College wifi problems

Poo-tee-weet? · 01-21-2010, 07:52 PM

Hey tech wizards, I've encountered a problem with my college's open wifi. It's not a life altering problem, but it's still annoying. For some strange reason, I can't login to any of my instant messaging clients. Like....it just won't work at all. Do you think they have it blocked, and if so, do you think there's away to get past it? Or is it something I'm doing wrong? Also, would it be weird to ask one of the tech people here about it, or should I just get over it?

Thanks!

Edit: I'm on a macbook pro if that's relevant at all.

hheartstrongg · 01-21-2010, 09:01 PM

This happened to my friend at school on her Macbook, if that makes you feel better haha. She couldn't get on msn at all.

Poo-tee-weet? · 01-21-2010, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hheartstrongg

This happened to my friend at school on her Macbook, if that makes you feel better haha. She couldn't get on msn at all.

That doesn't make me feel better, I want a solution dammit!

Thanks anyway jessicaaaa

Arthur · 01-21-2010, 09:40 PM

Is it only instant messaging clients that dont work.... or are some websites blocked too?

Poo-tee-weet? · 01-21-2010, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arthur

Is it only instant messaging clients that dont work.... or are some websites blocked too?

Just instant messaging clients as far as I've found. =\

Arthur · 01-21-2010, 10:25 PM

It might be something to do with the ports being blocked on the college internet....
I don't know much about them but i know that different programs use different "ports" and they can be blocked to stop certain programs accessing the internet

rmg126 · 01-21-2010, 11:20 PM

Why would they want to block IMs but not anything else? I would think pr0n and warez sites would be a higher priority...

But yeah I would ask someone, that's pretty weird. :eek:

DamnImGood · 01-22-2010, 12:06 AM

It's very possible they have blocked the ports, but I don't see why they would.

Are you able to connect to the college's network via the LAN cable? Perhaps sneaking into a computer lab, unplugging the network cable from one of the computers and plugging it into your laptop and trying it there. The wifi portion of the college's network will be more restricted and locked down for obvious reasons, so it's possible in their attempt to keep it secure they've blocked ports common to instant messaging clients.

Try running the diagnostic for MSN and post what it says. It should be able to pinpoint the step it fails at.

Poo-tee-weet? · 01-22-2010, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DamnImGood

It's very possible they have blocked the ports, but I don't see why they would.

Are you able to connect to the college's network via the LAN cable? Perhaps sneaking into a computer lab, unplugging the network cable from one of the computers and plugging it into your laptop and trying it there. The wifi portion of the college's network will be more restricted and locked down for obvious reasons, so it's possible in their attempt to keep it secure they've blocked ports common to instant messaging clients.

Try running the diagnostic for MSN and post what it says. It should be able to pinpoint the step it fails at.

Alright, I'll run the test. I don't have class at main campus until tuesday, so I'll bump this thread then. Thanks for the help

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