5 ms·

In college I wrote a script to register for classes. I'd input the potentially-full classes I'd like to register for, and it would just hammer the registration

In college I wrote a script to register for classes. I'd input the potentially-full classes I'd like to register for, and it would just hammer the registration site repeatedly until someone removed themselves from the class at which point I'd be registered. I'm still amazed IT didn't pull the network connection to my dorm room or have any kind of rate limiting. No 8am sessions for me!

dageshi 9y ago
Assuming the site wasn't actually crashing I expect they didn't care or know about it.
maxyme 9y ago
I do this currently. I'm surprised our course catalog doesn't ban IPs that hit it every 30 seconds or so.
- jldugger 9y ago
  1 req every 30 seconds is more or less invisible, and universities have comparatively small customer bases. If everyone was doing it, there might be a problem.
  - yorwba 9y ago
    My university does require a cooldown period. I heard that someone made his course registration script available to everyone, which I guess was a problem. Unfortunately, the detection system triggers even when you're just manually clicking through the site, which is annoying.
jpeeler 9y ago
Similarly the college I attended required a five or six (can't remember now) digit number required for access to class registration. The idea was that you would talk to your advisor beforehand so you didn't sign up for the wrong thing I guess. My advisor seemed to be pretty uninterested in meeting with me over email (never responded to multiple attempts), so I gave up and brute forced it. Class registration was done by most with the web interface, but I opted to connect to the backing mainframe via a 3270 terminal emulator. Doing so allowed me to write a simple expect script passing in an increasing number as fast as the connection would allow. I didn't bother with rate limiting and am surprised nobody noticed. Took me about 30 minutes and I was in! I was able to use that script at least twice and I wished I had thought of writing it sooner.
- Spooky23 9y ago
  That’s brilliant. My advisor was a jerk who scheduled appointments for about 14 people at the same time, the day he left the country for a month. Wish I had this then, that following semester was brutal.
chrisseaton 9y ago
I occasionally hear about students in US colleges having to compete for places in classes like this. How does it happen? Why does the college admit more people than it has class space for? In the UK they don’t enroll more people than they can teach so everyone has a place.
- jarofgreen 9y ago
  In England, Chris :-) Scotland is different. We have a module system, and depending on their topic people have some freedom to pick courses outside their main degree during their first 2 years. (We do 4 years, not 3). I did a module on Philosophy of Science during my Computer Science degree, for instance - pretty interesting. That said, I haven't heard people complain about classes being full in the same way that they seem to in the USA. I don't know why. Maybe it was because I was in science not arts and there were very few overly popular science classes :-) But across the whole uni, I only heard of a few classes that were so popular they were turning people away. I think one of them prioritised by who was doing that course as their main degree. But I generally heard of very few conflicts, so I don't know what was different. Maybe arts students have a different story?
- arkades 9y ago
  Due to variation in demand for classes, which students don't all take at the same time, there's an imperfect prediction of supply. Additionally, the competition is usually for desireable time slots, rather than to get into a class at all.
  - chrisseaton 9y ago
    Ah in the UK each class only runs once a year, and everyone supposed to do that class just all does it together at the same time. If there are electives each elective can take any number of people up to the total number on the course. So no need to compete for places.
- zild3d 9y ago
  It's not that the schools enroll more than they can teach. One simple reason is that many classes are just very popular, word gets around that they are great for whichever reason (professor, easy A, really fun project, etc). If a class can only hold 20 people, and its a popular class, its going to fill up as soon as registration opens. In the end, you aren't left without being able to take classes. Just possibly not the ones you wanted I doubt this isn't the case in the UK too

dageshi 9y ago

Assuming the site wasn't actually crashing I expect they didn't care or know about it.

maxyme 9y ago

I do this currently. I'm surprised our course catalog doesn't ban IPs that hit it every 30 seconds or so.

jldugger 9y ago
1 req every 30 seconds is more or less invisible, and universities have comparatively small customer bases. If everyone was doing it, there might be a problem.
- yorwba 9y ago
  My university does require a cooldown period. I heard that someone made his course registration script available to everyone, which I guess was a problem. Unfortunately, the detection system triggers even when you're just manually clicking through the site, which is annoying.

jpeeler 9y ago

Similarly the college I attended required a five or six (can't remember now) digit number required for access to class registration. The idea was that you would talk to your advisor beforehand so you didn't sign up for the wrong thing I guess. My advisor seemed to be pretty uninterested in meeting with me over email (never responded to multiple attempts), so I gave up and brute forced it. Class registration was done by most with the web interface, but I opted to connect to the backing mainframe via a 3270 terminal emulator. Doing so allowed me to write a simple expect script passing in an increasing number as fast as the connection would allow. I didn't bother with rate limiting and am surprised nobody noticed. Took me about 30 minutes and I was in! I was able to use that script at least twice and I wished I had thought of writing it sooner.

Spooky23 9y ago
That’s brilliant. My advisor was a jerk who scheduled appointments for about 14 people at the same time, the day he left the country for a month. Wish I had this then, that following semester was brutal.

chrisseaton 9y ago

I occasionally hear about students in US colleges having to compete for places in classes like this. How does it happen? Why does the college admit more people than it has class space for? In the UK they don’t enroll more people than they can teach so everyone has a place.

jarofgreen 9y ago
In England, Chris :-) Scotland is different. We have a module system, and depending on their topic people have some freedom to pick courses outside their main degree during their first 2 years. (We do 4 years, not 3). I did a module on Philosophy of Science during my Computer Science degree, for instance - pretty interesting. That said, I haven't heard people complain about classes being full in the same way that they seem to in the USA. I don't know why. Maybe it was because I was in science not arts and there were very few overly popular science classes :-) But across the whole uni, I only heard of a few classes that were so popular they were turning people away. I think one of them prioritised by who was doing that course as their main degree. But I generally heard of very few conflicts, so I don't know what was different. Maybe arts students have a different story?
arkades 9y ago
Due to variation in demand for classes, which students don't all take at the same time, there's an imperfect prediction of supply. Additionally, the competition is usually for desireable time slots, rather than to get into a class at all.
- chrisseaton 9y ago
  Ah in the UK each class only runs once a year, and everyone supposed to do that class just all does it together at the same time. If there are electives each elective can take any number of people up to the total number on the course. So no need to compete for places.
zild3d 9y ago
It's not that the schools enroll more than they can teach. One simple reason is that many classes are just very popular, word gets around that they are great for whichever reason (professor, easy A, really fun project, etc). If a class can only hold 20 people, and its a popular class, its going to fill up as soon as registration opens. In the end, you aren't left without being able to take classes. Just possibly not the ones you wanted I doubt this isn't the case in the UK too