Bypassing university-set IRC restrictions

[Strati]

Okay, so I used to be able to get on IRC by changing the port to 6668. Recently, though, it seems as though they have blocked ALL ports that can be used. No matter what port I change it to, I can't connect. Does anyone know a remedy or if it can even be remedied?

(I'm using ChatZilla, by the way.)

[KirbyMeister]

It depends how they are blocking. If they're just blocking 6660-6669; then you could possibly find or setup an open proxy on some other port outside of your university network. However, most IRC networks check for and kill any user using an open proxy because it's a very easy way to flood a network while evading IP bans... so that proxy would have to be in your control, only accept connections from you, etc. In short, you'd have to know EXACTLY what you were doing; and I've never tried using IRC proxies so I'm just going by what I think would be the most likely scenario.

Another, less likely scenario, is that your university's routers/servers are actually checking for and blackholing any sort of IRC packet. If so, then you'd have to encrypt your packets somehow.

On a different tangent, why is your university blocking IRC anyway? I would most likely suspect that network administration is trying to prevent filesharing over IRC... best bet is to complaint to administration IF YOU'RE JUST USING IT TO CHAT. If you're filesharing, don't even try to plead your case, they've already stopped caring.

[Nineko]

I've never tried using IRC proxies

it's not that hard

[Drack]

A private proxy would have to be offsite to bypass the restrictions. I don't think many people have a private computer that is always on, in a remote location.

Lacking one of those, IRC servers block public proxies almost without exception.

I'll try to think of something, but this isn't going to be easy.

[Nineko]

IRC servers block public proxies almost without exception.

Yep. As I said, I did it.

[Saundra]

IRC servers block public proxies almost without exception.

Yep. As I said, I did it.

ETG doesn't block a damn thing.

tor works like a charm

[Strati]

All right, Tor's installed and enabled. I'm now getting an "Error creating socket." message rather than a "Connection refused" message, so that's progress. Where do I go from here?

[Legion303]

My method is to tunnel my entire home desktop over an encrypted NetOp Remote Control link to my laptop and control the mIRC session that's always up at home. YMMV.

-steve