I just bought a laptop for my cousin as he is going off to college in a few weeks. I installed Sabayon Linux along side vista for him, however he is REALLY new to Linux, and well not all that great at windows... Anyway his girlfriend almost got kicked out of school for using limewire. Is there anything I can do so he can still download music with limewire, and not get caught?

You see, no matter what I tell him he is still going to download music. Don't matter if he get's caught or not. It's just he is the first one on his side of the family to go to college. We really want this to work out for him. But he needs his music - like me it helps him study. We have spent every bit of extra cash on getting him into college.

Looking for something simple if possible, because as I said he is new to Linux.

This is probably not what you want to hear.

Just like surfing teh intarweb from work isn't about anonymous proxies but about stealing from the company, and just like parental control isn't about restricting access but about trust and education on what to do in certain circumstances, this isn't about anonymous access but about him getting his priorities right and discipline. From the sound of it he doesn't fully realise what people have gone through to get and keep him there. Making that CFB should be your first port of call.

What I mean is that the way IP works any network admin should be able to track source and destination addresses, filter packet contents and look at the volume and conclude it's not edu-related traffic. No matter if he uses a proxy or tunnels to another system. If he's adamant he should leech music then he should do it from a box that's not within their network. That's the only safe way.

This could also sound like one of those "my friend (actually me)" stories. Well, whatever. There is no secure way to surf the web, there is no secure way to download illegal music from the web. Not even legal. It's just a competition between those who try to hide, and those who try to seek. And in my opinion it's just not "intelligent" downloading stuff with Limewire (or anything else) trough that network, or any other. Tell this "friend" of yours, that it's more worthy spending money on the real records than downloading them (I know it mostly helps the record companies, but it could help the artist a bit too).

Personally I'd give this "friend" two choices: either he gets financial aid, stays at the school and stops the stupid thing or continues like before, does not get financial aid and takes what is given. It's harsh teaching, but should work.

I used the word "school" for "college" here, because in the end that's what it is. In a school you learn stuff. One thing you should learn is that doing non-legal stuff is bad (while in this society), and doing that in somebody else's network is even worse.

LQ does not support piracy or help others with piracy. In simple terms, don't download music that's copyrighted. There's plenty of free music out there, if you can't afford to buy it due to college tuition, tuff shit! Keep your priorities straight without breaking the law.