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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294 Responses
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I use Plain encryption in Azureus (RC4 much slower I find) now and it rocks.
About 5kb D/L before now 144kb. And that is fantastic.
Thanks a bunch Dude for your advice.
Mad Ass Hussein
I have a 2.5 mb per sec. upload/download limit on my fiber optic connection. Just three days ago I noticed my connection for torrents and web browsing dropping every 10 min. or so when Utorrent is active, always requiring a re-boot just to get my net/torrent connection back. I was averaging around 1.5 mb or more per sec on my seeds before the cap, but now with encryption and random port selection enabled, my ul/dl speeds have slowed tremendously (100kb), but my connection is solid once again.
Damn my ISP for screwing up a good thing!
i’m running utorrent, forced encryption & without the ticked legacy box. Using BT (UK) top Broadband package. port forwarded, firewall allowing, direct connection to homehub. still getting 3-8kB/s but have had up to 170 kB/s on one download last week. speed settings been tested to 256mbit, so set at that but only allowed few doowloads, tried putting higher connection speed, and downloads more (8+) as opposed to less at the same time. how the fuck this works, I dont know.
the question is should i be looking for more than 2-8 kB/s each (total = 23kB/s) or am i just dreaming? mail to JBlair at SLB.com answer my question and your a good man,
Cheers!
Jake
It works well with the latest Bitcomet, Thank so much
Im running utorret wih encryption and random ports. Getting decent download speeds but my ISP keeps dropping the connection and dowload rate becomes zero untill I restart the connection. Does anyone have a fix for this?
I notice that 99% of downloads are coming from other users in my country. And I get almost full speed depending on my broadband speed. But not other than my country. that’s sucks…
omg this sucks it doent work iam useing direcway
Fuck! I have half way download my movies and that stupid streamyx blocked my download… shit i really damn agry with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fuck!
Hey, I just received a warning from Telus about “illegal bittorrent activity”… I’m pretty sure there’s no law against downloading TV shows in Canada…. but anyways, will encryption hide bittorrent traffic so that my ISP won’t recognize it?…
Yah… I think Telus is getting on the bandwagon. I’ve noticed my speeds dropping to
Oy… don’t use less than symbols I guess. Noticed my speeds starting out high and dropping to under 3kB/s. Turned encryption on and we’re back over a hundred, lets see if it stays.
I’ve faced with same problem.I’m using streamyx and my emule and my azureus don’t work.
i need a solution to use them.
what should I do?
hey, i have pipex 8meg and when i first got it about 6months ago its was running fine.. steaming videos allmost instantly and downloading using utorrent at about 400kb/s but now steaming has go to a snails pace and downlaodin is hanging at about 30kb/s… is there anything else i can do??
I am using BitComet 0.63 and I have my encryption set at always and I am using port 80. It seems that as soon as my torrent speed picks up I lose packets on the way to my modem. I was downloading at 200k before I got a new modem because mine kept loosing sync. I now have a Zoom x3. Anyone have any ideas???
ur bitcomet oredi transfer shaping by tmnut screamyx, they totally block all the p2p and bt software.
better change back to dial up modem, at least can download
I recently recieved an email from my ISP (Roadrunner) out of the US about peer to peer copyright issuses. Attached was a fwd email from the MPAA about copyright infringment. I was using bitlord. If I switch to on of the torrent engines above with the encryption will they be able to track my downloads and IP address.
Thanks for any help
[quote comment="38072"]Fuck! I have half way download my movies and that stupid streamyx blocked my download… shit i really damn agry with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fuck![/quote]
Same here! 95% and next day connection closed by peer!
No wonder why my download speed decrease a lot!
Before I read this post, several times I uninstall and reinstall my utorrent client program.
Over here in my country I only have one ISP and that sucks!
http://www.supremehost.net
That’s ridiculous. BitTorrent is used to download a lot of copyrightded material, but it’s also used for things like distributing Linux.
That’s like saying we should cut off the Internet because some people are using it inappropriately.
http://sharetv.org
I read the above, and reconfigured my BitComet client to use encryption and port 80. My download speeds increased from 40kB/s to over 200 instantly. My ISP, MTS.Ca must have been capping it.
On another note-I too just recieved an email from my ISP alleging copyright infringement, forwarded from BayTSP. However, I keep an open (throttled) wireless connection as well as run a small full-time proxy server, for exactly this purpose. At least there is plausible deniability….
I’m not sure if it means anything, but I do not believe they can do much to us Canadians, especially since our recent Government ruling that P2P is legal…? Anybody know more about this?
Ur a lifesaver! Before this, under Telstra cable, I could only get up to 50kbps, not it’s STARTING from 80kbps. Loving it
anyone know about Comcast in Northern NJ bad? good? anything…
[quote comment="43669"]I recently recieved an email from my ISP (Roadrunner) out of the US about peer to peer copyright issuses. Attached was a fwd email from the MPAA about copyright infringment. I was using bitlord. If I switch to on of the torrent engines above with the encryption will they be able to track my downloads and IP address.
Thanks for any help[/quote]
yes they can. i have utorrent encryption on and i still recieve messages from my isp. i believe the encryption in only outgoing. downloading can still be uncrypted so the isp can track you. someone just mentioned a program today that encrypts incoming ip address and files. i’m not sure how thats possable but i’m looking for it. i unfortanetly forgot what it was called. somthing 2.0 w/e
downloading movies and music… mostly movies are the most noticed by isp’s downloading programs isnt actually illigal to my knowledge. your not bound to the lisence of the program till you install it or read the lisense agreement. so is legal o move around he program on the internet buts its illigal to install it. correct me if i’m wrong anywhere. if anyone finds a program the encrypts incoming connection please i want to know.
okay, I’m using a linksys wrt45g router and i have comcast. i have port forwarded on port 50999 for both tcp and udp, and everytime i go to do the config wiz test it says OK but then azureus tells me it cant map to that port.
what about port triggering? this is a shared wireless router so there is more than 1 pc using this router, azureus tells me to disable UPnP so I have done that and its working. i’ve reached dl speeds of 200+ kbps with this encrpytion, i just dont understand why azureus keeps kicking me out of that port and assigning me to another port.
all help is appreciated.
im with bt in england an lately my torrent speeds will be downloading at max speeds then will get stuck on 10-15kbps for hours and hours although the http and ftp speeds are fine, tried useing encryption with u torrent but doesnt work :( …never used to happen with ntl
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