No HL2 For College Students?

SidewinderX

SidewinderX

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[H]ardOCP has just brought attention to the fact that many college students are out of luck in trying to activate Half-Life 2. From the Steam website:

Many Colleges, Universities, Schools and Large Corporations are now actively blocking ports to prevent virus, trojan and Internet worm problems as well as to prevent misuse of their networks.[br]
If you are having problems and you are on one of these complex networks that are intentionally blocking ports required for Steam to work then you may not be able to connect to Steam and play.
Click to expand...

[br]This is another side effect of the required activation, an anti-piracy measure which has had a mixed response amongst gamers. Looks like many college students will have to wait to visiting home again to activate the game.
 
Here at K-State, I am having no problem with Steam or Half-Life.

But since I'm not too network-savy, I can't explain why. You can look at KSU's tech homepage at http://www.ksu.edu/InfoTech/.

Browse around there any you may find some answers as to why I can still connect to Steam.
 
there isnt some kind of phone number to call to authenticate? i mean, it'd be as simple as reading a number into the phone with someone else on the other end entering it into their authentication servers wouldn't it? they block ports for outgoing data but not in. well, at least i'd guess, mostly for outgoing data.

i remember, way back in the day, when i had trouble with my Marathon serial number and i called bungie. they had a nice fellow on the other end who solved my problem quickly and politely. i miss them days.

also i guess bungie now is quite a few more people than they were in 1994.
 
hahaha that sux to be those who are getting an education and auctually doing something with your lives! serves all you trying people right!!!! =P


ps. cybercafes can authenticate steam, and if they let you burn to cd or dvd, then it gets better. or go to a friends and use their laptops or something...


btw i think that this inital online authentication is a very good thing. pirates sucked centuries ago and pirates still suck today. dirty bastards
 
We, the poor students :D Oh, what the hell... Just a couple of day away :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
 
They should be doing work anyways...

The students that is... ;) you have time after college to play, don't worry.
 
Unfortunatley there are illegal fixes out there aready which means it is easier to crack the game than it is to play it by activating via steam in the legal way! :frown:
 
I'm at Michigan, and I haven't had any problem. I actually work for the network at a lowlevel helpdesk job, but I can still tell you that we run a firewall, traffic scans, and packet-shaping. I'm actively involved in kicking anyone with suspicious traffic (viruses only, we're not the copyright police) onto a subnetwork, where they can take care of their antivirus needs. So we have a pretty complex network, but it hasn't caused any problems.
 
If admins deliberately block Steam ports, that means they don't want people playing. In that respect, this is tentatively a good thing.
 
Valve either didn't take that into account, or they don't care (whether or not the game gets activated, they have their money).

Setting up a web-based activation system wouldn't be such a bad idea.
 
HL2 and College

I'm not saying that it's right but I already know of a few college kids that have had to resort in getting a crack to get past the authentication and cd check just so they can play their LEGAL copy of the game.

I purchased my copy through Steam but I live off of a campus so I don't have any worries.
 
they should have included some kind of tool to interactive with Valve's website that generates an ecrypted ID and you have to upload it to valves website and it'd let you download an exe to unencrypt HL2
 
There is a workaround, i posted on the steam forums months ago which uses HTTP Tunnel and SocksCAP to enable activating via port 80. Since thats not blocked at universities, it will allow those able to access it. I can't get onto the steam forums at the moment to actually link to it but its relatively simple.

Download HTTP-Tunnel from www.http-tunnel.com install that and connect. Download Socks-CAP from http://www.socks.permeo.com/Download/SocksCapDownload/index.asp and then configure sockscap to use 127.0.0.1:1080 as your proxy server. You then add Steam in as a program and launch Steam from within Sockscap. This tunnels all the traffic through port 80 (open by HTTP-Tunnel)

Simple. Get connected that way. It was tested ages ago on the Steam forums and people were connecting to Steam and downloading updates as well with it. Once they decide to take the forums back to life, i'll properly link to it.
 
how can valve make a great game but be absolute morons when it comes to anything regarding networking? their network code for multiplayer is crap as it lets the client control the flow among other things. steam is essentially brain dead (if it isnt supposed to be a distributed client then they did a fine job). maybe they are all now inbred in their thinking. i dunno, but this source engine is not a complete rewrite either. that gets ranted under the lies section anyways.

