I hope this title has caught your attention.

I see far too many people getting caught in the trap of thinking they are safe online, when they're really far from it!
This is not so much a How-To, more an argument and a "How-Not-To" Guide.
Its by no means exhaustive, and Im 100% happy to be proved wrong in everything Ive written, my only hope is that from this we can provide a safer place for people, globally, downloading torrents.

IP Filtering - What it does
IP filtering is great for blocking a list of bad guys. If you run a Mailserver and want to avoid it being used to as a Spam bot/relay, then this is ideal technology to use.
IP filtering takes a list of IP addresses (Known / assumed 'bad' or malicious, or potential government or anti-piracy IP ranges) and stops your computer from connecting to, or allowing a connection from.
In laymans terms:
It stops you from connecting to the Bad-guys, and likewise them to you.

Whats an IP? Whats DHCP?
An IP Address is a unique address that you computer has. Every time you type in www.google.com, it actually connects to Google's IP address: 64.233.167.99
Your computer has been assigned an IP address when it connected to the internet, either directly, or your Router / Modem has one and it passes data through to your PC.
A lot of places use DHCP which stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (Extended reading at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHCP )
In a nutshell, this means that each time you connect to the internet, you get a new / different IP Address.

Why is this relevant?

Lets say you get blocked from a Forum for spamming, they ban your user and block your IP.
Simply restart your router (If you're with an ISP that uses DHCP) and go back to the forum, re-sign up and you're away laughing again.

Note: I am not condoning nor recommending anybody try that with spamming forums, Im just using it as an example. Lets all be mature here

Thats nice, but what does it all mean?
Well it basically means that if you can change your IP, then so can John Doe who works for the RIAA, or your government. Sure, you can block a range of IP Addresses, but whats to stop Mr Bad-guy from going home and doing work, instead of from his office?
Whats to stop the Bad-guys from using a Proxy server to hide their IP?

Whats a proxy server?
A proxy server is another computer elsewhere (usually on the internet, but sometimes used locally for corporates etc) that specific types of traffic can pass-through.
This was mostly useful back in the days of Dial-Up, where your ISP would keep a copy of frequently accessed websites cached in their proxy, saving them from having to re-download it each time. Not quite so much used for that any more, more used for anonymity.
This is because when you use a proxy server, if done correctly, all your internet traffic appears to originate from the Proxy Servers IP Address.
In other words, they take the fall (Except for when they have logging, and know who's been using what etc, but you get what I mean...)

Great! Where can I get me a proxy server then?
Not so fast!
Unfortunately if you're clever enough to use a proxy server, then surely governments or large multi-million dollar anti-piracy groups are also clever enough to use them then, yes?
Sure, it means that they wont find YOU, but effectively it means that IP Filtering is useless.
Also, you dont want to use a proxy for things like traffic, because its so bandwidth-intensive, its basically just bad-etiquette. How would you feel if somebody else was pumping gigs and gigs of data through your connection on a daily basis?
So, dont use a Proxy server, its not intended for torrents, and dont use an IP Filter / blocker

But if I dont block their IP's then the Bad-guys could poision my torrent and give me viruses?
A common misconception.
The very nature of bittorrent means that when John Doe creates a torrrent, its divided into virtual chunks. Each of these virtual chunks is run through an SHA-1 algorithm so you get the SHA-1 hash.
IF somebody downloaded the torrent, changed some of the data, then began sharing this changed data, even IF your computer downloaded it, your bittorrent program is smart enough to check and make sure that its the "correct" data. If the data isnt what it should be, its discarded and re-downloaded from another source.
There's no way to fool it, so provided you've downloaded the torrent from a reliable source, you can download it, tamper with it, then TRY and re-seed it until the cows come home, but nobody will actually get the data...
More reading for the curious here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_%2...ishing_torrents
And the technically minded curious people, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-1

Then why does uTorrent / my Bittorrent program tell me there's a few MB of wasted / discarded data?
Its the internet, people go offline / stop seeding / close the program.
When this happens, you dont have the entire segment of the torrent, so that part just gets dropped / wasted, and your torrent program goes and asks somebody else for it.
If you've downloaded, say, 700MB worth, its not uncommon to find 5-10MB is wasted. Its absolutely nothing to worry about.

