick it to the man!
Thanks, ToT)SiLeNcE(, ManaBlue and Manifesto7 for your initial help with the tracker, and thanks Haemonculus for sending me .torrent files. Plus, props to uTorrent for running a helpful forum.
PS. If iNcontroL ever asks you to make a random wish, do it.
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