glad this is finally out and im activated so i can forget about them again.
 
phuket101 said:
there isnt some kind of phone number to call to authenticate? i mean, it'd be as simple as reading a number into the phone with someone else on the other end entering it into their authentication servers wouldn't it? they block ports for outgoing data but not in. well, at least i'd guess, mostly for outgoing data.

i remember, way back in the day, when i had trouble with my Marathon serial number and i called bungie. they had a nice fellow on the other end who solved my problem quickly and politely. i miss them days.

also i guess bungie now is quite a few more people than they were in 1994.
Click to expand...

Calling would make an easy way to make a no steam patch or provide serials.Look at what happened with norton antivirus 2005,and photoshop.They call up get serials and find out the algorithm.

hunteraz said:
they should have included some kind of tool to interactive with Valve's website that generates an ecrypted ID and you have to upload it to valves website and it'd let you download an exe to unencrypt HL2
Click to expand...

Once again if a supplier for the release group got this (probaly would) then it would once again make steam pointless.
Its all to prevent piracy.They deserve some credit after that source code was stolen.
 
I think this anti-piracy measure is very wise on their part. It's the universities and colleges that are at fault.
 
I'm pissed that there's a crack, it defeats the whole object of activation, but activation in principle is a good thing.

At my school we block everything except a few ports, but we opened up steam ports today after doing a security assesment.
 
I had to sign up for some crappy 56k service provider just to activate mine, and then had to download about 15-20megs of data (which when your downloading at 56k and paying per minute is a lot)
 
Other solutions...

One could -- horror -- use an analogue modem over the telephone line!

If none available, one could of course use a GSM mobile phone (of which outside USA everyone has one, even little kids) which have built in analogue modems that can be BlueToothed or InfraReded; and if GPRS compatible, digital 56K modem.

Only takes a few minutes to authenticate so not exactly connected for hours either.

Saves having to take computer off campus, say to cyber-cafe that often let you bring your own kit; or say Starbucks with 802.11b (if wireless laptop).

Think creatively!

StooMonster
 
MrFlump said:
There is a workaround, i posted on the steam forums months ago which uses HTTP Tunnel and SocksCAP to enable activating via port 80. Since thats not blocked at universities, it will allow those able to access it. I can't get onto the steam forums at the moment to actually link to it but its relatively simple.

Download HTTP-Tunnel from www.http-tunnel.com install that and connect. Download Socks-CAP from http://www.socks.permeo.com/Download/SocksCapDownload/index.asp and then configure sockscap to use 127.0.0.1:1080 as your proxy server. You then add Steam in as a program and launch Steam from within Sockscap. This tunnels all the traffic through port 80 (open by HTTP-Tunnel)

Simple. Get connected that way. It was tested ages ago on the Steam forums and people were connecting to Steam and downloading updates as well with it. Once they decide to take the forums back to life, i'll properly link to it.
Click to expand...

2 things -

1. Is this guaranteed to work?
2. Am I violating any rules/regs (I know you don't know my specific ones for my Uni, but generally) by using a blocked port? I really need my room connection you see, don't want them to take it away :(

edit - I think I've just answered number 2 - the HTTP-tunnel URL is blocked :/
 
Why couldn't they have used 80? 443?

Would have been a lot nicer if they'd had the sense to use say port 80 for the important parts. I don't know all of what Steam is trying to do but if it has anything to do with multiplayer games, that probably belongs on some high/custom port. But for the sake of authentication, they should have stuck to some port that's likely to be open.

I have to use AIM over port 23 because the usual one is blocked. But AOL (or some programmer there perhaps) had the sense to make the servers listen on a range of ports.
 
MrFlump said:
There is a workaround, i posted on the steam forums months ago which uses HTTP Tunnel and SocksCAP to enable activating via port 80. Since thats not blocked at universities, it will allow those able to access it. I can't get onto the steam forums at the moment to actually link to it but its relatively simple.

