Is Your ISP Blocking BitTorrent
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There’s an article on PC World that’s worth reading if you think that your ISP might be interfering with your ability to use BitTorrent applications.
They refer to a couple of tools, one called Glasnost and another from EFF called pcapdiff that they developed to allow people to identify potentially forged, dropped, or mangled packets.
They propose several possible solutions that you can use if your ISP *IS* interfering with your ability to use BitTorrent apps…
First, they recommend that you should have your bittorrent client use protocol encryption:
BitComet: Go to the Options menu, choose Preferences-Advanced-Connection, and select Protocol encryption.
BitTorrent and uTorrent: Go to the Preferences panel and select the BitTorrent tab. Choose Protocol encryption and select enabled.
Vuze: First you must change your user profile from the default beginner mode to advanced. Go to the Tools drop-down menu, open the Configuration Wizard, and select advanced. Next return to the Tools drop-down menu and select Options-Connection-Transport Encryption. Check Require encrypted transport, go to the Minimum encryption drop-down menu, and select RC4 encryption.
Then there are other options you can try, change the ports that your client uses, read the documentation that covers any changes you can make to settings that govern how the protocol works.
They also mention that some people choose to route their Bittorrent transfers through TOR (The Onion Router http://tor.eff.org) to take advantage of the anonymous network to cloak your transfers from your ISP. While this does work, you need to bear in mind that TOR is *NOT* intended for high bandwidth applications and more TOR node operators have set their nodes to not permit connections on Bittorrent ports.
They also refer to a couple of commercial services which may work, but I personally prefer to stay away from having to pay for something that I can get for free.
One solution that they didn’t mention is the idea of using Freenet *instead* of bittorrent for your file sharing.
Make no mistake, Freenet IS NOT BITTORRENT and your bittorrent app is not going to be able to use freenet the way it could TOR or some other proxy. On the other hand, once freenet is up and running you can use freenet apps to trade files freely. In fact, as long as it’s used properly, it isn’t possible for an ISP to determine who is uploading or downloading what.
Freenet IS slower than bittorrent, however it has the advantage of a LOT more security and nearly bulletproof anonymity. (the level of security is directly related to the amount of the user’s brains)
Technorati Tags: anonymous p2p, file sharing, anonymous, evade traffic shaping, bittorrent, file sharing apps, freenet, p2p, isp blocking, evade block
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