How can I completely neuter BitTorrent on a network?

[Jassi]

I am experiencing a disturbing increase in the number of people using Bit Torrent for downloading illegal files and I need to shut it down completelt. Any ideas?

 

[LBmtb]

Close the bit torrent ports and inform everyone to stop using it? The ports are 6881 and 6999 I believe.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: LBmtb
Close the bit torrent ports and inform everyone to stop using it? The ports are 6881 and 6999 I believe.

You'd need to make sure to shut down other non-typical port(s) as well.

Changing the ports that BT clients uses is pretty easy, but unless they are advanced users, they probably don't know how to do it.

 

[BSEagle1]

That is a tough one. I'd say block the default ports and hope they don't know how to change them. If you use PC-Cillin '05 as your anti virus, the firewall also has an option to block out programs of your choice...but eh

 

[Tazanator]

well I got a linux router and am able to bandwith throttle the P2P systems. (I took it down to 56kb speed .. only the die hards still try to bitorrent still.

 

[InlineFive]

In addition to the above methods can't you make them Limited Users? This is a great way to eliminate spyware and generally only let your "approved" software onto your network.

 

[Nothinman]

Assuming you're working in a business, report them to management. If one gets fired the rest will likely stop.

The only real solution is to have a firewall that blocks everything by default and only allows certain things, you can change the bt ports used very easily.

 

[Jassi]

This is not a business/ office scenario so I don't have the $$ to invest

The main issue is the people that use our secure wireless connection for BT. I know who they are and getting their account banned will take literally 30 secs but then I have to confront them face to face. I will try the above methods but if anyone has any more suggestions, let me know

 

[EKKC]

im not following. why do you need to curb torrent usage if your not in a businss or office environment???

 

[RedCOMET]

Why don't you confront them about the BT usage, especially if it is being used for illegal means?
That might be easier than implementing a software/hardware solution. If that doesn't work, why don't you just ban them from the wireless until they comply.

 

[Diaonic]

This is how.

That's an office solution. I'm sure you can find some open source packet shaper software for linux or something.

 

[imported_Dimicron]

Any consumer router with QoS will work. I use a Linksys WRT54GS v1.0. Set the BT users to Low priority and non-BT users to High priority. Then block the basic BT ports in the router.

 

[yukichigai]

Assuming you can't find a Linux program to do it -- and I find that highly doubtful -- you could always go the extreme route, block every port (including HTTP, FTP, etc.) except to a central server which is set as the DMZ, then limit all users' HTTP/FTP/etc. access to a proxy on that server. True, it wouldn't be exactly easy on your server, and theoretically a few packets could get through for torrents, but the number would be so astronomically low I doubt the users would be able to clear 0.2k/s average.

 

[Nothinman]

Any consumer router with QoS will work. I use a Linksys WRT54GS v1.0. Set the BT users to Low priority and non-BT users to High priority. Then block the basic BT ports in the router.

And how do they determine what is BT traffic? I was under the impression that the BT protocol looked like HTTP.

 

[vrbaba]

Originally posted by: Dimicron
Any consumer router with QoS will work. I use a Linksys WRT54GS v1.0. Set the BT users to Low priority and non-BT users to High priority. Then block the basic BT ports in the router.

wont this limit their normal..legal usage bandwidth too?

Again...if it isnt business or home office, why the hell do u care wht they do?
wht kind of network u are runing? and why are ppl connecting to urs?

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: vrbaba

Originally posted by: Dimicron
Any consumer router with QoS will work. I use a Linksys WRT54GS v1.0. Set the BT users to Low priority and non-BT users to High priority. Then block the basic BT ports in the router.

wont this limit their normal..legal usage bandwidth too?

Again...if it isnt business or home office, why the hell do u care wht they do?
wht kind of network u are runing? and why are ppl connecting to urs?

Yes, but if they are torrenting, who cares about their "Legal" bw. The point of why he cares, is he (probably) signs the dotted line with the ISP, and when the FBI gets records about who is doing what, it points back to his name. Knowing that an illegal activity is occuring and doing nothing makes you an accomplice of sorts.

 

[networkman]

Another idea would be to add the Bit Torrent software as a "virus" so that your anti-virus scanner(s) in your Enterprise remove the software when scanning.

 

[blemoine]

if you had a proxy server you could remove the default gateway from your dhcp server configuration and make them all go through the proxy server for internet access. i did this at a school and it completely stopped P2P and IM programs. with the proxy server you have control over the internet not your users. you can also get content filtering software for your proxy server to better handle the internet surfing restrictions

 

[paulrio74]

Load IPCop and ftwall. Both well documented and fairly easy for linux, not to mention free. FTWall runs on IPCop and will kill bt, kazaa, etc. Won't matter what port they try to use.