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Hallnet Restrictions?

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Reply 40
Mr Catbert
Why are we not allowed to run worldwide accessible services? Especially those of us doing computer science courses?


JANET restrictions primarily. Also to somewhat safeguard the University's reputation.
Students on campus at Loughborough University
Loughborough University
Loughborough
Reply 41
thomasp
As for YouTube being slow, that's probably because I have my computer configured through the manual proxy server method (perhaps worth adding the automatic configuration for Macs to the Computing Services' Hallnet website?)

Good point. Bit late for this year but will change it for next. Basically the proxy.pac file that we send out ensures that youtube (and similar traffic) is not directed through the proxy server so its a bit faster. We changed this a couple of months ago to try and speed the proxy's up a bit.
Reply 42
Tsktsk, you're not supposed to double-post.... The Edit button exists for a reason :wink:
Reply 43
loopymeg
Tsktsk, you're not supposed to double-post.... The Edit button exists for a reason :wink:

Sorry about that. It was easier than to quote from 2 posts and my time was restricted.
Reply 44
JonOakden
Sorry about that. It was easier than to quote from 2 posts and my time was restricted.


You'd better be careful that the mods don't have to connect them :wink:

Besides, it's 8.20pm on a Friday night.. is this not the time that all staff are in the pub? :biggrin:

oh, do the .pac files work with linux?

edit:

and also, why do the Falk-Egg routers not have UPS? we had a power cut earlier and my laptop came up saying that the connection had been interrupted
Reply 45
Montrose
although things like P2P are banned.


NOOOOO! is there a way around this?
Reply 46
GTi
NOOOOO! is there a way around this?


You do realise that you're asking this in the presence of the HallNet Manager? (JonOakden) :rolleyes:
Reply 47
EarlFuzz
You'd better be careful that the mods don't have to connect them :wink:

Besides, it's 8.20pm on a Friday night.. is this not the time that all staff are in the pub? :biggrin:

oh, do the .pac files work with linux?

edit:

and also, why do the Falk-Egg routers not have UPS? we had a power cut earlier and my laptop came up saying that the connection had been interrupted

8:20 on a Friday down the pub? I remember those days...
.pac files on linux. Depends on the flavour I think...
UPS's are being looked into. In your case it was unfortunate that the power was lost in the block where the main switch for Falk-Egg is. The problem with UPS's is that they often cause as many power problems as they solve if they aren't managed correctly. Clever managed UPS's cost a lot of money so we could never put them everywhere, only in strategically important locations.
Reply 48
GTi
NOOOOO! is there a way around this?

Read the thread and you'll find out why.
Reply 49
o, i see. i'll just have to download at home then.
Reply 50
or find someone off campus to download for you :wink:
Reply 51
good thinking, i like your style.
Reply 52
Pretty cool that the computer services guy comes and helps out on here, major kudos to you.
Reply 53
Alan Partridge
Pretty cool that the computer services guy comes and helps out on here, major kudos to you.


:dito:
Reply 54
Alan Partridge
Pretty cool that the computer services guy comes and helps out on here, major kudos to you.

Thankyou.
I must stress that I'm not here in an official capacity. I just saw postings about Hallnet here indexed on Google so I came to have a read. When I saw that there was much rumour and incorrect information about Hallnet and other Computing Services related items I thought it would be best if I posted here to clear things up.
If anyone here ever wants me to clear off so that things can be discussed without my intervention then I shall do so.
I should also mention that official requests for help and problem reporting should go through our normal channels and not through here as I may not read this as often as I'd like.
Reply 55
JonOakden


No DC++ servers on campus please. We used to let this slide but now we are under increasing pressure from copyright holders to be doing something about such things. Anyone found running one will be banned from HallNet.