So, theres no winning then right?
Not exactly.
You can use encryption, which masks the type of traffic you're sending & receiving from your ISP, so not only are you less likely to have your traffic bandwidth-shaped (Especially if you're using a random non-standard bittorrent port), but even if somebody on the internet captures the data, they still then have to go through the hard process of decrypting the data.

But cant the Bad-guys see that Im connected and downloading that torrent still?
Unfortunately, yes, chances are XYZ on the internet can still see you're downloading whatever torrent. Its just part of how bittorrent works, and there's no way around it because proxying isnt viable for torrents.
You could use your ISP's proxy, IF you had to, but thats only a certain amount of anonymity still. The purpose of this guide is to convince you NOT to use IP Filtering because its a waste of time, not to show you how to stop the RIAA from knowing that you're connected to the latest Audio Album torrent.
IP Filtering is not technology that should be applied to torrents, and its a waste of peoples time and a common misconception that you're safe.

But if its encrypted, then Im safe, right?
Well, the RIAA or whoever can still see you connected to the tracker.
Lets say they're really mean and out to get you, they proxy themselves so they appear to come from a legit source (Not one that IP Filtering would have stopped even if you HAD it setup), so IP Filtering is effectively useless.
They can see you're connected to the tracker and potentially download parts of a torrent from you. If that happens to be the latest Audio CD then you're screwed either way, regardless of IP filtering. The RIAA wouldnt care about speed, they're not after the data from the torrent, just details of who's connected to it.
So, you're not safe, even with IP Filtering, so dont bother, and do the world a favor and tell other people not to bother too! Chances are you're just blocking potentially good people who could speed up your downloads!

My ISP will cut my internet if I download torrents
Well its not if you download torrents, but illegal stuff through torrents.
And again, there's really nothing you can do to stop that. All your internet traffic passes through your ISP, so:
Encrypt it! Its harder to detect, meaning not only can they not see what you're downloading, but you're likely to get faster speeds if your ISP throttles torrent traffic
Dont download illegal stuff. Unfortunately, its one of the plain truths. Dont like it? Find another ISP that cares less... It might not be the biggest, or the cheapest monthly, but its your choice still!


Summary
So IP Filtering wont work, and proxying isnt gauranteed to make you totally anonymous. Whats the solution? How can I torrent and be safe?
There is no real solution unfortunately :(
Even so-called Dark-net's out there are flawed, there's nothing to stop the Bad-guys from also joining the Dark-net and you're back to square 1 again.
You can only employ best-practises:
Download from reliable sources, and people you trust, at places like this forum.
Anti-virus & anti-spyware software is nice, but not a total solution in themselves
Find a review site, or look for torrents where lots of people have already downloaded it and confirmed it working, other people you see as regulars and also trust.
Dont stop seeding as soon as you have the file to 'minimize your risk', it doesnt work like that. You've downloaded the file, might as well seed and make others happy, and keep the world of bittorrent going :)
Lastly: If you download, there's always a risk. Chances are if you're not selling stuff to friends / family / workmates / random people, you're less likely to become a target.

So I shouldnt use IP Filtering?
No!
Be smart, not ignorant :)

Hopefully this guide has helped you a little more to understand how bittorrent works, why you're not as safe as you thought with IP Filtering, but still pretty safe anyway.
Feel free to debate it, discuss it, ask questions, or complain that Im a loser for telling you that you're not safe when you previously thought you were, I dont mind. Prove me wrong, please, I would love to be :) Im also happy to help and answer questions that no doubt will arise.
Its probably a bit messy, I just sat down and wrote it all in one go, but it gets the basic message across.
If this guide has helped, please, drop a line of thanks :) And please, dont use IP Filtering ;)

wow thanks for this you really opened my eyes to how RIAA and MPAA work

but then why do you say later on not to use ipblockers im now confused , im not stupid and realize that if the bad guys want to track you etc im sure they can,i think the bigger question is who is in the wrong the goverment that brand us thiefs but then there is no coruption in politcs ,or is it that they feel sorry for all these poor film starsthat struggle for csh because they dont get all there royality money ,no its taxes and and all these big companies that feel hard done by sorry for the rant, but all i know is that if they put as much effort in to into saving the world it might just be a happer place

Because Email is different from Torrenting.
Torrents are by design not susceptible to being tampered with in the same way that Mail is. If you receive traffic via the bittorrent protocol that doesnt match any of the hashes, it disregards it immediately. This is because you have indicated that you specifically *want* these files.

