Blocking P2P traffic

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AllenG

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#59330 1-Apr-2010 22:12

Hi.

My sister is having trouble with her teenage son using up all the bandwidth and datacap. He has not co-operated and I have blocked his wireless access until I find a better solution.

He is using Vuze, and possibly other p2p clients. I wish to block these but I believe that Vuze is pretty clever at finding any open ports including 80 so I don't think port blocking is any use.

My sisters router is a linksys WAG54gP2. It supports basic access restrictions including blocking up to 4 URLs or 6 keywords. I have entered torrent, vuze, bebo, youtube, & limewire which will nobble things a bit.

Is there any way of reliably blocking torrent traffic with this router? Will blocking ".tracker.", and "/announce" stop vuze?

Is there any replacement firmware with better access restrictions?

Any ideas please?

Regards, Allen.

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#314050 1-Apr-2010 22:19

Have a look at a custom firmware, http://www.dd-wrt.com

Ragnor

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#314053 1-Apr-2010 22:30

You could use layer 7 packet filtering to detect and block p2p, this sort of stuff is available in custom third party firmware like DD-WRT and Tomato.

However, it's not possible to run custom open source firmware on that model.

To replace the WAG54Gp2 with a ADSL modem that does half bridge and a router that supports custom firmware you're looking at spending about $160ish.

Ideally you might be best off solving the problem with the people involved, teching her son the value of money or make him pay to the data he uses. If not there's always military school.

nate

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#314103 2-Apr-2010 10:24

Ragnor: If not there's always military school.

AllenG

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#314111 2-Apr-2010 10:47

Funny thing there, he is trying to get into the airforce. Will do him the world of good if he gets in!

Is there any merit in adding .tracker. and /announce as blocks? what urls does vuze use for it's own hosted material?

Regards, Allen.

MikeyPI

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#314124 2-Apr-2010 11:29

AllenG: Funny thing there, he is trying to get into the airforce. Will do him the world of good if he gets in!

Is there any merit in adding .tracker. and /announce as blocks? what urls does vuze use for it's own hosted material?

Regards, Allen.

Not if he joins SIGNIT, and learns more about it than you do!

vexxxboy

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#314125 2-Apr-2010 11:30

does your router allow isp masking, that will stop torrents and P2P traffic

Common sense is not as common as you think.

wazzageek

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#314140 2-Apr-2010 12:30

What's wrong with keeping the wireless access blocked and get him to pay for his own connection?

He's has proven that he's not responsible - and given that technological barriers can always be circumvented.

As the bill payer for the connection, there's considerations about the content being downloaded and the legal responsibility? (Although there could be some argument depending on the son's age, I guess. IANAL)

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AllenG

441 posts

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#314152 2-Apr-2010 13:03

vexxxboy: does your router allow isp masking, that will stop torrents and P2P traffic

Hi Vexxxboy, The router allows blocking of up to 4 urls and 6 keywords. I have just tested adding www.vuze.com and it blocks http access to the site. Can you elaborate on your comment? are you talking about blocking certain URLs or something else?

Thanks, Allen.

AllenG

441 posts

Ultimate Geek

#314166 2-Apr-2010 14:46

How about this as an idea?

My sisters PC has a wireless adapter and a faulty NIC, If I replaced the faulty NIC could I set her wireless adapter up as a gateway for the son, and use a software firewall on her PC to bridge the wireless adapter to the NIC blocking p2p traffic?

Both her PC and the sons are Vista, any suggestions for a software solution that is not too resource hungry?

Regards, Allen.

wazzageek

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#314211 2-Apr-2010 17:54

AllenG: How about this as an idea?

My sisters PC has a wireless adapter and a faulty NIC, If I replaced the faulty NIC could I set her wireless adapter up as a gateway for the son, and use a software firewall on her PC to bridge the wireless adapter to the NIC blocking p2p traffic?

Both her PC and the sons are Vista, any suggestions for a software solution that is not too resource hungry?

Regards, Allen.

How do you propose the firewall blocks P2P traffic, given that earlier stated the application will fall back to port 80?

Personally, I'd be more inclined to use a proxy, than forward the traffic to the internets through a firewall.

AllenG

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#314226 2-Apr-2010 19:12

wazzageek: Personally, I'd be more inclined to use a proxy, than forward the traffic to the internets through a firewall.

Can you suggest a free app to do this on windows Vista?

jtbthatsme

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#314229 2-Apr-2010 19:19

Here's a few easy fixes that would keep the usage down.

Firstly check his settings on his download programs most you can setup to limit bandwidth up and down speeds. As I find in my house yeah they know how to download but not really anything about the actual way it all works. He could be downloading a average amount of data but be uploading even more if his client is set to unlimited speeds up and down that can blow a datacap in few days. Had too many instances of that here a download off a few hundred meg but uploading of near 10 gig. Check the client settings fiirstly.

My other suggestion is to block the speed that the wireless connects at I can assure you if you get it nice and low he will soon get annoyed at how slow it's all working when he actually wants to surf as well as download one will have to give. Possibly need a software app for that but i know it can be done. Many on here could point you in right directon on how to do it.

Last easy option is to join a net provider that has free offpeak downloading and tell him (and show if needed) how to set it all up. I have 75 gig offpeak each month and never really have issues in regards to usage. Tie this in with using something that has no uploading so he is literally just getting what he wants without giving data back. Megaupload or Rapidshare services come to mind here can be free or pay a minimal fee to get a premium service (great download speeds and no limitations.)

Thing to remember is until he literally is paying for his usage or own net connection he will never really care to much about what it actually costs but there's always compromise plus chances are once they catch the downloading bug it's not gonna stop so do what you can to minimise the expense. All the above things will work within reason and they will work better if you do them all hehe.

Thing with kids especially teens they love to think they know it al but as adults we have already been there done that and mostly know the tricks it's about being smarter than they are. Good Luck.

wazzageek

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#314230 2-Apr-2010 19:21

AllenG:
wazzageek: Personally, I'd be more inclined to use a proxy, than forward the traffic to the internets through a firewall.

Can you suggest a free app to do this on windows Vista?

I've used squid under linux (/*nixen) before - I see there is a port for windows (http://www.squid-cache.org/) - as an added bonus, it does have SOCKS support (which allows applications other than web browsers to work through a proxy as well - i.e. IM tools)

I really can't comment on it's support or otherwise under windows, however.

wazzageek

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#314231 2-Apr-2010 19:25

jtbthatsme: ...My other suggestion is to block the speed that the wireless connects at I can assure you if you get it nice and low he will soon get annoyed at how slow it's all working when he actually wants to surf as well as download one will have to give. Possibly need a software app for that but i know it can be done. Many on here could point you in right directon on how to do it.....

+1 - rate limiting would probably be a superb way of doing it (I didn't even think of it before).

Then again, you might want to consider something which monitors the amount to download and then throttles / stops the connection completely?

AllenG

441 posts

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#314252 2-Apr-2010 20:53

wazzageek: +1 - rate limiting would probably be a superb way of doing it (I didn't even think of it before).

Then again, you might want to consider something which monitors the amount to download and then throttles / stops the connection completely?

I don't think getting my hands on his laptop to throttle the torrent app is going to be an option, I'd prefer to do it elsewhere. The broadband connection is only pretty slow anyway, Xnet Stream 256/128, so forcing the Wlan to 1Mbit isn't going to help. He was leaving his laptop on at night and while at school.

The Proxy idea seems good, but I'm not familiar with their use. I may end up just allowing access for an hour a day for homework unless he agrees to give me access to his laptop.....

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