Thread: Restrictions On "traffic Shaping" In Broadband, Some Information That You May Found

Due to all those situations involving the copyright infringement, i decide to make some deep research and collect information that i think that could be useful for all of us, torrent users.

So let's begin shall we


Most of all know that broadband providers (ISP's) use some techniques to shape the online traffic generated by its users. They use that to prevent a small group of heavy users to consume a large amount of bandwidth that would probably make the experience unsatisfactory for most of the regular users.

They use the official excuse by naming it : Traffic Shaping.

Certain protocols and programs are blocked or have limit speed access so they can't consume too much bandwidth. Well it's not a surprise that P2P networks are among the most affected by the traffic shaping.

Please note that most ISP's guarantee a minimum speed offer in majority 10%, as they all keep trying to convince us that they would not "interfere" in their own traffic, i suppose that none of them will be upset if i share with you some tips to avoid that your download speed will be affected by those "technical interferences" in their networks, dont you think?

A know method for determining if there is a blocking of protocols or programs is to check the speed of the internet connection. The Glasnot checks if your ISP is interfering with your torrent traffic. (Remember this is a standard check)
The tool created by Max Planck Institute for Software Systems requires no download and does a detailed check in approximately 7 min.



The creator of the well know Bit Torrent Client Azureus Vuze created a plugin that determines whether your ISP is interfering with your traffic or not.
If the statistics indicate that yes, your ISP is interfering with your traffic then some measures can be perfomed to counter-attack
Some may work and some may not it depends on the ISP.
First let's try the encrypt your P2P networks. Programs like Azureus and uTorrent offer an encryption mode, enabling this feature will be much more difficult (in some cases, impossible) to detect your P2P usage.

Follow the next steps to configure you're client:

Azureus: Go to my library, then tools/Options/Connection/Transport Encryption. Select required encryption transport and select minimum encryption RC4 encryption.

uTorrent:: Go to the preferences panel/uTorrent/Protocol Encryption and select enable.

The second method is by changing the torrent protocol behavior. This second method is used by providers that try to halt speed on default settings of the torrent clients.

In order to reconfigure the software, find the instructions by using the support offered by your torrent client. A simple but effective way to try is by simply by changing the software, some clients use different protocols so perhaps a client will be better then another on your ISP's network.

It's no new that the default port 6881 is blacklisted by many ISP's, knowing this lot's of torrent clients already come with features to switch the traffic torrent port, some of them even try to configure the firewall automatically to streamline the traffic. The Port Forward site will give valuable tips on how to configure your router to do the job manually.

A more advanced method is to use an encrypted tunnel, as the name suggests, shields your traffic from alleged manipulations from your ISP.
Free services like The Onion Router were designed to send anonymous and encrypted messages, but some users have adapt it to use it on torrent connections. Vuze as a native support for routing traffic by onion router.

ISP's however, are getting smarter about some techniques used. Some went so far that block any application that appears to use torrent traffic.
If you're one of them you might want to consider the change to a new ISP or try a new client.

A new P2P technology (at least for me ) called P4P can make life easier for both costumers and providers who use torrents.
The new technology improves by 600%(or at least they say so..) the download speed simultaneously, and simplifying both providers that manage your network so that users can download content faster.

Pando Networks which tested and is a member of P4P Working Group, says that the protocol send requests for specific files within the network of the provider, before you connect to networks from others companies.

This approach will reduce the "cost" of bandwidth when connected to third party networks, and allow the companies to manage their protocols more efficiently.
Essentially the closest the file is less bandwidth is used to download it.

However there maybe a problem in the process. Since providers are responsible for the installed P4P networks, they also can decide which technologies can use them. So if a provider believes that an application is usually used for illegal downloads, they can block your access to the P4P network.

Well that's it, after a few days of research i gathered all this information.

Always trying to find a way the keep P2P alive for as long as possible, they may stop me but they can't stop us ALL!!

I hope that you may find it useful, and feel free to add any information that you think that you should share.