School Network Doesn't Allow Mining

[cryptocarroll]

I live in the dorms at my school and have invested around $2000 to mine.  I ran my machine for about 2 weeks and then had my internet shut off because mining was not allowed.  I called and they turned it back on, but if I try to mine again, they will will shut it off.  Is there anyway to work around this?  Can I mask what I'm doing?  How exactly was I caught?

[Sitarow]

I live in the dorms at my school and have invested around $2000 to mine.  I ran my machine for about 2 weeks and then had my internet shut off because mining was not allowed.  I called and they turned it back on, but if I try to mine again, they will will shut it off.  Is there anyway to work around this?  Can I mask what I'm doing?  How exactly was I caught?

If you must then point to port 80 rather then the default port if your pool of choice supports that.

My question is, do they have that in a written policy? Is the motivation perhaps not permit mining because of the network load or is it power costs? Perhaps you can work something out.

[lilfiend]

I live in the dorms at my school and have invested around $2000 to mine.  I ran my machine for about 2 weeks and then had my internet shut off because mining was not allowed.  I called and they turned it back on, but if I try to mine again, they will will shut it off.  Is there anyway to work around this?  Can I mask what I'm doing?  How exactly was I caught?

They probably were just watching what ports you were using or a packet sniffer.

Get a vpn, even hotspotshield's free one should work, you just need one with a lowish ping + a stable connection. You aren't trying to do anything illegal or really go fully anonymous, so it doesn't matter if they log. You just need to encrypt your data so your school doesn't see what you are doing.

If you want a paid VPN for more than just mining I'd go with private internet access.

[cryptocarroll]

I live in the dorms at my school and have invested around $2000 to mine.  I ran my machine for about 2 weeks and then had my internet shut off because mining was not allowed.  I called and they turned it back on, but if I try to mine again, they will will shut it off.  Is there anyway to work around this?  Can I mask what I'm doing?  How exactly was I caught?

If you must then point to port 80 rather then the default port if your pool of choice supports that.

My question is, do they have that in a written policy? Is the motivation perhaps not permit mining because of the network load or is it power costs? Perhaps you can work something out.

We have a 40GB per week bandwidth max, and I was not going over that.  There is nothing specifically about mining in their policy, but they do state that students can't "use computing resources for commercial purposes."  They believe mining falls under that.  What do you mean by point to port 80?

So a VPN should work?
Would that fall under this rule - "Masking the identity of an account or machine; assuming the identity of another network user without his or her permission."
And could they tell I'm using a VPN?

[Sitarow]

I live in the dorms at my school and have invested around $2000 to mine.  I ran my machine for about 2 weeks and then had my internet shut off because mining was not allowed.  I called and they turned it back on, but if I try to mine again, they will will shut it off.  Is there anyway to work around this?  Can I mask what I'm doing?  How exactly was I caught?

If you must then point to port 80 rather then the default port if your pool of choice supports that.

My question is, do they have that in a written policy? Is the motivation perhaps not permit mining because of the network load or is it power costs? Perhaps you can work something out.

We have a 40GB per week bandwidth max, and I was not going over that.  There is nothing specifically about mining in their policy, but they do state that students can't "use computing resources for commercial purposes."  They believe mining falls under that.  What do you mean by point to port 80?

So a VPN should work?
Would that fall under this rule - "Masking the identity of an account or machine; assuming the identity of another network user without his or her permission."
And could they tell I'm using a VPN?

Port 80 is a web port.

VPN does not constitute masking or assuming identity.

VPN enables you to privately use the school network.

Edit: Also unless you are hosting a mining node/pool you are not pulling more then 25MB a day mining.

Edit2: people use US bassed VPN's so they can watch US netflix as the selection is far better.

[cryptocarroll]

I live in the dorms at my school and have invested around $2000 to mine.  I ran my machine for about 2 weeks and then had my internet shut off because mining was not allowed.  I called and they turned it back on, but if I try to mine again, they will will shut it off.  Is there anyway to work around this?  Can I mask what I'm doing?  How exactly was I caught?

If you must then point to port 80 rather then the default port if your pool of choice supports that.

My question is, do they have that in a written policy? Is the motivation perhaps not permit mining because of the network load or is it power costs? Perhaps you can work something out.

We have a 40GB per week bandwidth max, and I was not going over that.  There is nothing specifically about mining in their policy, but they do state that students can't "use computing resources for commercial purposes."  They believe mining falls under that.  What do you mean by point to port 80?

So a VPN should work?
Would that fall under this rule - "Masking the identity of an account or machine; assuming the identity of another network user without his or her permission."
And could they tell I'm using a VPN?

Port 80 is a web port.

VPN does not constitute masking or assuming identity.

VPN enables you to privately use the school network.

Edit: Also unless you are hosting a mining node/pool you are not pulling more then 25MB a day mining.

