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#196138 10/03/08 06:02 PM
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Dandeman321
Dandeman321
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I've been trying to get onto EFnet at college and I haven't been able to connect. I get either * Unable to connect to server (Connection timed out) or some junk about Identd requests and replies. Either way it just times out and doesn't work. Does anyone know what may be causing this problem? Thanks.

Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 8,061
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Hoopy frood
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Hoopy frood
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 8,061
You college is causing the problem. smile

Basically, they are blocking the ports you're trying to connect on. Your only safe way is to ask the college IT department if they can remove the port block for mIRC. Chances are that they won't, but it's the only thing you can do without breaking rules and potentially being expelled.

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Dandeman321
Dandeman321
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Hah yea that's what I figured. I'm going home for spring break this weekend so I'll just get on then.

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LostShadow
LostShadow
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I don't find it a coincidence that univerties in the United States and England block IRC ports. Must be some International thing.

The Efnet java applet uses a 5000 port, and my university didn't block that. The wager is not IRC'ing at Efnet at all, or using a sucky java applet. I prefer to use mIRC all the way, so using their java applets is useful only in emergencies/in real time chats.

Neal C.

Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 8,061
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Hoopy frood
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Hoopy frood
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Joined: Oct 2004
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Most universities block certain traffic (IRC, P2P, IM, etc) because it takes up a lot of bandwidth when you have thousands of people on one network doing the same thing. Many universities and colleges in the US have only a T1 connection and even thought that's a fast connection, it's still not that fast when you split the speed up over thousands of students. And universities with T3 connections generally have even more students, so it doesn't really offer that much more speed per student. By blocking common download apps (by blocking their ports), it reduces the bandwidth being used for non-school related things. It's better to have full speed for people doing school work than for people downloading music for example. Beyond that, there's the virus issue. One person on a college network getting a decent virus can infect much of the network unless the university requires all students to use AV software. So there are two main reasons why they block the ports.

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LostShadow
LostShadow
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Hm okay - thanks for the info.


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