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
Next: George Bush vs. The RIAA?
286 Responses (Add yours)
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new version of µTorrent
Go to: Options > Preferences > BitTorrent
This is a Great Feature of Azureus.
I must call ALL torrent users to use Azureus.
Coz its simply the best torrent client ever.
I myself didnt use it before, neither anyone made me try it. I tested everything out there and finally found it: AZUREUS….
HAPPY TORRENTING…..
Muzufx, Azureus is ok, I think uTorrent is better. Uses alot less system resources and is straight forward and simple… although there are much much worse clients than Azureus and uTorrent.
The encrypting has made a huge difference to my torrents on Azureus. Everything is steaming along much better now, take that Rogers!
thanks you very much for this tips, I hope this will be useful
Ok… Let me get this straight. To date, the ONLY help we have had against the RIAA has come from ISPs fighting to protect our rights, demanding subpoenas, due process, etc.
Now you’re trying to hurt them? Great….
Who’s IP info will get handed over first when a Subpoena comes down the pipe??? The ones that cause the most trouble on the ISP’s network of course.
Thank you to Ernesto and everyone else that helped. The information I found in this thread has improved my AVERAGE download from 9KB to 55KB peeking as high as 109KB from 34KB. Although this isn’t amazing speed, it sure is better than what I had. The changes I’ve made so far are encryption (always), setting my port to something other than default (Tx to Chillbob) and limiting my up/download % using the recommended calculations.
Using BitComet
Provider Rogers
Thanks again to all!
Tazz146
Azureus is the best Utorrent is also great.
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Hello, i use Azureus, i’ve done about everything i’ve found to do. I’ve Enabled UPnP on my client and router (Belkin-F5D7230-4 wireless) My Linksys Wireless G network adapter speed is 54.0 Mbps(i know B and b are different). when i enabled the UPnP i went from 1-2 KB/s and hit a max of 28 KB/s once and usually get about 11-18 KB/s. all together my 3 downloads max out at about 33KB/s andi have my limit set higher. i did a upload/download test and it said i was DL=35.3 KB/s UL= 39.2 KB/s. and to make it more interesting, when downloading regularly from a website it starts at about 55 KB/s and levels out at 40-45 KB/s. everythign i’ve done after the UPnP (encrypting, setting upload limit at 80%) haven’t realyl had an effect on my download speed. though my health is green, andit doesn’t say i have NAT/firewall problems or any thing else wrong. my speed just doesn’t seem to climb. Does any of this make sense? Oh and if it helps my ISP is Adelphia. If anyone has information on what i’m doing wrong or what i can do to help, or if that’s just as fast as i can go, please inform me.
Thanks for taking the time to read all that…
Jake
I am planning to get DSL 256kb/sec with 2GB traffic monthly…………..now the thing i want to ask from u guys it that …..downloading/uploading on bittorrent will limit to 2GB monthly or can i download/upload unlimit ?
if limited then is there any way to fool my ISP and download more with 2gb limited traffic
am from pakistan ……….
Do help me if possible
Heb je hem ook in nederlandse versie?
alvast bedankt
Emiel
Hi, This really helped me from 5/5 kts to 200/240kts. :)) I’m using bitcomet 0.70 and encryption of course and port 1090.
[quote comment="2068"]i use a mac and Azureus.
it doesnt have feture…[/quote]
It does have the feature it is just a little different. You need to do the following;
Azureus >> Preferences >> Connection >> Transport Ensryption.
After that it is the same rules apply.
:)
RC4 packet encryption has been made obselete. If your ISP is using NetEnforcer, you’re pretty much out of luck.
yo i have 384kbsb in 1.00mb dsl and bitcomet 0.70
a small file data about 10mb it started at 02-03kbs/00kbs
and end it at 23kbs/00kbs
but when i started a big file data about 1.11gb it started
and stack!!!! at 00kbs/15kbs what to say???
but i must say that it has change the whole activity!!!
No. They simply count bits/bytes.
Sorry.
Ma®k
Hi Guys, Thanks for tips, they seemed to have increased my speeds slightly. However on uTorrent, in the “Logger” tab, when I initially connect it says “Unable to map UPnP Port”. I am running XP with SP2 and use the SP2 firewall. UPnP framework is in the exceptions of the firewall and upnp is enabled on the router. Do you have any ideas as to why this isn’t working and my speeds are still slow(ish)? I have also noticed my World of Warcraft update speeds are slow (I think they somehow use bittorrent to download). Cheers for any advice, James.
this is out of topic,but does anybody know how YOUSENDIT (hosting file company) bypasses the upload speed limitations of ISP’S ?
My upload speed was limited to 25 kB/s,but when i uploaded a file to the YOUSENDIT server,it soared to an astronomical 300 kB/s !!!
Can someone please help me?
My ISP has blocked torrents. I am new to this and don’t fully understand it. I have followed the instructions above for Azureus. The torrents still won’t connect. My ISP is CableOne. Can someone help me?
guys i could never dl torrents over 1 kbs a sec now using guide i get 120 kbs a sec using u torrent so thanks using this guide but problem is i cant get my uploads speeds up they never go over 1 kbs a sec and i need to be able to seed people as in a private tracker website eg torrentleech and if i dont stat uploading soon i will get banned my setting i used was
enalble protocol encyption outgoing
i ticked was allow incoming legancy connections
My ISP is TMnet in Malaysia just started throttling about a month ago. Even using changed port to 50,000+, forced encryption & unchecking legacy connection doesn’t seem to work on my uTorrent. I suspect they’re using latest tech that can detect encrypted bt streams. I hope utorrent can come up with something soon..
Yeah
Eventhough I changed to BitComet and did all the steps to encrypt it, it still won’t increasing my torrent speed
If TMnet wants throttling so bad then why we had to subscribe it. Even dialup is enough if we can’t get to use the torrent…..
Maybe i’ll try Azureus and uTorrent, then if nothing has improved, i’ll have to say goodbye to torrent
Damn
Hi, I use tiscali and have tried bitlord and now azureus. Ive changed options to RC4 and mucked around with the options in azureus but I can’t get my speed more than 30Kbs on a 2mg connection. I really don’t know what to do because Im quite sure Ive tried everything suggested above???????
I HATE TISCALi !!!!!!
NO-ONE USE TISCALi !!!!!!!!!!
:X
Worked splendidly for me, 20k -> 90k.
Azureus/Pipex
Thanks Ernesto!
the more ports you opened , the more messed up your computer will become. Because hackers can just anything anytime. rite now my browser is being hacked. OMG..i hate this site. i warning all u guys. do not change your port settings. DO NOT OPEN PORTS.
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