SK2009 said:
I don't know that this is the folder that this should be in, if not, I'm sorry. But anyway, I have been trying to get onto IRC for a while now and just found out the school's firewall blocks it. I emailed the tech people here and this is what I got back....
"Unfortunately IRC has been blocked on the JMU network for some time now.
There is a workaround with a Peregrin accounts and the putty client but
users are on their own to get it set up for IRC use."
Can anyone help me out? I don't really know what that means. Or if you know another way to get around the firewall.
They are basically telling you that you need to setup an SSH tunnel if you want to use IRC. Peregrin, I assume, is a host outside the restrictions of the school's firewall. If you have an ssh account on Peregrin, you can use it as a stepping stone to reach an outside IRC server. Here's how to do it:
First, organize the following pieces of information: the IRC server you want to connect, the port on the IRC server you connect to (usually 6667), the username for the ssh account on Peregrin, the hostname to connect to your account on Peregrin.
Open up
Terminal. In the window that appears, type the following command:
ssh -L [local port number]:[IRC Server]:[IRC Port] [Peregrin Username]@[Peregrin Hostname]
The
local port number can be any number higher than 1024. Make something up. You might use 1234.
After typing this command, you will be prompted for your Peregrin account password. Enter it, and you should then drop to a shell on Peregrin. Leave this alone. All you need is the ssh connection.
Open up your IRC client. Create a new connection to
localhost on port
local port number.
What is going on is that ssh listens for any connections made on the local
local port number and then forwards them over your connection to Peregrin. The instance of ssh on Peregrin then forwards that to your
IRC Server. Any responses from the remote IRC server are forwarded back to you in the same stepping-stone manner. All you need to do is keep the ssh connection to Peregrin alive, and you will stay connected to the IRC server.
For example, if my account name on Peregrin was greenbob, and I wanted to join a chatroom on irc.sorcery.net, I would use the following ssh command:
ssh -L 1234:irc.sorcery.net:6667 greenbob@peregrin
Then, I would use my IRC client to connect to
localhost on port
1234.
It is also possible to set up your ssh connection to act as a SOCKS proxy. This is even easier to do than setting up one forwarded port at a time. Just use the ssh command:
ssh -D 1234 greenbob@peregrin, and then configure whatever client you use to connect to the SOCKS proxy at
localhost on port
1234
