Opening Ports in UCD (POP, SMTP, FTP - 110, 25, 21)

spudmurf2k

Hi all,

Just wondering can we start a campaign to get ports 110 and 25 (at least) opened in the UCD firewall so that you can check your Outlook e-mail while on campus?? Or is there a way round it that I haven't thought/heard of to do it. I asked the guys in the tech building could they open them, even just for my MAC address and they were like . . . No. Any NetSoc guys know someone/just gradusted and about to work in UCD IT Services/owed a favour by one of the above?

irlrobins

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Seriously though, did you really expect them to turn around and go "Oh yes, we'll get on that right away! So sorry to inconvience you!" :rolleyes:

The college network is soley there to provide an academic resource. Checking your own personal mail is not under that remit. If you need to check your mail use www.mail2web.com.

And from a security point of view, the fewer ports open the better. I'd rather have a secure restricted network than one that was taken down from time to time due to external attacks.

Blowfish

LOL!


anyway Netsoc already have 110 and 21 open, although thats because they have their own ftp and mail servers.

irlrobins

^ afaik, this won't give u access to other mail servers though.

formatman

recommend setting up a cheap domain with blacknight and then use

their www.domain.ie/squirrelmail setup excellent fast webmail access but is more like a outlook client to use rather than a awkward yahoo interface

Raphael

Just use gmail, tbh. It's the best webmail there is.

Red Alert

i've squirrelmail on my own server in the spare room. a very handy thing too, consolidates all my mail.

it's a bit much that you can't use outlook/thunderbird on the wireless to access your student mail via IMAP. (in fact college don't even tell you how to do that on their web pages at all.)

spudmurf2k

Yea, I have squirrell mail on my dedicated server, and I just use that when I'm on a random pc, but I'm in love with Outlook 2003 so I just wanted to have it work in ucd rather than having to use sqiurrell mail.

anyway Netsoc already have 110 and 21 open, although thats because they have their own ftp and mail servers.

How could one use these? I can cough up a €2 at fresher's woche no problem...

irlrobins

Red Alert wrote:

it's a bit much that you can't use outlook/thunderbird on the wireless to access your student mail via IMAP. (in fact college don't even tell you how to do that on their web pages at all.)

It does work however ^

Syth

spudmurf2k wrote:

How could one use these? I can cough up a €2 at fresher's woche no problem...

Last year NetSoc was €3. Every member of NetSoc gets FTP and email services. Just ftp to ftp.netsoc.ucd.ie with your username and password (that you get on freshers week). Same with email.

You could try using ssh tunnels through netsoc to the remote host. I'm not too knowledgable about ssh tunnels and if it'd always work, so no guarantees. Computer services won't allow port 22 (ssh) on the wireless network.

And computer services are incompetitants, don't expect them to change or be good.

Red Alert

Netsoc's reliability took a bit of a nosedive this year, and i think how they use their many machines (both new and old) could do with a looking at.

With the number of badly maintained laptop's it would be insane to allow a free-for-all on the WLAN.

Note: within one 'cell' on the wireless network you can contact any other machine in the cell if you know its IP (found by ipconfig /all command).

DamoVOTF

You can get access to your mail using certain 3rd party pieces of software, and it generally involves an ssh connection and then using sockscap.

But for anything requiring speed it is a pain in the @ss.

irlrobins

And which ssh connection do you use?

DamoVOTF

As I said I used a 3rd party program, part of the service is they supply the servers and conection software. Look around and you will find a few.

I started getting it initially as I needed to be able to use VPN to connect to my workplace, while I was studying.

I got it to work, but even with a full service (from the company) the remote connection was decidely unstable.

I did the same thing as the first user, and asked for an access point, I was denied and as I needed the connection I had to find my own way to get it.

tab126

How fast are the on campus connections anyway? Fast enough to stream media, or is that a lost cause?

As for ssh tunnels -
I use Putty to do my tunnelling, and it works wonders. If you're on a linux (and maybe a Mac -- you might have to install OpenSSH) machine, you can actually set up a full SOCKS4 proxy server by using the -D switch (on the normal ssh command). If UCD doesn't allow connections out on 22, you *could* reconfigure the target machine to run ssh on port 80, which they can't block. That's a common thing for other, less noble programs to do.

Anyways - this really stinks for me, as I need access to email from another school for academic reasons. Also, UCD's imap connections don't work from outside of the school either -- maybe they're just entirely hosed.

irlrobins

Quite fast. But can slow at peak times. I did a test and got 75Mbps the other day.

Your SSH idea won't work trust me.

And external access to imap servers does work.

tab126

That's connection is great. Way more than enough.

I'll take your word on the ssh issue. Not that anybody should really be doing it anyways... it is EASILY trackable and I'm sure an AUP violation.

In general, does UCD have reasons for such strict security? I've actually never heard of a university so strict!

Red Alert

mainly to keep the Copyright Police off their backs.

