Would this work?

[SneakyStuff]

I am tired of one of my roommates using BitTorrent all of the time to download movies since... A: My name is on the internet bill, and B: it hogs up so much bandwidth because he uploads a rediculous amount.

I went to this website A BitTorrent guide and read what ports BitTorrent uses. I then went into my router (Linksys WRT54GS) and under the access restrictions tab I entered in 2 services to block:

BitTorrent1: TCP 6881-6889
BitTorrent2: TCP 6969-6969

I am not particularly skilled with managing my network so I wanted to ask you if this would actually work in terms of blocking torrent traffic, I am basing my preventative measures off that tutorial I linked. This is driving me nuts!!!

 

[Crusty]

If you want to stop it just unplug his ass from your network until he's ready to listen to your rules. Blocking a few ports won't stop someone who knows even just a little bit about torrents.

 

[jsta]

bittorrent can be setup to run on virtually any port.
there is no "default" port

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: Crusty
If you want to stop it just unplug his ass from your network until he's ready to listen to your rules. Blocking a few ports won't stop someone who knows even just a little bit about torrents.

Sadly, this is pretty much the answer. Or tell him to put the service in his name, wont fix the speed but you should be in the clear.

 

[Tbirdkid]

dont confront him unless you have to. just make an access control list in your router, and dont add his ip address. he wont get access to the network, and will eventually have to come to you and ask why he cant get service off the router. tell him why, and tell him you arent adding him back until he cuts that crap out.

 

[SneakyStuff]

The horrible part is that even if I booted him off the network he would just connect to my neighbors unsecure network and use that. Maybe I could make a few dollars real quick by offering to secure their network, then have my roommate by the balls :laugh: I know that I could do that and solve the problem, but at the same time it seems like booting him off would cause a whole lot of drama... I'm beginning to hate torrents. Thanks for the responses guys.

 

[Blain]

* Tell your room mate you don't want your machine or internet account used for P2P file sharing.

If he continues, lock everything down, and look for a room mate that can show some basic respect for your property.

Don't charge your neighbors anything. Just tell them to secure their network.

Life is too short to screw around with a joker that won't grow up!

 

[frostedflakes]

Tomato firmware would probably give you more advanced QoS options. You may not be able to block BitTorrent, but I think Tomato would allow you to throttle his speeds.

Looks like Tomato is even capable of identifying and blocking P2P traffic? Check out the features section of the Wikipedia article, it has a lot of functionality.

 

[Fardringle]

It's hard to avoid "drama" in a situation like this where someone really wants to do something (download torrents) and someone else doesn't want them to do it but has to live with the consequences of making the other person (roommate) mad. If you just cut him off without explanation, he'll probably be annoyed when he comes to you and you're less likely to get him to cooperate that way.

This is how I would personally try to handle it:

Step 1) Advise the roommate nicely that by downloading torrents on the Internet connection you are paying for, he is exposing you to legal liability, he is negatively affecting the performance of the connection for you, and it could result in the ISP shutting off the service entirely.

Step 2) Give him some options:
a) He can buy his own Internet service and do whatever he wants with it.
b) He can agree to stop downloading torrents on your connection.
c) You can throttle ALL of his Internet access on your router to dial-up speeds so he can still access the web for school work but can't hurt your connectivity with high speed torrents.
d) You can cut him off completely by denying access to his computer on your router (and help your neighbors secure their connection(s) so he can't leech off of them).

Options a or b would be the best results, but you do have other choices if he refuses to be reasonable.

 

[SneakyStuff]

I give up, now one of my other roommates is raving about some program called "Graboid" which is a 4gb a month free program to download movies, and I also learned that my other roommate uses the freeware version of limewire... I'm just going to have someone else put the bill in their name and be done with the worrying. I hate people that know nothing about how file sharing works and believe that for some reason you are immune to consequences.

 

[Fardringle]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
I'm just going to have someone else put the bill in their name and be done with the worrying.

With multiple roommates running P2P software (and adding more), that's probably the best choice.

 

[SneakyStuff]

For the hell of it I changed the network password, since the worst offender is the only one using a wireless connection this should be fun . Maybe when he realizes that I can cut him off at will his attitude towards BitTorrent will change.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
Maybe when he realizes that I can cut him off at will his attitude towards BitTorrent will change.

I doubt it.
Just tell him it's "no torrent" or "no connection"... PERIOD!

Seriously, why are you screwing around with this chump, you pay the bill?
Is he a close friend from childhood, or what?
Something in the dynamics here just don't seem kosher.
Maybe "Networking" isn't the correct forum to get your problem lined out.

 

[mxnerd]

Turn off UPNP on the router and delete all existing port forwarding records and see if it works.


And make sure your roommates don't have the login info for your router.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
Maybe when he realizes that I can cut him off at will his attitude towards BitTorrent will change.

I doubt it.
Just tell him it's "no torrent" or "no connection"... PERIOD!

Seriously, why are you screwing around with this chump, you pay the bill?
Is he a close friend from childhood, or what?
Something in the dynamics here just don't seem kosher.
Maybe "Networking" isn't the correct forum to get your problem lined out.

You're probably right in terms of the solution not being here anymore. My situation is a college house with 3 people I know and we each have a bill in our name. It's not exactly easy having to play the role of mom when problems come up, nobody ever thinks they're in the wrong.

frostedflakes, thank you for telling me about that firmware though. I like the amount of options it has and after learning more about it I will most likely switch to that for improved functionality if anything.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: mxnerd
Turn off UPNP on the router

I've heard this is feature everyone should disble for security.

 

[jsta]

Originally posted by: mxnerd
Turn off UPNP on the router and delete all existing port forwarding records and see if it works.


And make sure your roommates don't have the login info for your router.

the problem with this, is they can still download.

port forwarding is usually not necessary for downloading torrents, only uploading.

 

[mxnerd]

Originally posted by: jsta

Originally posted by: mxnerd
Turn off UPNP on the router and delete all existing port forwarding records and see if it works.


And make sure your roommates don't have the login info for your router.

the problem with this, is they can still download.

port forwarding is usually not necessary for downloading torrents, only uploading.

You are right.

I just tested with uTorrent, even though I turned off UPNP, and uTorrent said port forwarding is not working. It still managed to upload and download at almost full speed.