Connection Woes

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Itenin
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Connection Woes

#1 Post by Itenin » Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:57 am

So I was wondering if anyone had the technical expertise to help me with a connection problem I've been having.

I'm back at school now and so far I've been unable to connect to Geas at all. Here's the facts:

-I can browse the internet without any difficulties save any 'dangerous' sites.
-I cannot connect to Geas on ports 23 or 3333. Zmud will attempt to reconnect until it reaches the maximum amount of attempts specified. From my end it appears as if Geas never responds at all. I've tried this both on a laptop I've been given by the school (which I'm sure has tons of goodies on it) and my own personal laptop.
-I can ping the mud successfully
-I can connect to other select muds with no issue. From this (IIRC) I was able to conclude that at least port 7000 would accept mud traffic.
-Due to the nature of the school requesting the ISP to open more ports is a no go.
-Cell phone reception is awful due to the buildings being constructed of stone, so tethering is an impossibility too.

With all this in mind I was wondering if anyone had any solutions to how to get to Geas? My first instinct was proxy, but honestly I lack the tech savvy to do it. I couldn't get Zmud's built in function to work and I really don't know enough to try and get Putty to work (although I noticed a few instances where people rerouted Putty to appear like HTTP traffic, which would be amazing).

Anyway I don't mind paying for proxy or anything of the sort. But I really need step-by-step instruction for the technically retarded.

Thanks!

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luminier
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Re: Connection Woes

#2 Post by luminier » Sat Jan 14, 2012 12:53 pm

have you tried connecting using geas.de and java at the "how to play" button?
do you have a firewall up?
have you tried running zmud as an administrator?
are you certain you have the right port number (23 or 3333) and you are using franken.geas.de?


as for your proxy idea, iunno how to do that with zmud so i can't help you there.
The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

Itenin
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Re: Connection Woes

#3 Post by Itenin » Sat Jan 14, 2012 9:42 pm

I'll try the how to play java when I get back on Monday. As for the other questions I'm sure I'm configured correctly and I've tried it every way I could think of. I'm not sure it'll work without taking the back door.

glorfindel
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Re: Connection Woes

#4 Post by glorfindel » Sun Jan 15, 2012 7:18 am

Hi,

from what you told here, it does sound to me that there are a only few ports allowed out from the school. Port 7000 may be open, while port 3333 is closed, depending on what usually uses port 7000. I do think that most schools nowadays have a router (fritzbox or similiar thing) that is used to lockdown most of the things. I fear if that is the case, you'll be out of luck.

Apart of that you could try checking if it's the zmud that's at fault there by trying good old telnet (no way to play with that, but for connection testing it should be fine). Go to 'Start -> Execute', type 'cmd' and hit enter. Once the black window with white text appears type 'telnet geas.de' and hit return again. If that shows you geas login screen after a bit, then you've got zmud issues. Otherwise I really guess it's the school connection being there. Were you able to connect from school in the past ?

Often schools have a filtering proxy configured which all machines automatically are redirected through (probably for protection / filtering / logging / whatever).

HTH

poGlorfindel

Itenin
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Re: Connection Woes

#5 Post by Itenin » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:31 am

Unfortunately neither of those two solutions (telnet/java) worked. This would suggest the port hypothesis was correct. Is there no way to reroute traffic through a different port using a third party?

Itenin
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Re: Connection Woes

#6 Post by Itenin » Sun Jan 22, 2012 8:15 pm

Not sure if anyone is still following this but just in case anyone has any trouble with this sort of thing I figured I'd let it be known that I did find a workaround solution for this and can help with configuring it.

Essentially it works like I hypothesized. Using an SSH client (PuTTy) and a 'shell' computer I was able to use the 'shell' to act as my interface to Geas. The 'shell' would then interact with my computer through a port I'd already discovered was open. With this method I can slip under the radar of my school's firewall and access the MUD.

Unfortunately <1 second after connecting to the MUD Geas dropped connection with the 'shell'. I think this implies that the particular IP address is sitebanned, so I'll have to keep searching for another shell that might work. I am pleased to have made some progress. With any luck this time next week I'll be able to connect.

Thanks for all the help.

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luminier
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Re: Connection Woes

#7 Post by luminier » Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:08 pm

Thats pretty neat actually. Keep us posted.
The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

Itenin
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Re: Connection Woes

#8 Post by Itenin » Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:44 pm

It actually didn't take that long to find a shell that worked. I can now connect to Geas with no issues whatsoever. It wasn't free, but it didn't cost me anymore than pocket change. I suspect that's actually perfect as it makes it affordable but keeps away those who would abuse it.

I hesitate to post nitty gritty details because I'd essentially be telling you how to connect from (what Geas sees as) my IP address. If anyone ever runs into a legitimate problem like this though and needs help don't hesitate to ask over a PM. I'll take you step by step through it.

glorfindel
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Re: Connection Woes

#9 Post by glorfindel » Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:52 am

Glad that you could solve it, though I might add another bit of advice (yeah, am paranoid, but you get that in my line of work), you should be aware that any traffic from the "shell" machine to the mud is readable by anyone, _including_ your password for GEAS. So at the very least I'd look into changing it regularily to keep
potential abuse for it. (You wonder now, who would be interested in the password of a MUD ? Answer: No one. But it's still better to be on the side of caution, because there's always information to be used against you, if your wish is to be malicious).

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