I really appreciate the help. - This is also a rule "Using IP addresses not specifically assigned by ResComp. Each member of the residential network is allowed only one IP address and may connect only one computer or device to the network at a time (with the exception of faculty and family housing)."

Also, this isn't campus wide internet necessarily.  I have my own internet access sent to my room, and I have my own wireless router connected.  Sorry to keep hammering this point, but this is all new to me.  So if I use a VPN, it will encrypt that I am mining, and they won't be able to tell what I am doing?  It seems like since my connect is through the school, they would be able to see everything passing through my connection.  I'm scared that if they can still monitor me, that I would lose my network privileges completely since I  mined again and tried to hide it.

Once again, thank you so much for the help guys.  It would be devastating to have to sell this off after the amount of time and money I have put into setting it up.

EDIT: My university is in the US

[Entropy-uc]

Unless you are paying for electricity consumption you are engaging in theft of services.  Their terms of use clearly make it against policy to be mining.

Do you really want to be expelled from your college?

[cryptocarroll]

Unless you are paying for electricity consumption you are engaging in theft of services.  Their terms of use clearly make it against policy to be mining.

Do you really want to be expelled from your college?

I pay for electricity.  I am not mining for a profit but as a learning experience.  I also do not think it is clear at all that they have a policy against mining as it says it no where in their policy anything specifically about mining.

[Entropy-uc]

Unless you are paying for electricity consumption you are engaging in theft of services.  Their terms of use clearly make it against policy to be mining.

Do you really want to be expelled from your college?

I pay for electricity.  I am not mining for a profit but as a learning experience.  I also do not think it is clear at all that they have a policy against mining as it says it no where in their policy anything specifically about mining.

You said yourself that you cannot use network resources for commercial purposes.  Mining is inherently commercial since you earn money from it.

Paying for the electricity yourself makes the issue less serious but having been explicitly told not to mine, continuing this operation is asking for a visit to the disciplinary committee.

Sell your gear or find an off campus location to operate it.

[Caiapfas]

Why not just pay comcast 30$ a month for some internet? can you do that?

[iglasses]

My guess is they are way more concerned with the electrical usage than with your actual internet load.

[whtchocla7e]

It's good to see the school hold their ground. They're not your mining sponsors, man..

[lilfiend]

My guess is they are way more concerned with the electrical usage than with your actual internet load.

He said he pays for his own electricity usage, and at 25MB/day the amount of data he is using is minimal.

Get a VPN and you'll be fine.

[cp1]

If you encrypt it they can tell you're connecting to a VPN, but they can't tell what you're doing.  You're probably better off getting something like a 3G mobile internet USB card and bypassing your university's internet completely.  Then you're paying for the electricity and network, all it's doing is taking up space in your room and giving you Tinnitus.

[Sitarow]

If you encrypt it they can tell you're connecting to a VPN, but they can't tell what you're doing.  You're probably better off getting something like a 3G mobile internet USB card and bypassing your university's internet completely.  Then you're paying for the electricity and network, all it's doing is taking up space in your room and giving you Tinnitus.

Since your paying for all your services then getting your own internet is probably best.

One of my multiple sites run on a dedicated static IP 4G/LTE service. 40 280x GPU's on a stratum proxy, daily data usage is 70MB to 80MB.

And with custom GPU firmware 1.05v from 1.22v brings the power usage from 56A to 40A per leg on a 60Amp 120v Sub

[Trongersoll]

It did say in the rules that you can only attach one device. I would think that they would object to your using a router as that allows you to attach multible devices. I would suggest that you talk to them and find out what their principle concern is and see if you can find a compromise.

[cryptocarroll]

All those ideas are great, thanks for the help.  It sounds like the hotspot would be the most fair way to go about it.

As for only using one device and not a router, they were the ones that told me I could set one up.  That's why I'm very unsure of these rules.  Hopefully it will all work out without too much drama.

[iglasses]

My guess is they are way more concerned with the electrical usage than with your actual internet load.

He said he pays for his own electricity usage, and at 25MB/day the amount of data he is using is minimal.

Get a VPN and you'll be fine.

I did miss that in the thread before my post but even seeing it now I'm not sure exactly what he meant.  I know he said he pays but has anyone here ever heard of a dorm with their own account and meter with the utility?

Paying (a flat fee) for electric and having your own meter are two very different things.

Out of curiosity, OP, which is it?

[Omikifuse]

Best way is to move off campus, who knows if you decide to start a farm instead...

[EventualCoinMillionaire]

You said yourself that you cannot use network resources for commercial purposes.  Mining is inherently commercial since you earn money from it.

You can always say it's for non commercial purposes and for research only so it doesnt HAVE to be for profit.

Sell your gear or find an off campus location to operate it.

+1