downloading / streaming through firewall

[darkandspiky]

hi,

the company i work for blocks access to streamed media, mp3s etc.

i really need to access realmedia streams, and the rest would be a bonus.

friends have used an http tunnel for PC that lets you get through the firewall to pretty much anything you want: mp3, MSN chat, p2p etc.

is there such a thing for Mac (os9 or osX)?

or any other way of getting stuff downloaded?

i am using a g3 ibook, running OSX 10.3 and OS9.2.

thanks,

~miles

[alc6379]

I'm sure there are a number of programs that can tunnel things over unblocked ports to subvert firewalls, but...

Coming from the standpoint of a part-time network administrator, and one who has had people try to sneak into my home network, I will tell you not to do it. If you have a legitmate reason to access these streams, ask your network adminstrator to punch a hole in the firewall.

More than likely, streaming is blocked by the proxy/firewall because they don't want you doing it. If you're trying to do something that they don't want you to do, you're probably violating their corporate/company IT policy by trying to do so. Most places, like the places I've worked in, consider this grounds for heavy disciplinary action, up to termination.

Look at it like this: it's not the job of your company's network admin to let you use their WORK bandwidth to stream music. Every byte that you suck down their pipe is one less byte that could have been used for a VoIP call to a customer, or one more form submission from a customer on your eCommerce site. You're not making them any money by listening to streaming music on their pipe; you're costing them money, especially if they pay by the MB for their bandwidth. Not only that, but with the exploits that you can embed in most multimedia streams, I wouldn't let anyone in my company stream ANYTHING. Every last one of those services you mentioned have been proven insecure; I wouldn't expose my network to any potential liability from downloading p2p stuff, either. With all of those services, there have been viruses, homepage hijackers, trojans, and every other imaginable annoyance with them. I'll be darned if that stuff gets on my network.

Not trying to be mean, but why not just put that stuff on your hard drive? Why not just burn some CDs with music on them to bring with you? Why be the "dummy" that gets blamed for letting that new, ugly virus into your network? I know that the MacOS is considered more secure than Windows, so you might not have to worry as much, but it's still corruptable, and can still cause a problem when it's r00ted, owned, hijacked, zombified, or whatever.

[darkandspiky]

hi,

thanks for the reply...

i understand what you are saying and partially agree, except that i am the person on the other side of the situation for now... i wouldn't want to infect the network with a virus or anything else disruptive or harmfull, but there are certain things which get blocked that i would consider to be reasonable for people to access.

i work at a college, and as a teacher (of music) i would like to access the bbc resources... there's loads of stuff streamed from the bbc website that would help me and my students a great deal, but it seems that students and teachers are treated in the same light. i wouldn't want the bandwidth clogged up by students downloading mp3s continuously, but hey, that's my selfish side coming out! ;)

staff have requested that certain limitations be removed from the network, but to no avail.

personally i think its unfair that people studying/teaching other subjects can use the internet for its almost infinite resources, as long as they are in "text" or "html form", but because i teach music, and the resources i need are in "media" form, i can't access them!

i can access the internet from elsewhere, but the connections are very slow, so streaming media and downloading large files are painfull if not conceivably impossible! the college connection is very fast, so surely i wouldn't be eating away too much bandwidth by making use of this wonderfull resource to its full potential, when most people are using it for internal email and other less creative and spiritually fullfiling reasons!

but until i can afford broadband at home i am stuck with this situation.

yes i can understand your situation, and if i was you i would fulfill my role just the same, but for now i am the user and not the administrator, so if you or anyone else can help me gain access to things blocked by the firewall i'd really appreciate it. :)

you said you are sure "there are a number of programs that can tunnel things over unblocked ports to subvert firewalls"... how sure? do you know if they are available to download? and where to download them?

they also block the category "hacking" so searching isn't too much help! ;) but i can understand that one! ;)

thanks,

~miles

I'm sure there are a number of programs that can tunnel things over unblocked ports to subvert firewalls, but...

Coming from the standpoint of a part-time network administrator, and one who has had people try to sneak into my home network, I will tell you not to do it. If you have a legitmate reason to access these streams, ask your network adminstrator to punch a hole in the firewall.

More than likely, streaming is blocked by the proxy/firewall because they don't want you doing it. If you're trying to do something that they don't want you to do, you're probably violating their corporate/company IT policy by trying to do so. Most places, like the places I've worked in, consider this grounds for heavy disciplinary action, up to termination.

Look at it like this: it's not the job of your company's network admin to let you use their WORK bandwidth to stream music. Every byte that you suck down their pipe is one less byte that could have been used for a VoIP call to a customer, or one more form submission from a customer on your eCommerce site. You're not making them any money by listening to streaming music on their pipe; you're costing them money, especially if they pay by the MB for their bandwidth. Not only that, but with the exploits that you can embed in most multimedia streams, I wouldn't let anyone in my company stream ANYTHING. Every last one of those services you mentioned have been proven insecure; I wouldn't expose my network to any potential liability from downloading p2p stuff, either. With all of those services, there have been viruses, homepage hijackers, trojans, and every other imaginable annoyance with them. I'll be darned if that stuff gets on my network.

Not trying to be mean, but why not just put that stuff on your hard drive? Why not just burn some CDs with music on them to bring with you? Why be the "dummy" that gets blamed for letting that new, ugly virus into your network? I know that the MacOS is considered more secure than Windows, so you might not have to worry as much, but it's still corruptable, and can still cause a problem when it's r00ted, owned, hijacked, zombified, or whatever.

[kc0arf]

Hello,

FULLY AGREE with Alex.

If the iBook is your personal property, did you ask to put it onto the company network? The company owns the power (electricity) going to it, along with the data paths. Did they say it was ok?

If the iBook is corporate property, do you have proper authority to install new programs onto it?

Do not try to go around this; if your network administrator has monitoring tools installed, they will find you. Is it worth your job?

Christian