Download HTTP-Tunnel from www.http-tunnel.com install that and connect. Download Socks-CAP from http://www.socks.permeo.com/Download/SocksCapDownload/index.asp and then configure sockscap to use 127.0.0.1:1080 as your proxy server. You then add Steam in as a program and launch Steam from within Sockscap. This tunnels all the traffic through port 80 (open by HTTP-Tunnel)

Simple. Get connected that way. It was tested ages ago on the Steam forums and people were connecting to Steam and downloading updates as well with it. Once they decide to take the forums back to life, i'll properly link to it.
Click to expand...

Mr Flump ... trying your method from inside my company's firewall... Steam is updating 20% so far ...

You rule.
 
Hard OCP's just covering this? Haven't we been bitching about this for about 3 months now?
 
Murray_H said:
2 things -

1. Is this guaranteed to work?
2. Am I violating any rules/regs (I know you don't know my specific ones for my Uni, but generally) by using a blocked port? I really need my room connection you see, don't want them to take it away :(

edit - I think I've just answered number 2 - the HTTP-tunnel URL is blocked :/
Click to expand...
Port 80 should not be blocked, its is far too common of a port to be blocked, consult your university on this, ask them wtf there thinking. Or try my aabouve method. (99% of uni's have it technitions that dont know what they are doing and the chance they have the know how to trace your pc on a network for illegal activity is close to nil)
 
if your port 80 is blocked you wouldn't be looking at this
port 80 is the standard port to deliver html.
 
MrFlump said:
There is a workaround, i posted on the steam forums months ago which uses HTTP Tunnel and SocksCAP to enable activating via port 80. Since thats not blocked at universities, it will allow those able to access it. I can't get onto the steam forums at the moment to actually link to it but its relatively simple.

Download HTTP-Tunnel from www.http-tunnel.com install that and connect. Download Socks-CAP from http://www.socks.permeo.com/Download/SocksCapDownload/index.asp and then configure sockscap to use 127.0.0.1:1080 as your proxy server. You then add Steam in as a program and launch Steam from within Sockscap. This tunnels all the traffic through port 80 (open by HTTP-Tunnel)

Simple. Get connected that way. It was tested ages ago on the Steam forums and people were connecting to Steam and downloading updates as well with it. Once they decide to take the forums back to life, i'll properly link to it.
Click to expand...

Yup, worked 100% ... had to disable the IE Proxy since Steam seems to use IE to display stuff.
 
I'm waiting for my copy to come in the mail ... but now I'm really worried that it won't work. :( I just want to make sure that if that port is blocked here, then that http-tunneling method won't get me in any trouble. If it might, then I'll have to just wait till I go home in a couple of weeks. A question though if I do decided to do it at home, do I have to install it on a home computer, install steam there, activate using my current steam account, then unistall it, then when I get back to school reinstall it? Would that work?
 
universitys block ports to stop viruses getting onto the network, not your pc. If you tunnel the ports you wont get into trouble, as you are not endangerung the network, as if you did download a virus it would simply reside on your pc due to the security precautions your network will have. As far as your college are concerned, you are using port 80, they wont be any the wiser.
 
Darn it, it is so tempting to do this, but if I do get caught I'll get bum raped and I can't risk losing this connection, it is too vital to my course ;(
 
MrFlump said:
There is a workaround, i posted on the steam forums months ago which uses HTTP Tunnel and SocksCAP to enable activating via port 80. Since thats not blocked at universities, it will allow those able to access it. I can't get onto the steam forums at the moment to actually link to it but its relatively simple.

Download HTTP-Tunnel from www.http-tunnel.com install that and connect. Download Socks-CAP from http://www.socks.permeo.com/Download/SocksCapDownload/index.asp and then configure sockscap to use 127.0.0.1:1080 as your proxy server. You then add Steam in as a program and launch Steam from within Sockscap. This tunnels all the traffic through port 80 (open by HTTP-Tunnel)

Simple. Get connected that way. It was tested ages ago on the Steam forums and people were connecting to Steam and downloading updates as well with it. Once they decide to take the forums back to life, i'll properly link to it.
Click to expand...


I can't find a sockscap that works!
 
Murray_H said:
Darn it, it is so tempting to do this, but if I do get caught I'll get bum raped and I can't risk losing this connection, it is too vital to my course ;(
Click to expand...

Firstly there is no chance of you getting caught, secondly if you do, you wont lose your connection, seriously, you arnt doing anything wrong.
 
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