BitTorrent: Bypass any Firewall or Throttling ISP with SSH
Written by Ernesto on October 14, 2007On some networks it’s impossible to use BitTorrent. For example, if you’re at work, school, or connected to Comcast or a public hotspot. But there’s an easy solution to overcome this problem. By using a secure connection (SSH), you can bypass almost every firewall or traffic shaping application.
Here’s a relatively simple 3-step guide that will show you how to set it up.
I wouldn’t recommend BitTorrent over SSH as a permanent solution since it will cripple the servers of the SSH providers. If you’re looking for a long term solution check out a VPN service such as Relakks.
1. Get an SSH account.
You need an SSH account in order to get this working. You can try one of these free shell providers from this list.
2. Download, Install and Configure Putty
Download Putty, store it somewhere on your computer and run it. In the session screen enter the host name, the port number (22), and tick the connection type box (SSH).
Next, go to SSH –> Tunnels, enter a source port and tick the dynamic box. I’m using port 23456, but you are free to choose any post you like as long as it’s available.
When you’re done, it might be a good idea to save the session so you don’t have to enter the info next time you run Putty. If you’re ready, hit the “open” button in the session screen. A command-line interface will pop-up so enter your username and password that you received from your shell-provider, and you’re done.
3. Configure your BitTorrent client.
The last step is to configure your BitTorrent client. I will show you how it’s done in uTorrent and Azureus but other BitTorrent clients use a similar setup.
uTorrent: go to Options > Preferences > Connection. Enter your port number (I use 23456), socks 4 or 5 as type, and localhost in the proxy field.
Azureus: go to Tools > Options > Connection > Proxy Options. Tick the “Enable proxying of tracker communications” and “I have a SOCKS proxy” box. Next, enter your port number in the port field (I use 23456) and localhost in the host field.
When you’re done, restart your BitTorrent client and you’re ready to go. BitTorrent over SSH tends to be a bit slower than your normal connection, but it’s a great solution when BitTorrent connections are blocked or throttled.
For those on a Mac OSX, please check out this great tutorial (which in part inspired this article) for more details. It includes instructions on how to do this on a Mac, using Azureus.
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189 Responses
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[quote comment="187648"]DAMN YOU, leechers. That is NOT for what free shell providers are for. Get a vsever or whatever you like, but DO NOT ABUSE services others provide for free.
Thanks to you, Tor has become almost unusable.
Now you are effectively DESTROYING another piece of infrustructure that was very useful for a lot of people.
Grow up guys.[/quote]
Its not just leechers the use Tor for non-peer to peer connections …. I use to use it at Uni then when I got home I would seed
@David
Dude I don’t think anyone uses tor for actual peer connections… I use it everyday and it works fine.
Other than that you are right ;).
[quote comment="187653"]If you’re not talking about peer connections why ask?
Tor works with a website so it will of course work with a tracker both use http (usually).
It would even work for peer connections Tor is a socks proxy it works with everything… if the app has no option just socksify it.
You can even set an exit point…[/quote]
Using it for peer to tracker connections. Sorry didnt explain that in my first question.
Thanks for the info, though I wish to use this for something other than bittorrent (Final Fantasy XI). There’s a firewall set up at work, and I’ll I want to do is simply log in, but they have a weird set up here. Unable to connect yet to silenceisdefeat.org, but working on it.
@Ink: Yes there are people who do p2p over Tor. Actually, that’s a HUGE problem for the Tor network.
Anybody, please DON’T DO THAT. It sucks. It breaks infrastructure others rely on. Tor has been build to foster free speech, to safe dissidents from prosecution, and to secure democracy - not to spread another series Desperate Housewifes.
[quote comment="187676"]@Ink: Yes there are people who do p2p over Tor. Actually, that’s a HUGE problem for the Tor network.
Anybody, please DON’T DO THAT. It sucks. It breaks infrastructure others rely on. Tor has been build to foster free speech, to safe dissidents from prosecution, and to secure democracy - not to spread another series Desperate Housewifes.[/quote]
Hahaha nice come back… Made me smile
dude, leave Tor out of this. it’s actually the only worse abuse of a good resource for pirating known to man.
besides, as much as the US govt loves people hiding things, running a Tor server while pirating goes up as the dumbest way to get caught, ever. “hi, i’m from the us govt. we traced back to this exit point on the Tor network. oh, and what’s this 3tb server got on it? kthx!”
do you want to be known as the dumb fuck who one upped jammie?
ed: based on this articles ferocity on digg + del.icio.us, i’d guess there are more morons out there every day.
glhf.
meh just asked a question?
oh well
Just FYI, if you’re on a college network, try downloading the Vidalia Bundle. Set a HTTP proxy in the uTorrent settings to localhost:8118, and this will allow uTorrent to connect to the trackers. I have this set up with my college campus network and it works like a charm.
