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. I currently use silenceisdefeat which requires a small $1 donation. However, the account is immediately activated and works fine for me.
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 (I use ssh.silenceisdefeat.org), 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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[quote comment="211964"]ziv_r[/quote]
Yep, i’m agreed. Using it u can download torrents everywhere in the world. Even in USA and Australia :P
I had a real problem with downloading for free. Better to pay a little, and have more fun. With fast speed, to download more. Am i not right, dudes??
[quote comment="211964"]For a USA VPN provider with no limit on bandwidth try http://www.strongvpn.com I was able to get much better download speeds then the other VPN account providers.[/quote]
Yep, i’m agreed. Using it u can download torrents everywhere in the world. Even in USA and Australia :P
I had a real problem with downloading for free. Better to pay a little, and have more fun. With fast speed, to download more. Am i not right, dudes??
sry, the double
Is it possible to forward multiple p2p ports using this method?
For instance, I need to open up
2300 to 2400…47624..6073
all udp/tcpip
In order to play this game here @ school.
Will this work? Do i need to manually add all of the ports (2300-2400)?
hahaha, this is amazing. thank you very much. the only difficult part was finding a free SSH account. This website was great: http://jaguar.garofil.be
SWEET It worked for me, I’m fully connected. My campus internet wasn’t letting me get connected but now all works WoOt!
Great idea! Thank you very much! It works like a charm.
Does anyone know how to block certain satellite ISP’s from seeing the amount of data that has been downloaded or uploaded?
For instance Wild Blue only lets me download 15 GB and upload only 5 GB per 30 day cycle.
Very shabby for todays torrent standards.
If you exceed the alloted amount they completely stop your connection or make it go barely faster than dial up.
Any direction would be appreciated as I tend to miss the variety torrents have to offer. But believe you me I WILL STILL continue to obtain my cheap media regardless. Anyone that’s pissed off about that can suck a rotten egg.
i can’t get user name and password from silenceisdefeat.org because i am from pakistan and i can’t use paypal for donation can i get user name and password without donation plz help me my email is umar_zulfiqar@hotmail.com thanks in advance
It does work, and I’ve avoided the problem of others by renting a VPS (virtual private server) with 300GB of bandwidth monthly, and setting up my own SSH account. All you need is a bit of patience, a bit of Linux experience and, if at all possible, Virtuozzo Control Panel helps for first timers.
1-Go to a VPS provider, register a domain name (generally cheap). Make sure you have full root access.
2-Generally they will ask you to choose a password for root… make sure to write it down.
3-THIS IS NOT SUGGESTED, but you could use the username “root” and the password in putty as is. However you’ll want to setup passkey protection, to avoid people from trying to hack your server. With virtuozzo control pannel you can create a user….
Lookup openSSH, and the SSHD configuration for more info.
The beauty of this is you can use it as an FTP server, BT server… the possibilities are virtually endless. It’ll set you back as little as 8 dollars a month… and I didn’t know bugger all when I started, you won’t either, so you have to be willing to “waste” the money, if you can’t figure it out.
Hi,
I wonder when there will be a software so that we can increase download speed of torrents.
does this protect against RIAA/MPAA
Great Trick!, It had been 1 year since my ISP had cut me off from using bittorrent and Thanks to PUTTY!!!! i now can restart my regular downloads!!!
I m so excited!!!!
My fear is that the company will still be able to see that there is an in-ordinate amount of traffic through my machine, even if they don’t see exactly what it is.. and then the hammer will fall. any tips?
i don’t get it. i run a packet capture and none of the bit torrent traffic is going to the silenceisdefeat server. its going over TCP to the peers directly, which means my isp can see it. and i also see bit torrent handshakes in plain. looks like this is useless. anyone have any other ideas?
If you want more information about Relakks (exept from the homepage “www.relakks.com”):
Jonas Birgersson, the founder of Relakks, is intervjued by Thomas Crampton. Birgersson talks about Relakks and why he thinks it is needed. It’s a good and interesting interview!
Link to the clip: http://light.vpod.tv/?s=0.0.201364
Make this on your own dedicated servers *NOT ON FREE-PROVIDED SHELLS*. Damn. Stop being a dumbass. That small free shells for things like mail, irc etc… *Not for SSH tunneling*.
tx for the post but I tried it and it was crap.My uTorrent is usually capable of achieving 500kbps but my highest using SSH was 3kbps.
The article is good. But you can use SSH even without a shell account. In windows you have a port “443″. Its SSH port. Try it.
another option is to use tunellier (http://www.bitvise.com/tunnelier) an unbelievably useful bit of FREE software. It sets up a secure tunnel as demonstrated above with putty. But then allows you to setup any number of port forwarding requests, as well as acting as a proxy for web browsing. We have a VERY knobbled network at work and using this I completely bypass their firewall for everything from torrent to usenet to private mail (port 25 wide open!). I even have firefox setup to use the builtin web proxy option so as far as their logs are converned, all my web browsing is totally legit (through IE) and all my *cough* other browsing goes encrypted through firefox. Tunellier is also a portable app, so I run it from my usb along with firefox so there is not trace on my PC at all. I’m using it to right this, in fact!!
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