[tor-relays-universities] Preventing access to scientific databases

[Jesse Victors]

For my exit at USU, I've had great success with blocking access to
journals and publications by configuring the machine's firewall and
Tor's exit policy to reject outbound to the university's IP block,
except for our DNS servers. I pulled up a journal in my laptop using
Chrome and got access, but when I used Tor (with torrc configured to use
my exit) the same page timed out because the machine couldn't contact
the library's resources. I don't know if there's a session key,
Kerberos, or some kind of other access-granting mechanism that the
library's site uses to grant journal access to machines on USU, but when
I block outbound it doesn't go through, whatever it is. Your mileage may
vary depending on how your network is configured. For me,
experimentation worked just fine, and I would recommend blocking campus
machines anyway. If it doesn't work, try something different, or talk to
your sysadmins and get advice.

Jesse V.