firewall and network help

[dreamer]

i'll try and keep this in simple bullet points to help me and anyone who can help.

- at Uni now, using a free modem connection in my room
- will soon be paying for an upgrade for broadband on the Uni's network/bandwidth.
- heard that they use loads of firewalls and stuff to stop people downloading, i dont know if this is true, but just in case it is, my question is:
- what can networks do to stop people downloading? how exactly do they work, assuming that i am using my own computer but their source of bandwidth, what exactly is it possible for them to block?

i apologize if it's a question that the answer could be varied/impossible to answer easily. i was really wondering what sort of limitations networks can impose in general as i really can't see what they can do. am using my own computer and of course can install any programs i want on here. any comments would be helpfull.

Dreamer

 

[Gorxon]

Well, if I understood you correctly you will be connecting to the uni's network?

If so, there are two likely scenarios. Number one is that they have no firewall running and that all ports are left open. If that's the case, you're lucky and will have no problems running online games and downloading from p2p sources etc.
If they do however have a firewall which blocks all ports except the obvious ones (normal surfing mostly), you might stumble onto trouble when playing some online games and downloading from p2p networks. Most of the time it should work fine, but especially bittorrent has problems with blocked ports. If you cant set an open port for it, it wont connect to as many peers as if you could, and you hence get lower download speed.

The reason behind all of this is that all programs communicating over networks use spceific ports. HTTP use port 80. POP3 mail usually port 110. You will almost guaranteed be able to access all ports outwards. However, some may be closed for inwards traffic. So, say you were using bittorrent, the ones who also are behind firewalls can't connect to you. It's rather complicated so I won't be going in to more detail. Google and you'll find many sites explaining more.

Either way, broadband is of course way better than modem and you'll always find a solution.

If there's anything you didn't understand reply and I'll try to be in more detail.

 

[dreamer]

cool, i think i get most of it, i noticed a few things do work atm on the modem (slowly obviously). got limewire and bitorent working (although BT was slower and got more errors) and i have problems with DC++ - not working at all which is a shame. thanks for the help with this.