How To Encrypt BitTorrent Traffic
Written by Ernesto on April 16, 2006More and more ISP’s are limiting and throttling BitTorrent traffic on their networks. By throttling BitTorrent traffic the speed of BitTorrent downloads decrease, and high speed downloads are out of the question.
The list of ISP’s that limit BitTorrent traffic, or plan to do so is growing every day, and according to the BBC, the ‘bandwidth war’ has begun.
Are you not sure if your traffic is being throttled Check the list of bad ISP’s.
But there is a solution. Encrypting your torrents will prevent throttling ISP’s from shaping your traffic. I will explain how to enable encryption in Azureus, uTorrent, and Bitcomet, the three most popular torrent clients.
What does encryption Do?
The RC4 encryption obfuscates not only the header but the entire stream. This means that it’s very hard for your ISP to detect that the traffic you are generating comes from BitTorrent.
Note that RC4 uses more CPU time than the plain encryption or no encryption. It is however harder to identify for traffic shaping devices
How can I do this?
This is different for all clients; check the setting for your favorite client below.
1. Go to: Tools > Options > Connection > Transport Encryption
2. Check the ‘require encrypted transport’ box.
3. Choose RC4 in the ‘minimum encryption’ dropdown box
note that RC4 uses more CPU time than the plain encryption or no encryption. It is however harder to identify for traffic shaping devices
4. You can choose to tick the ‘Allow non-encrypted outgoing connections if encrypted connection attempt fails’ box. This will ensure compatibility with clients that are not using encryption. However, it makes it easier for your ISP to detect BitTorrent traffic. I recommend that you try to tick this box first. If you are still not getting proper speeds untick it
5. Tick the ‘Allow non-encrypted incoming connections’ box
That’s it, your BitTorrent traffic is encrypted now.
1. Go to: Options > Preferences > Advanced > Connection
2. Go to: ‘Protocol encryption’ You can choose between ‘auto detect’ and ‘always’. Auto detect will give you more connections but offers less protection against traffic shapers.
I would recommend to try auto detect first, if that doesn’t increase your speeds you need to switch to always
That’s it, your BitTorrent traffic is encrypted now.
uTorrent
1. Go to: Options > Preferences > BitTorrent
2. Go to ‘Protocol encryption’, you can choose between ‘enabled’ and ‘forced’. ‘Enabled’ will give you more connections but offers less protection against traffic shapers.
I would recommend to try ‘enabled’ first, if that doesn’t increase your speeds you need to swich to ‘forced’.
3. Ticking ‘Allow legacy incoming connections’ allows non ecrypted clients to connect to you. This improves compatibility between clients but makes you more vulnerable to traffic shapers.
I would recommend to tick this box, but if that doesn’t increase your speeds, untick it!
That’s it, your BitTorrent traffic is encrypted now.
Good luck and happy torrenting
Previously: Filesharing Around The Globe
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286 Responses (Add yours)
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I use Telus Canada, does that do anything?
Hello, i live in Argentina and my english is too bad. i write this note for give you a thanks for this help. bye
Is encrypting just for fooling taffic shapping ISPs, or will this also provide anonymity?
Telus does not have packet shaping, infact they are so behind they cant even inforce their bandwitdh limits.
What I’d like to know is if encrypting effects share ratios?
i use a mac and Azureus.
it doesnt have feture…
Telus does track torrent traffic thou in some form, I’ve had a recent email telling me about “illegal” traffic packets sourced from torrents I’ve had downloading. This was before utorrent enabled encryption.
@ripper
Encryption is not designed to provide anonimity, it is designed to prevent traffic shapping.
@njm
Encyprion does not affect share ratios in any way.
@Lome
I also use a Mac and Azureus and IT DOES have this feature.
1.) it doesnt make you anonimous, as you people connecting to you still can get your ip address.
2.) If you want to block known “bad” ip addresses go download Peer Guardian from methlabs dot com. A decent firewall software that blocks known entities that would like to stop you from being a scurvy pirate.
Anyone know what the situation is with Bell Sympatico (also in Canada)? Do they throttle bittorrent trafic? Or monitor their network for illegal content?
@Lome
Azureus is Azureus, platform is irrelevant, kinda the whole point of java…
Yep, Azureus is the same whether you use a Mac or a PeeCee.
Made the change and watched the d/l speed throttle right up on Comcrap.
This worked tremendously for uTorrent.
ISP Throttling you?
Let others know where you are, put yourself on this Frappr Map
http://www.frappr.com/broadbandusersagainstbittorrentthrottle
Yup, can’t stand this on Comcast… Drives me crazy…
but what about ISP restricting the access of bittorrent tracker? (like banning the access of all URL with “announce”)
is there a way to workaround this?
does anyone knows how to encript it for eMule
cheers
Darko
Hi there, thanks alot for your guide. For some time now I’ve noticed a drop in my torrent downloads and I was suspecting my ISP putting a cap on downloads via Bittorent but had no way of knowing whats going on. I have a problem though, I use BitComet and I dont have that ‘Protocol encryption’ in my Advance options, its just not there and I dont know why. Can anyone help me out here?
Again thanks alot.
@Darko
This encryption is BitTorrent only
@Eternal
Download the latest version of Bitcomet, the option should be in there
Eternal, try the latest BitComet 0.63
Hi,
This is a quick reminder to also change the default ports for connection in your client!
Some clients already choose a random port at each startup (= the great, great µTorrent). Others will default to the usual one (6667, if I recall correctly.)
No matter what you do about encryption, please also change all default ports you can find in your client’s preferences. Select any high-numbered port, just randomly!
Thanks so much for this tip. I mistakenly thought that traffic encryption was AUTOMATICALLY turned on with the latest d/l of uTorrent. Maybe now my speeds will be better!
good point aside
I’m pretty sure this will be really helpful for sharing my source codes with other researchers.
However, I do have other concerns, since ISP limit bandwidth on bitTorrent, they may have blocked certain ports significantly. I wonder if that’s what they had done, via encryption, may not really solve the problem.
Well, i recommend to forward nice ports in the utorrent default ports, like using ports used by a VoIP clients… so ISP cant cut all P2P packets, so in VoIP u can use it! :P
im using 1090
and rocking
(Im at portugal)
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