If there's a software installed, it's not running visibly for me. I'll try without avast tomorrow.

I only use my laptop in school so I can't mess with their router at all. To me it seems really strange that they would block irc... I can't think of anything else I can't do on the laptop..
I remember people using a vpn to be able to play league of legends in the dorm but using a vpn stopped working, as I think I said earlier.
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No success.