Internet Connection at Uni (LAN)

[muddyfox470]

Ok well loads of help is needed on this one.

I am at Durham Uni and just managed to set the computer up on the network (having to wait for login details etc) and to get on the net.

First things first i cannot play games because of the set-up, i.e. the games don't think the computer is connected to the internet, and so i cannot play counter-strike source or battlefield 2.

Also i cannot go on the internet on anything else other than internet explorer. I want to be able to use firefox and opera but it just wont work, what should i do? In Firefox i click on connection settings (in options) and choose automatically detect (lan) settings and it still wont work.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Also my whole computer is very slow, Battlefield 2 takes ages to load up, i.e after inserting the dvd and clicking start bf2 it takes minutes for the intro video to START! whereas at home it was pretty instantaneous!

What is happening? I am not allowed to use Avast, and AVG didnt seem to work, so i had to install a ePO thing (McAfee thing). What is the best thing to do and can anyone help me? (As they have to pre-vet the PC with this CSA scan thing)

Cheers

Ian

[KermitTheFrog]

Muddy,

Have you ever had your computer on an office network? As XP likes to process a lot more when talking to other machines.

Also the speed of the local network may be an issue.

Don't know about Battlefield2, but it may scan the network for multi players when it starts up, and therefore could be slow.

As for internet gaming - it could be the Uni firewall is blocking all the gaming ports - suggest checking if they do allow it - but I'd be surprised as it would add a big load if all students played games at the same time (what at least a few hundred, or well several 1000s).

Also suggest checking with the Uni support group about other browsers, or if not sure who to contact there may be an internal intranet site with FAQs.

It also sounds like FTP may not work, as I think that is what AVG uses.

So this would almost say that only HTTP traffic is allowed!

Good luck,

Matt

[herulach]

browsers sound like there is a proxy in the way, wouldnt surprise me if there was no other ports open, can you see lan games?

[Splash]

Get a network admin drunk and see if you can't persuade them to open some ports for you...

Other than that I have a mate who just started at Durham Uni (though the Stockton campus) so I'll have words. She seems to be having no issues with browsing with Safari though.

[muddyfox470]

Ok no i havent been in an office network or anything similar pc, with this or any pc. But it is excruciatingly slow, i.e. opening up and exploring my computer, opening a small 100kb image etc.

In their literature it says that gaming is allowed, but the telephone helpline and the pepople on the other end are useless.

I have set-up other peoples pcs, and they all use ie so no problems there, but other fellow firefox people cant use it, but safari does seem to work, on other peoples macs, as i have set one or 2 of those up as well!

I cant get outlook express or preferably thunderbird to pick up my uni webmail i.e. my @dur.ac.uk!

it is all very frustrating and i was hoping to be able to use the connection properly without any adverse affects on my computer etc.

I have heard however that some people have been able to play css!?!? dont ask me how! I shall investigate further!

Ian

[ekundo]

yeah, in nottingham on the uni network people could play CS and CS:S but nothing else, not that they were sposed to, a couple got busted and fined for doing it. firefox worked though, think i had to setup some proxy stuff for it to get it to work with any speed though.

[Splash]

Do they run a proxy config script, or do you have to set the proxies manually? Firefox is a bit of a bugger when it comes to autodetecting the proxy setup.

[muddyfox470]

this morning loaded up firefox out of habit, and its working!!! (altho i have changed nothing since last night) w00t

now all i need to do is configure my mail boxy thing, and also counter strike source......

cheers

ian

[Matt1eD]

If you are actually connected to your uni domain, then XP will drastically slow down - especially at start up. I assume you're just running as a local user, so shouldn't really slow down.

Games - as said firewall. At my school a huge amount is blocked by ISA. All you're really get is HTTP.

As for FF, weird. Ask your network admins, a bit of playing around in about:config may help though. ISA server (I assume that is what your uni are using) could though be blocking all HTTP packets which don't come from IE - probably in the packet headers. I assume you set up proxy servers in IE, and from what you said sounds like you did in FF.

But I second Splash's idea

EDIT: WHOOPS JUST SEEN YOU'RE POST, GOOD TO KNOW ITS WORKING

[Atomic]

i had to install a ePO thing (McAfee thing). What is the best thing to do and can anyone help me? (As they have to pre-vet the PC with this CSA scan thing)

Right. ePO is Mcafee v8. Basically it allows the uni support staff to make sure your virus defs are uptodate and force updates to your machine in emergencies.

v8 is great compared to previous versions and shouldnt interfear with games.

CSA scan thing I guess is the same as our NETREG it scans your computer to make sure your uptodate with windows patches and registers your computer with the DHCP system.

edit: The reason it might have taken so long for everything to work is that the DHCP/DNS will only update a few times a day (10.30am & 3.30pm in my uni) and for the residences will only update with a set number of computers everytime so not to flood the database in one go. Giving that almost every new student in residences is trying to register it takes a few days for all the new registrations to go through...

If you didn't guess I work IT Support in a University, so know the systems as they are same with most uni's.

[dave87]

You wouldn't happen to work at UEA would you?

Dave