We do not do anything that detects exactly what is being run on your computer by any sort of voodoo witchcraft :smile:
We may occasionally 'portscan' a specific computer to see what services are running on that computer. This is to check for compromises or to see if that computer is runing something it shouldn't. This is explicitly allowed on a closed network and there is are no legal implications of doing so.
By signing our AUP you do not sign away your legal rights to privacy. Samba is 100% right on that. Our AUP cannot supercede your rights in UK and european law. However, what we are doing is not invading your privacy as we are only looking at things your computer is making openly available. To be honest, we haven't 'port scanned' anyone for ages.

We mainly detect users doing things we'd rather they didn't by the traffic coming to and from their computer. Just because you aren't actively using your p2p app doesn't mean its not generating any network traffic. The whole ethos of p2p is that your computer should me making its files available to others. What was interesting this year is the number of users who would swear blind they had removed ares or similar from their computer but were detected still running it. this is dues to the number of malware infested versions of such software doing the rounds that wouldn't actually uninstall. Please be 100% sure of the software you install on your computer folks! This is why we insist such software is removed from computers connected to hallnet and not just 'unused'. Too many users don't know how to disable the software properly.

Hope this clears a few things up?
(sorry for any typos but I'm typing this in a big hurry)


I'm also impressed by the fact you're here answering peoples questions. It's a far cry from how many universities IT departments operate :smile:

Just a couple of points:

1. Did you read the expert testimony by the RIAA witness against the US student accused of sharing P2P recently? It makes for an interesting read if you ever get a few moments. Generally, the jist is that the music industry are hanging on to their rights for dear life, and taking a very expensive battering. That's not to say I condone illegal filesharing of any sort of course. :smile:

2. My point about privacy was regarding searching for 'installed software' which isn't in use (as some people were saying was happening). Obviously there are ways and means for IS to do so, but they aren't mainstream or allowed. I'd imagine you're just using snort for network anomoly and scanning for network services on ports.(which is fine even if you do have malicious intent!) However an increasing number of universities are honeypotting P2P 'services' in order to catch users out, then scanning as a result of that. Very dodgy grounds there...Incidentally, some worms (completely unrelated to p2p) use the p2p protocols to propogate, which may result in false positives being flagged up. There's also some network level software the music industry has released which I'd be loathe to deploy for p2p detection...
Reply 56
JonOakden
Thankyou.
I must stress that I'm not here in an official capacity. I just saw postings about Hallnet here indexed on Google so I came to have a read. When I saw that there was much rumour and incorrect information about Hallnet and other Computing Services related items I thought it would be best if I posted here to clear things up.
If anyone here ever wants me to clear off so that things can be discussed without my intervention then I shall do so.

I should also mention that official requests for help and problem reporting should go through our normal channels and not through here as I may not read this as often as I'd like.
Please don't!

Also, sorry if this is really picky but:

Please note that HallNet is not be available from The Holt


In the final paragraph of http://www.loughborough.ac.uk/computing/hallnet/index.html


does not make grammatical sense! :wink:
Reply 57
samba
1. Did you read the expert testimony by the RIAA witness against the US student accused of sharing P2P recently? It makes for an interesting read if you ever get a few moments. Generally, the jist is that the music industry are hanging on to their rights for dear life, and taking a very expensive battering. That's not to say I condone illegal filesharing of any sort of course. :smile:
You got a link for that?
Reply 58
thistle
Cinema in Loughborough is quite cheap and if you're going to be going a lot then buy membership for £5 and save £1 on the price each time you go :biggrin:

For music there's Tesco, Woolies or Virgin Megastore. Much faster and more reliable than P2P although you do pay for that luxury :biggrin:

Cool...so there's a cinema in town. I know some online sites for TV shows which most uni students around the world use. I'll manage fine then.
For music It'll take a while to adapt considering my umm..bad habits :ninja:
Reply 59
dhutch
You got a link for that?


Sure :smile:

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/03/deposition-of-riaas-expert-available.html

ps. I love the narrowboat! It's fantastic :smile:

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