University Purposefully Blocking Torrent Download?

Here's a strange one. It seems that at least in my particular section of the network I am unable to download torrent files directly. I of course have tested it on a variety of platforms and all of them seem to have the same problem, so it isn't just me. Any torrents I am currently running seed (and oh how those babies do) but the downloads stall out when I try and download the actual torrent files. We're talking public tracker to private tracker, it doesn't matter.

Actually, the only thing that bypasses this is if the files are downloaded from an https domain (as certain sites have). My question is: Does anyone think they know of a way to bypass this block?

try right clicking and saving it as a target as, if not, not really sure how to bypass that. Someone will evenually know though. Good luck.

Oh, tried that. At that point the torrent actually gets to the download manager, but the speed steadily decreases to zero and just sits there.

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Originally Posted by fsephie

Here's a strange one. It seems that at least in my particular section of the network I am unable to download torrent files directly. I of course have tested it on a variety of platforms and all of them seem to have the same problem, so it isn't just me. Any torrents I am currently running seed (and oh how those babies do) but the downloads stall out when I try and download the actual torrent files. We're talking public tracker to private tracker, it doesn't matter.

Actually, the only thing that bypasses this is if the files are downloaded from an https domain (as certain sites have). My question is: Does anyone think they know of a way to bypass this block?

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Does your university gives you a limit of bandwidth? coz i know ours does. If you cross the limit they put restriction in access or even worse cut the net access =/ idk how that helps though lol

Anyways, if nothing works, try asking the university net access distributer.

To clarify, this only pertains to downloading torrent files from trackers that do not use ssl. I haven't tried having someone upload a torrent file to a non-tracker and see if it will still let me download, though.

They could be packet shaping. My uni does. Try Azureus; it offers pretty robust encryption. Doesn't work here, but it might work for you.

have you tried downloading the .torrent file with

http://txtor.dwerg.net/

While that definitely does work for me on public sites, it does not work with private trackers. Also, it seems interesting that they just now implemented this (literally two days ago).

my uni does something like this...it basically corrupts torrent file headers so that I can download the .torrent file but when I open it up, the torrent client says the torrent file is corrupt...to get around this, use proxies like tor to download the torrent file. Now while most private sites don't allow you to login with proxies, it will let you download with one...So...log in normally, go to the torrent you want to download, open new tab, enable proxy, go back to tab with your torrent and download and you should be fine. And as mentioned before, enable encryption while downloading

Try right clicking, save as, and change the filename to moviewarez.txt from moviewarez.torrent. Then, go to where you saved it and change the extension back to .torrent, and open with your torrent client(note that you might have to go to tools->folder options->view and then uncheck the "hide extensions for known filetypes" to rename the .txt to .torrent).

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Originally Posted by limpingjaret

my uni does something like this...it basically corrupts torrent file headers so that I can download the .torrent file but when I open it up, the torrent client says the torrent file is corrupt...to get around this, use proxies like tor to download the torrent file. Now while most private sites don't allow you to login with proxies, it will let you download with one...So...log in normally, go to the torrent you want to download, open new tab, enable proxy, go back to tab with your torrent and download and you should be fine. And as mentioned before, enable encryption while downloading

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Thanks, I'll give that one a go when I've had more than 20 minutes of sleep.

Also, how is Berkeley? I was going to go there or LA, but instead I decided to go the libarts route in the Northeast.

i have the same problems , gives me a lot of seeders but 0 peers and the speed doesnt move at all

Hmm, Never heard about this before.
What happens if you try save traget as. Then save it as shakamoo.zip
Then rename it back to title.source.codec-group.torrent ?

If its a public torrent, you can use uploading.com's remote upload service. Just remote upload the torrent url and then download it from uploading.com.

It changes the file name to some number, doesn't have the torrent extension.

Using BT @ Universities especially in the United States is so fucking risky that I won't even explain that.

Reconsider this, because you may end up paying a half million additional tuition...

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Originally Posted by Nietzsche

Using BT @ Universities especially in the United States is so fucking risky that I won't even explain that.

Reconsider this, because you may end up paying a half million additional tuition...

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that's ridiculous. the worst that could happen is he settles out of court for 3500

Can't remember exactly how I got my uni connection working. I remember I had to type the proxy server name into a page in the general section of utorrent. Only problem is that if you have a file with loads of peers your uni firewall gets hit by lots of peers searching for an open port. I got tipped off by an IT gut that I am friendly with that at one point me and another guy at uni were degrading the uni firewall (happened during freeleech on SCT).
I then used a socks client for a while - but this really affects speeds.

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Originally Posted by koolyt

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Originally Posted by Nietzsche

Using BT @ Universities especially in the United States is so fucking risky that I won't even explain that.

Reconsider this, because you may end up paying a half million additional tuition...

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that's ridiculous. the worst that could happen is he settles out of court for 3500

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I happen to go to a college that has stated publicly that they will fight for their students, preferring that all requests by the RIAA and MPAA go straight to the Law school.

How about attending a different university?

I assume you're university only filters http connections using some sort of a proxy. If that's the case, you can find torrent files of public trackers on IRC channels and download them using DCC.

Like someone said, most schools have a unknown bandwidth limit and if you go above it, they will disable or suspend your internet access.

I think its completely irresponsible to torrent on a school's internet. Why don't you live off campus so you can get your own ISP?

i jumped on in my friends office on campus today just to test it out...was running at 12/30 mbit for about half an hour before i got shut down : (((

most university automatically cut off the net when a user exceeds given bandwidth. Our university has like 2 gb bandwidth per day =/

I get a 40/40 pipe with no limits :P You just need to take proper precautions...besides I figure the thousands of idiots using limewire will go down before me....not that I'm downloading anything illegal or anything :whistling

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Originally Posted by nethawk

Like someone said, most schools have a unknown bandwidth limit and if you go above it, they will disable or suspend your internet access.

I think its completely irresponsible to torrent on a school's internet. Why don't you live off campus so you can get your own ISP?

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why is it irresponsible? you pay the school for internet usage in your tuition bill usually.

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Originally Posted by jelll

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Originally Posted by nethawk

Like someone said, most schools have a unknown bandwidth limit and if you go above it, they will disable or suspend your internet access.

I think its completely irresponsible to torrent on a school's internet. Why don't you live off campus so you can get your own ISP?

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why is it irresponsible? you pay the school for internet usage in your tuition bill usually.

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After reading so many reports about students and schools getting sued, why take the risk to download illegal content on a school's internet?

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Originally Posted by th0r

How about attending a different university?

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rofl

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Originally Posted by limpingjaret

I get a 40/40 pipe with no limits :P You just need to take proper precautions...besides I figure the thousands of idiots using limewire will go down before me....not that I'm downloading anything illegal or anything :whistling

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Christ. How?

Try tunnelling the traffic over SSH.

Yea using bittorent over university lines will proof diffcult due to their strict guidlins and policies with pirating, it's tough!

Just to update, since this has been brought up.

I had used the connection the entire semester without a problem, up until last thursday-ish. Now they won't let you download torrent files nor connect using torrent progs.

However, I just bit the bullet and am sharing a seedbox, so all is well.