Get Torrents working through that Firewall

The software I primarily use for getting through the college firewall is Tor. There may (must) be others, I don't know. The bottom line is that Tor works, and most of my guides on getting through your firewall will probably be based on Tor. So, here are the steps:

1. Get Tor:
Simply go to www.torproject.org and get yourself a copy of Tor. READ the website, it's a good idea to learn about projects like Tor, which help people stay anonymous and protect privacy. Also know that whatever traffic you get on Tor is being routed through a host, so if you have a connection that allows you to productively help others, maybe you'd like to repay the favor and be a host as well sometime. Just saying.

2. Get uTorrent:
uTorrent can be downloaded from www.utorrent.com.
The software I'm gonna discuss this with is uTorrent. Unfortunately, it's not available for linux, but if you're a linux fan then you can still read this and figure out where you want to make the changes in whichever torrent client you're using.

3. Install both (...)

4. Starting the torrents
You'll have to get some .torrent files, I like mininova.org which gives freely distributable software. Please note that this post is not to promote piracy! There is a lot of data that is distributed through torrents freely by artists and bands to promote themselves, and this is the stuff that you should be downloading.
[Moving on,] Now that you've got the required software, you need to first start Tor. We are going to route all the torrent traffic through Tor, so that the Firewall cannot detect anything fishy going on. Once you are connected to Tor, it will start routing all traffic through port 9050 using the SOCKS5 proxy protocols. So you simply have to configure uTorrent to get data from port 9050. To do this, open up uTorrent.
Go to Options->Preferences (Ctrl+P) and then select "Connections " from the left sidebar. In the "Proxy Server" settings, set:
Type : Socks5
Proxy : 127.0.0.1
Port : 9050
Check "Use proxy for peer-to-peer connections"
That's it. Apply and close the window, and fire up your torrent. Give it a little time to search out peers and soon you should see the download beginning.
Note that since you're routing traffic from someone else, your speed is limited by their' connection as well, so sometimes you'll get miraculous speeds, and at other times, it may very well be slow. Refreshing your Tor connection may fix it, but it's really trial and error. Just stick to whatever you get, it rises slowly.

Enjoy!

Play Runescape Through a Proxy

Often you may have JAVA/Flash Online games, and your ISP/Firewall blocks connections to such sites. This is usually the case in schools, colleges and other institutions. I've got a few simple steps with which you can get all these working, right through your firewall.

1. Get Tor

Tor is an open-source free software, that is used to encrypt your data and hence is very useful for anonymity when working online. Tor routes your requests through it's own network, which consists of helpful users, and sends all the data to your system in an encrypted format. The basic advantage is that anyone monitoring your traffic will notice only encrypted data and cannot decrypt this data. This will also make the firewall/ISP unable to block the packets, simple as they cannot tell what the packets are.

Tor is freely downloadable from torproject.org. Also, if you like, you can go through their site to learn about how to make your computer really secure from online attacks.

The installation of Tor is pretty simple, just install it in the directory of your choice and it will create a folder called "Tor Browser". Within this will be the icon to start the tor browser.

2. Get Firefox

Tor, by default, gives support to Mozilla Firefox, and it will launch it's own Firefox browser window. Note, however, that this browser doesn't support add-ons and might not be the latest version of Firefox. You can download Mozilla Firefox from www.mozilla.com.

Installing Firefox should be simple with the help of the wizard, install it with the preset settings or your own, it doesn't really matter.

3. Get the TorButton Add-on

I'm assuming that you play your desired game on Firefox, so you have JAVA/Flash, etc. installed. If not, you will be prompted when you try to open the website/game and you can follow the link and download/install the required software.

Now, you have to install an add-on called the TorButton, which will allow your custom install of Firefox to access Tor once you are connected to the network. TorButton was available at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2275/ at the time of this post. If the address is not working, just Google TorButton and download/install the add-on. It will prompt you to restart Firefox once this step is complete, so I suggest you do so.

4. Configuring TorButton

Once TorButton is installed, you should have a red "Tor Disabled" or a green "Tor Enabled" written on the bottom right of the browser window. Clicking on this will toggle the button on/off. Before you can start using it, however, you need to configure the button to allow JAVA/Flash to run. Open up Firefox, then go to Tools>Add-ons. It will show you the TorButton add-on. Select this add-on (click on it once) and then click on Options.

This will open another window. Go to the Security Settings tab and then uncheck the following :

- Disable Plugins during Tor Usage (crucial)

- Hook dangerous javascript (crucial)

- Isolate Dynamic content to Tor state (crucial)

While these are crucial to Tor's primary function, maintaining your anonimity by blocking any Java apps that may take your information, etc. these will also hinder your gameplay. Once configured, you've got your system ready for action!

To Play:

Okay, so you've downloaded and installed a bit of software, what now? How do you get it to work?

Simply put, first run the Tor Browser. A window will pop up, connect to the Tor Network, and once successful, it will start the default Firefox browser. Do not close this browser window. It will tell you that you are using Tor. Minimise this window, and open up your own Firefox. Make sure that TorButton is on (green "Tor Enabled" at the bottom right) and now open up your website.

Tor may cause your internet to run slightly slower than normal, but it will definitely allow you to open up all that "Banned content" that you've not been allowed to open.

Enjoy!