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There's been a lot of buzz on the internet lately about ISPs throttling bittorrent traffic. Comcast users have reported that the company appears to be using SandVine to detect and then break connections to out-of-network clients, though the company continues to deny it.
If you happen to be in Canada the notoriously anti-P2P ISP, Rogers, throttles all encrypted network traffic on the premise that it must be bittorrent traffic (try using PGP to send e-mail on that network).
While there's some valid arguments on both sides of the issue, rather than debate we wanted to know — is there anything you can do to get around an ISP that's throttling your bittorrent traffic?
The answer is maybe?
You can try encrypting your traffic and changing the default port number, but neither is guaranteed to work.
The RC4 encryption offered by many popular torrent clients will obfuscate not only the header but the entire stream, which means that it's considerably more difficult, though by no means impossible, for your ISP to detect that the traffic is from bittorrent.
How To Obfuscate Bittorrent Traffic:
Not all torrent clients support encryption, you'll need to check if your favorite isn't listed below.
<a href="http://azureus.sourceforge.net/">Azureus</a> is written in Java and therefore cross-platform. To turn on encryption head to the Tools menu select Options the Connection then Transport Encryption. Check the 'require encrypted transport' box and select RC4 in the 'minimum encryption' drop-down menu. Azureus also offers an 'Allow non-encrypted outgoing connections if encrypted connection attempt fails' option, which means you'll still be able to get torrents that don't have any encrypted seeders.
<a href="http://www.utorrent.com/">µTorrent</a> (and now <a href="http://www.bittorrent.com/download">BitTorrent</a> which is based on µTorrent) is a Windows only client. In µTorrent open up the Preferences panel and select the BitTorrent tab. Select 'Protocol encryption' and then you can choose between "enabled" and "forced." µTorrent's 'Enabled' option mirrors Azureus' option to allow unencrypted connections when no encrypted clients exist — it will give you more connections but won't be as effective at defeating traffic shapers.
µTorrent/BitTorrent also offers a option to 'Allow legacy incoming connections' which lets non-encrypted clients connect to you. This improves compatibility between clients but again, makes your traffic more vulnerable to shapers.
<a href="http://www.bitcomet.com/">Bitcomet</a> is another popular Windows Client (98/Me/2000/XP). To turn on encryption in BitComet head to the Options menu and choose Preferences. Then go to Advanced > Connection and select "Protocol encryption." There are options for "auto detect" and "always."
As with the others auto detect will connect to more peers but won't hide traffic as well. you'll need to play with the settings in your program to see if it has any affect on your download/upload speeds.
Other clients that support encryption include <a href="http://ktorrent.org/">KTorrent</a> (Linux), <a href="http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/">rTorrent</a> (Linux, Mac) and <a href="http://bittornado.com/">BitTornado</a> (Windows).
Now for the bad news.
ISPs are taking advantage of more sophisticated shaping technology all the time and many of the newer shapers won't be fooled by encrypted traffic. For instance, SandVine, the shaping tool that many believe Comcast employs won't be fooled by obfuscating your traffic.
So what can you do beyond obfuscating?
The short answer is not much. There is no fool-proof way to do it. You best choice is probably to switch to an ISP that doesn't employ anti-bittorrent traffic shaping. In the long run this also has the benefit of sending an effective customer message. For a list of ISPs to avoid, have a look at the <a href="http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs#United_States_of_America">list maintained on the Azureus Wiki</a>.
But what if you have no other option when it comes to ISPs? Start by calling customer service. Call now and call often. Disgruntled consumers tend to cost an ISP far more money than any bittorrent traffic. And by all mean try the encryption, though your results may vary considerably depending on what shaping tools your ISP is employing.
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