Half-Life 2 and College

[[46] pushit [2]]

I have heard that a lot of university gamers could not play HL2 because most universities have a FW that stops them from playing online games in general (which blows ass, guess I'll have to stick to single-player stuff next year).

Any college kids who have had trouble with this? Any solutions? I am just wondering because I will be getting a computer next year for college and I guess I'll have to activate and install on my new computer before I leave...which is kind of a pain.

 

[The Mullinator]

It all depends on the college/university.

The university I go to for instance seems to have a system of limiting the bandwidth dedicated to any online games. The result is I can use steam and download stuff from it but it goes just as slow as dial-up. Pings are also rarely below 300 so multiplayer is basically not possible. However it IS usable.

Fortunately for me I have enough people living on my residence floor for me to LAN with whenever I want.

Some places completely block steam while others have no such limitations on it. It just all depends on the university/college.

 

[silverstealth89]

this was already posted

 

[Asus]

All the colleges around where I live don't have any issues with blocking Steam. Just have to see if it's an issue with the one you will be going to I guess.

 

[DieScreaming]

in texas thier dosent seem to be a problem. You shouldnt worry about it anyway. Their is always a way to get around it, by getting friendly with the person who shuts off ports

 

[mzhang23]

Not blocked at princeton.

 

[Eateroffear]

If you are at one of the unfortunate colleges that are blocked (like mine) you`ll probably be in trouble. Maybe try to get some sort of wireless connection i dunno?

 

[Tyrsenus]

Most colleges use one of the two following methods:

1. Port blocking - Not very effective at blocking programs. You can just change the port the program uses.

2. Packet blocking - Virtually impossible to get around. Basically, the school's computing department buys some really expensive hardware that enables them to control bandwidth on specific programs, e.g., Internet Explorer will have no problem working, but Kazaa will only d/l at .00002 kb/s.

The get-around is much more complicated than changing just the port number. The only way i've heard of possibly getting around it is to create a VPN with one of your friends off-campus, as long as they're also not on the college's network.

The most popular packet-blocking tool is PacketShaper, made by Packeteer.

You can find a complete list of programs that Packeteer has the ability to control here.

Unfortunately, the most widely used file-sharing tools and multiplayer games are on this list. The best one not on the list is SoulSeek.

 

[wendle]

how exactly would you go about changing the ports that steam uses?

 

[Tyrsenus]

how exactly would you go about changing the ports that steam uses?

I don't think you can, but i'm not 100% sure.

 

[lammmbda]

ya, the schools a bitch, i tried to download need for speed on BitTorrent, and it says, 1970 hours left~~~~~~

however i played hl2 with no problem

 

[wendle]

thats what i thought. but im always hoping someone will find an easy way to get around the lousey port blocking. otherwise i have to wait until summer to play any of the games i've bought.