The only connection you'll have any success with is to configure your SSH server to run on port 443 (the standard https port), not 80. That's because for port 80 the proxy only allows the GET method, you need CONNECT which is what's on offer for 443.

Chakar

I have no idea what you are all talking about.

Internet connection?

Access to UCD servers?

irlrobins

Chakar, don't feel the need to post in every thread in UCD forum. :rolleyes:

irlrobins

Red Alert wrote:

mainly to keep the Copyright Police off their backs.

The only connection you'll have any success with is to configure your SSH server to run on port 443 (the standard https port), not 80. That's because for port 80 the proxy only allows the GET method, you need CONNECT which is what's on offer for 443.

That will only work if the SSH server is running within the UCD network. You won't be able to connect to an external SSH server, no matter what port it is on.

Red Alert

have you tried it? i'll try switching my ssh server to 443 next week and see how i get on. interesting indeed!

tab126

Red Alert wrote:

That's because for port 80 the proxy only allows the GET method, you need CONNECT which is what's on offer for 443.

Are you serious? They don't even allow POST? Any ideas on if it'll be different for the dorm networks (if/when they get built)?

Red Alert

POST methods on HTML forms actually use the GET method. What they do is encode the form values just after they make the get request.

sutty

Syth wrote:

And computer services are incompetitants, don't expect them to change or be good.

What you dont think UCD staff members read boards.ie? Hell at the last boards beers there was more members of Computer Servies than there where students. You might want to watch what you say.

The reason you are not alloud to access POP ports that go external to UCD is because of the amount of spam servers that where being run from within UCD, becasue students and staff members cant protect their laptops right. :rolleyes:

UCD do not restricted webaccess in any way. There are not site restrictions and as such is a much more open college web access that most others. But I do love it when people complain about something they get for free. Like the wireless :rolleyes:

To answer the OP question. I beleave if you contact security at ucd.ie (replace at with @) you might get a more detailed answer. But it will more than likely be no. FTP access can be granted by mailing the address above. But I think details like Mac address of the servers and client need to be given.

James_sb

Free? Wanna re-phrase that. How's about a good few thousand in what it costs to be there.

But nah, they ain't going to allow opening ports. You know they're closed for a reason. The people who set it up use computers as much as ye do and know what they can be used for.

tab126

Red Alert wrote:

POST methods on HTML forms actually use the GET method. What they do is encode the form values just after they make the get request.

Are you sure about that? If they were the same to a server, the spec wouldn't have two methods (http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec9.html). However, the details are too insignificant to matter in this discussion. This is a tangent from the tread topic anyway, so I'll stop.

To the point of paying for internet: If you live on campus, campus internet IS your internet access, right? Shouldn't you be allowed to do what you would on a commercial ISP (well, almost)? And opening POP ports can't let spam out. POP3 is a protocol for getting mail, not sending it. They'd have to open smtp ports to let spam out.

sutty

I think you'll find what I meant was joe soap accessing his/hers pop mail and getting a virus because he/she has not protected their laptops. Then becoming an open relay for spam mail. It was a massive problem a while back.

As for free net access. I think if you read my post properly. You will see I said Wireless. Which is free. Anyone with a laptop. Student or not, can access it. All you need to do is set the proxy server. Thus meaning it is compleatly free and you didn't pay a cent for it. Your useage is also unlimited. I'd like to see you say the same about eircum or any of the others out there. You can also stream media all you want. IE: from youtube.

But as I said. you want questions answered about ports. Email the address I gave.

irlrobins

Comp Services will only open ports on machines registered as servers. Only staff members and research post grads can register such machines. Just to state that before all you under grads start asking to get your laptops registered as servers. Not going to happen.

Wireless in the res is the same as wireless through out the campus. So same restrictions apply. (http access only, etc). And it ridiculous to expect jsut cos you live on campus that you get the same internet service that you get at home with broadband! You pay for your broadband at home. You get this access for nothing. Be grateful for what you have.

[Show my age part]I remember the days where students didn't get internet access or email. And when you did get email your address was s98bf002@student.ucd.ie. And internet access was only available in certain computer labs at certain times. And now you can surf at any time at great speed anywhere you need to[/end show my page part]

passive

so this is why I'm in tears trying to set up Thunderbird to send out the assassins emails on campus... *facepalm*

ravydavygravy

irlrobins wrote: »

[Show my age part]I remember the days where students didn't get internet access or email. And when you did get email your address was s98bf002@student.ucd.ie. And internet access was only available in certain computer labs at certain times. And now you can surf at any time at great speed anywhere you need to[/end show my page part]

You kids...

I remember queueing alongside the lake @ 7am to get a membership for Netsoc (out of the old radio booth), because Netsoc was once the only way to get access to the internet inside the college - they ran the only proxy server, password protected for netsoc members only.

And yes, computer services won't open your ports because their job is to keep a nice secure network up and running for the campus. Not to cater to every undergrads whim. Enjoy your free access :P

In a few years you'll need to get a job and pay for it... :eek:

~D