Is there anyway to 'mask' packets

[rexluporum]

Hello all wasnt entirely sure which forum to post this one in.

here is my question:

I am currently on a college network that is terrible for gaming. Basically what I've come to understand is the network uses 'packet shaping' as a way to manage bandwidth. Which means I dl and browse super fast, but when it comes to gaming I get pings in excess of 7000+. I am a complete network noob and so if this a really stupid question forgive me. Is there anyway around the college's packet shaping? Is there anyway, anything I can do to bring my ping down?

For instance if I go into the game's config file and have it use different ports could that fix the problem, and if so what ports? Thanks, not entirely sure what else to ask, any help greatly appreciated!

[YeOldeStonecat]

I doubt it. College IT guys are struggling to maintain a functional network. Between gaming, peer to peer appz sharing programs, systems infected with worms, viruses, malware, college networks are often brought down to their knees.

Packet Shaping is one method many IT guys have turned to for helping to maintain network functionality. It basically gives priority to network traffic that they deem is important..such as web traffic and e-mail.

Changing the ports of the game, you have to play on the same ports as the server.

Masking the UDP packets (most games run on this type)... I don't know of a way.

[westone]

I doubt it. College IT guys are struggling to maintain a functional network. Between gaming, peer to peer appz sharing programs, systems infected with worms, viruses, malware, college networks are often brought down to their knees.

Packet Shaping is one method many IT guys have turned to for helping to maintain network functionality. It basically gives priority to network traffic that they deem is important..such as web traffic and e-mail.

Changing the ports of the game, you have to play on the same ports as the server.

Masking the UDP packets (most games run on this type)... I don't know of a way.

Bit torrent clients like Azureus and uTorrent as well as eMule can now somehow mask their packets. I'm not sure about gaming though. The problem with the way the software I mentioned is that the servers or users they connect to must also support the form of encryption they use in order to decrypt it. I doubt there would be any reason good/legal for gaming servers to encrypt their traffic.