Company Cracks BitTorrent Protocol Encryption and Introduces Tracker Whitelists
Written by Ernesto on April 27, 2007The BitTorrent bandwidth battle continues. Ipoque, a German based company that specializes in developing bandwidth managing solutions for Universities and ISPs, announced today that their products are now able to detect and throttle encrypted BitTorrent traffic. In addition, they introduce the option to maintain a “whitelist” of legal BitTorrent trackers that are allowed on the monitored network. You could call it the PeerGuardian for ISPs.
Last year uTorrent and Azureus, two of the most popular BitTorrent clients implemented BitTorrent protocol encryption. This successfully bypassed most traffic shaping devices that were used to slow down BitTorrent traffic. The topic led to a heated discussion, and the BitTorrent bandwidth battle took off.
In a response to the BitTorrent protocol encryption that is now supported by many BitTorrent clients, companies like Ipoque that provide bandwidth management hardware, claim that they found a way to detect and block these encrypted (obfuscated) transfers. Ipoque doesn’t provide any details on how they are able to detect encrypted BitTorrent traffic, and it is doubtful whether they can be sure that the traffic they block is indeed generated by BitTorrent.
In addition to the ability to throttle encrypted BitTorrent transfers, Ipoque’s bandwidth managing devices now also support the use of BitTorrent tracker whitelists. “Desired legal trackers such as tracker.opensuse.org can be registered in a whitelist so that their BitTorrent traffic is accepted. All other BitTorrent traffic can be blocked.”, says Ipoque in a press release.
Lately, more and more companies claim that they have found a way to detect encrypted BitTorrent traffic. The fact is however that none of these companies actually provides data on the effectiveness of these systems. Until they open up their methods I seriously doubt the effectiveness of these devices.
Interestingly, a few weeks ago, Canadian ISP Rogers even decided to throttle all encrypted traffic (not only BitTorrent). Apparently Rogers doesn’t need a device that is able to detect encrypted BitTorrent traffic on their network, they simply throttle everyone who is using encrypted transfers.
The cat-and-mouse game continues.
Previously: TorrentPod Episode 34
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28 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
Damn it all. I’m on Rogers, in Canada. I was going to comment with the fact that Roger’s kills even encrypted BT traffic, until I read that last paragraph. Those fuckers. The thing with Rogers is, it’s the fastest home internet available to most of Canada.
Whatever, I’m switching ISPs.
@defrex…
Try Acanac…
“The thing with Rogers is, it’s the fastest home internet available to most of Canada.”
Not if you can’t use it, it’s not! :-)
When will ISPs like Rogers realize *why* people pay them $$$ for broadband?
hmm, Acanac looks interesting. I can get their static IP package for less then I’m paying now.
They have NOT cracked any encryption here… come on Ernesto, get your terms right. Ipoque are just boasting they have a method to detect it as a type of transfer. Other companies have said the same thing. This is not cracking: it’s like saying, if I close my eyes, I can tell when a truck goes past and not a car because of the sound. But you don’t know the type of truck and what’s in it. You just know it’s a truck… and sometimes, you might be wrong.
It’s not perfect and they just want to persuade ISPs to use their traffic shaping software. And whitelists? Christ, that’s hardly difficult for an ISP to implement.
Hmmmm…..I detect a large flatulence, but not by the sound….by some other secret way that I have just discovered!
I would like to see the list of legal trackers… make sure that http://www.LegitTorrents.info is on that list!
Thanks to Rogers it takes forever to load https sites :D
Takes 1-10 minutes to login to my online banking. Fuckers.
course it’s the fastest if you cant use it lol
so now there is no reason for hi-speed internet if we cant use it
wonder how the idiots who impliment this stupid idea is going to feel and dell with 40% of their customers jumping ship
[quote comment="93539"]I would like to see the list of legal trackers… make sure that http://www.LegitTorrents.info is on that list![/quote]
I hope you get banned.
[quote comment="93763"][quote comment="93539"]I would like to see the list of legal trackers… make sure that http://www.LegitTorrents.info is on that list![/quote]
I hope you get banned.[/quote]
That would be logical because Ernesto approves all comments before they are shown…
Props to anyone that posts Rogers alternatives for Canadians =)
I’m getting more and more relieved that I dont live in canada, you guys there are in serious shit!
I’ve been doing some more research, and it looks like there are a number of smaller ISPs that we can use, at least in Toronto. They’re all just subcontracting Bell for the data lines, but at lease they’ll promise not to block my shit.
Too bad that there is nothing in the DMCA to use that the people who created the encryption in the bittorrent couldnt go after companies that are bypassing it. Sort of like the DRM in movies and songs. They could go after ISPs and other companies that are bypassing the encryption and sue them as they are suing others. Dont know if anything exists or not.
oh jesus.
bloody rogers, of all ISPs I pick, I pick them!
[quote comment="148257"]Too bad that there is nothing in the DMCA to use that the people who created the encryption in the bittorrent couldnt go after companies that are bypassing it.[/quote]
They’re not trying to break or otherwise reverse-engineer the BitTorrent encryption mechanics. All they’re doing is identifying it, and then throttling the bandwidth of the customer that’s using it. Nothing about that is prohibited by the DMCA.
Nothing surprises me about Rogers – they are the sleaziest of all the media providers (although the others do try). They have thrown tons of garbage into their advertising knowing that they will quietly step on those who actually try to get the full advertised service. It’s not only cable – cell phones are locked, $50 service charge just to swap the GMS chip to a new phone – even the lowly cockroach must be envious. They will state that you can pay for unlimited e-mail data transfer but look closely at the asterisk and there is a limit.
I’d switch but I figure that the others will just continue to follow the huge dung path left by Rogers and I’d have gone to the trouble for nothing. :-(
Sense when is it legal for a company to try and prob encrypted data and violate the Americans right of privacy. At the same time why don’t I hear anyone suing over this. (It would be highly unAmerican not to)
I switched over to ElectronicBox here in Quebec about a year ago… unlimited up/down and rock-steady service. About the same price you pay Bell or Rogers, but its extremely reliable, affordable, and the quality is more than anyone in the QC-Ontario region can ask for.
I Think,İt is very nice information…
Hitchhiker Nation
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