Blocking peer to peer on Free Motel Wireless connection

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gareth41

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#81888 19-Apr-2011 20:23

I have someone who runs a motel and would like to block any form of peer to peer on their free wireless connection for guests. They are with callplus but cant be done at the ISP's level for some reason so I was told? It is essential because they do not want problems re the new laws and guests downloading copyright material. Any way to do this using a special router?

coffeebaron

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#460640 19-Apr-2011 20:27

Try a Draytek router www.draytek.com.au

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Zeon

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#460642 19-Apr-2011 20:29

If there's a will theres a way and TBH its near impossible. Sure you could block p2p ports but they may just use standard ones like 80 and what about Rapidshare?

TBH I think they would be exempt from the new laws? Its like any business who has staff who could act independently and download copyrighted material over the company's internet connection.

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kobiak

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#460648 19-Apr-2011 20:40

http://superuser.com/questions/68509/block-p2p-traffic-on-a-linksys-router-wrt54g-with-tomato-firmwa...

I guess it could be done on any router too. Sure it's not full block, but at least would keep most of the guest out of p2p sites.

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sbiddle

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#460653 19-Apr-2011 20:54

You're wasting your time attempting to block P2P traffic with any low end device, it simply can't be done.

Gone are the days simple packet inspection could detect P2P traffic.

magu

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#460654 19-Apr-2011 20:58

sbiddle: You're wasting your time attempting to block P2P traffic with any low end device, it simply can't be done.

Gone are the days simple packet inspection could detect P2P traffic.

Agreed. You need some serious horsepower to run something like Snort to try and block p2p fully. The best you can do is actually throttle it.

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CYaBro

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#460663 19-Apr-2011 21:23

What about a cheap Untangle box?
www.untangle.com

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richms

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#460709 19-Apr-2011 23:00

Last motel internet I had the misfortune of using was so useless that virtually everything was blocked.

I dont get how a motel can get a standard domestic ADSL connection, put a standard domestic junk thompson router on it (without securing it) and then say that they have wifi. Well I guess technically they do, There was nothing stopping me seeing other computers connected to it both wired and wireless, and it was slow as despite OK sync speeds. I couldnt figure out how to get anything useful out of the router about thruput or anything, and to be honest drinking was more of a priority than seeing why I was getting 200+ms pings to a server that normally gives me 10-13ms from home.

but IMO, there needs to be some regulation of motel internet services as what passes for it now is just crap. IMO its an area that someone like sky who already has a relationship with most motels could get into providing.

Richard rich.ms

raytaylor

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#460735 20-Apr-2011 01:10

I look after a few motels and their wifi networks.
Using a program called kerio winroute firewall or I would assume DD-WRT and the two main free linux firewalls (i forget their names), you can limit the active connections in the NAT table to something like 25 or 30 per computer. Its pleanty to surf with but not p2p.
Thats enough to disable the users web access just by opening a torrent program as the torrenting program will start making more than 30 connections and there will be none left for normal surfing requests, or the torrent program to auctually get anything done. The distributed tracker part alone should open more than 30 connections before the torrent even starts downloading.

When a visitor says its not working, the motellier has a printed page with icons to exit from the task tray on the computer. A minute later when the connections in the nat table die out and surfing and email works again.

The next option is ZyXel make an awesome ticket printer / router module that allows you to set time limits or more importantly, data limits on each ticket issued. So in the motels I have with antamedia or the zyxel router, they issue 200mb tickets. Thats enough for 2 hours on trademe, or half hour on youtube and its up to the customer how they want to use it - or pay for a second 500mb ticket.

Edit: Forgot to mention- there are exceptions for businesses running hotspots. A motel should be fine if they are on a 'business' broadband connection if the ISP offers different connections.
Eg. Orcon would be home and business, slingshot home only / call plus business only.
So companies are protected under the laws if other people are using their internet connection.

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