[quote comment="187680"]meh just asked a question?
oh well[/quote]
Tor is serious business
The author of this is a complete tool. He must think we (ISPs) are stupid. Humm lets see. A user sucking tons of bandwidth on an SSH connection? Gee that guy must be typing a lot. There is no way we would ever figure out what is going on there.
[quote comment="187621"]Cant I do this myself?[/quote]
You ask and shall receive:
http://blog.davidkaspar.com/archives/2007/02/howto-free-secure-web-browsing-and-access-to-home-network-using-openvpn.php
Aanr who do you think decides things at the big ISPs? Not technicians.
Managers who have constant problems opening their email client!
Your comment show that you basically know nothing about the business… which might actually mean that your are part of some ISP decision making machine but if that was the case you wouldn’t post here and if you were a tech you would know what you are actually talking about.
So go away.
[quote comment="187690"]The author of this is a complete tool.
He must think we (ISPs) are stupid. Humm lets see. A user sucking tons of bandwidth on an SSH connection?
Gee that guy must be typing a lot. There is no way we would ever figure out what is going on there.[/quote]
Or though this has a point an ISP would notice a lot of upload.
[quote comment="187702"][quote comment="187621"]Cant I do this myself?[/quote]
You ask and shall receive:
http://blog.davidkaspar.com/archives/2007/02/howto-free-secure-web-browsing-and-access-to-home-network-using-openvpn.php/quote
think you balled him off the net
[quote comment="187618"]
If you’re unhappy about silenceisdefeat being used, suggest another service FFS and be HELPFUL to other users.[/quote]
Here’s a suggestion for a service that can be used.
Get your own dedi or VPS.
Anyone who can’t accept that they will have to pay for the bandwidth they use is a leech, regardless of how much they seed back on a torrent. $1 does not cover even a tiny part of what you will use on torrents.
Taking advantage of the good intentions of others so you can get the latest hollywood blockbuster is a pretty shitty thing to do.
If your ISP wont allow torrents, then either switch or pay up. Don’t act like the world owes you a fast download.
So is there any SSH shell providers that will allows torrent traffic or at least give a fairly good down rate? I’ve only got a laptop (so having a box at home is a no go) and really want to get around the college network restrictions. I’m of course willing to pay for the service.
Ink, Uhmmm You are clueless. I don’t think you understood anything I typed. Maybe we will try again and you can grasp a small amount of it and hopefully you will understand.
You see ISPs employ people who actually use the internets. We do read the same things that end users do and we also do many of the things that end users do. We also know that someone sucking 3Mb of traffic down an SSH connection is not probably someone one checking their mail with a shell account.
All crap like this will do is lead to a knee jerk reaction by the bigger ISPs.
If you want to use SSH to download your favorite tv show then great. Just SSH to your own server and not to a free service that is not intended for such activity.
[quote comment="187718"]You see ISPs employ people who actually use the internets. We do read the same things that end users do and we also do many of the things that end users do. We also know that someone sucking 3Mb of traffic down an SSH connection is not probably someone one checking their mail with a shell account.
All crap like this will do is lead to a knee jerk reaction by the bigger ISPs.
If you want to use SSH to download your favorite tv show then great. Just SSH to your own server and not to a free service that is not intended for such activity.[/quote]
agreed
Anyone who can (and I realise there are some that can’t), should vote with their $wallets$ not their technology and change ISP’s to one that doesn’t throttle.
I love my new ISP, no throttling, no caps, and it’s even a bit cheaper than the big telcos/cable companys. (It’s Distributel.net FWIW, for Canadians)
#67 sure you can get a virtual-server or dedicated root server, they all run a ssh-server for the shell, and enable port forwarding but you should keep in mind that all the traffic you cause at home doubles for the root server. That means if you download 1GB your server made 2GB traffic, same goes for upload of course.
Aanal didn’t I tell you to go away?
Err, http://www.giganews.com
Dude that is a usenet provider afaik. They use ssl to encrypt traffic from the news server to the client. Has nothing to do with torrenting.
You’re tunneling bittorrent though silenceisdefeat? What the hell, I would feel like suck a dick if I tried to push that much traffic through a FREE SHELL.
This will work great until all the shell providers start throttling the connection speeds.
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