ISP Blocking certain ports for p2p

[envy me]

If your ISP is blocking BT/other p2p ports, wouldn't it be possible to use a common port i.e. port 80 to do your p2p stuff.

If I'm not mistaken 80 is for http, and it would never be blocked so could you not divert traffic through this port to avoid any issues?

 

[drinkmorejava]

yes, of course, it would assume the other end supported it too. Basically the only other option would be to tunnel such as with VPN to another computer that did have the other ports open.

 

[Rainsford]

Well, yes, but most anti-p2p stuff is done with packet shaping technologies now, which normally identify traffic by a lot more specific things than just port number. Of course the end result of all this is just going to be everything wrapped in SSL done over port 443 (the HTTPS port) so you can't tell what the hell is going on.

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: envy me

If your ISP is blocking BT/other p2p ports, wouldn't it be possible to use a common port i.e. port 80 to do your p2p stuff.

If I'm not mistaken 80 is for http, and it would never be blocked so could you not divert traffic through this port to avoid any issues?

port 80 is blocked by my ISP. They don't allow http servers, so they blocked that port.

Never mind the fact that you can use other ports that are not blocked. Same applies to bittorrent too.

 

[PingSpike]

Doesn't using encryption allow most people to bypass these blocks?

 

[sunase]

My ISP blocks 6969, which means a good portion of torrent trackers are inaccessible. T.T

 

[cyclohexane]

ISPs usually throttle p2p traffic down to 0kbps, unless it's encripted somehow.

 

[duragezic]

I believe encryption only works if the trackers and/or peers have it enabled also. TMK, most clients have encryption options but it's set to disabled by default. So if you force it on you may be left with few peers that have it on as well and thus about the same speed as throttled by the ISP (tho certainly better than 0 I'd imagine). This is what I understand from a brief convo with a friend.

I think anyway.. my CABLE connect here is so stuipidly slow that it doesnt matter if they throttled BT cause its like 30-40k/sec max anyway (but I dont believe it is, but I havent BT'd in a long while, this is with Charter). I hear back in my college town where I will be heading in less than a month they now throttle BT traffic. So if encryption DOES work, I sure as hell ain't gonna tell my roommates. In fact if it does work well it could be a godsend. Dumb idea to clue them in on BT in the first place. They dont seem to understand it and slowing down the net (upload speed, # of connections, plus just that annoyance on 24/7...)

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: Rainsford
Well, yes, but most anti-p2p stuff is done with packet shaping technologies now, which normally identify traffic by a lot more specific things than just port number. Of course the end result of all this is just going to be everything wrapped in SSL done over port 443 (the HTTPS port) so you can't tell what the hell is going on.

My university employs this, and it is VERY effective.

 

[Falloutboy]

just do newgroups people. most ISPs don't care about it even if they could don't think they will cut acess to this legit protocol