Email works on a different basis, IPFiltering on Email basically is a way of preventing a lot of spam, and making your email server more secure. This kind of security is redundant with bittorrent thou.

thanx for clearing that up for me ,i wasnt having a go at wot you said in any way just didnt unerstand but thanx for making it clearer

Thank You Very Much A very smart guide!

Thankyou for some sound advice

Not a problem mate, happy to help :) Sorry if the reply sounded a little harsh, wasnt my intention...

I wasn't read it all, I'm lazy. You Know?

thanks for the guide and your time

It looks good, and was a very interesting read, but do people that know a little more about this agree as well?

Agreed. Personally, I would have thought any bit of protection is better than none at all but it would be interesting to hear what some of our other (more technically-minded than myself) users have to say.

...Just have to wait now for the thread to be seen ;)

Thankyou very much that was very informative, a great bit of advice, and i to would love to hear what some other (more technically-minded than myself) users have to say. My worry is not so much isp's or guovermonts, but the twats who have nothing better to do than to sit in the bedrooms of their mum's house and screw with perfectly good uploads to put some crappy virus or other poison into it for mostly no other gain than for why (i have no idea) i think that 90% of people who put in virus dont do it for financhal gain but just coz they havent got a life, friends and proberly still get off on animated pictures of laura croft (unless they found a escort to take there grubby little giro) but i used a ip filter just for that little bit of extra security, i can totaly understand and mostly agree with what ur sayin but if it stops just one person then as far as im concered it worth putting on but yes i would love to hear others views on this and again thankyou my friend.

Chances are if somebody has infected a torrent, then like you say its potentially somebody bored at home.

Good chance then they're either:
Doing it as a once-off and it'll never get to ipfilter, at least not in time to save you (Unless you update daily, but still...)
On a dynamic IP Address, so again, blocking an IP Address is futile and ultimately useless

Again, I see no point in using it, you're probably just blocking good peers.

Like I said, download from trusted sources, read feedback / reviews of people who've downloaded the torrent before you have, keep AV up-to-date (Try Avast Free) and it'll do many times more good than IPFiltering

So how do I go about setting up this encryption?

In the uTorrent options / preferences, under Network I believe.

Have a look, its well labelled

Hi
Pls correct me if what i have come to understand is wrong.....
U r saying not to use Peer Guardian2 or IP filter.....as it doesnt gve u that much security (as one expected...correct)
Just with a security software like Outpost Pro 2009 (Firewall), ESET Nod32(antivirus) Trojan Remover and other antispyware... u can still be safe....as long as u download torrents from known uploaders (Darkside uploaders etc)....

I m askg this bcos i came across ur post as i was going to install PG2 or IP filter for the first time.....as b4 i have been downloading without any ip filter (for the basic intention of getting good download speeds by not blocking any ip's)... and till now i have been getting really good speeds fast downloads without any ip filters...only with the above security software installed...but after seing some of the responses on the forum i too got myself security conscious on this aspect of ip filter

So what i m basically asking is should i continue as before or install PG2 or Ip filter any suggestions would be realy appreciated

to be honest with you, install what ever programs you think you may need to install, to give you that little bit of extra piece of mind you crave. what is written above is proberly the most correct and sensible piece of imformation you are likely to read on many a conversations on this subject. but still, i still use utorrent ipfilter just in case it stops just one bad apple then as far as im concerned its done it job. but it will most defently slow ur speeds but only by a fraction and i always turn it off if theres not may seeds or peers for what i want, but again the choice is totally yours.

Ah but thats the thing, its probably not *actually* blocking anything useful, even if it *is* blocking something...

And yes, I wouldnt install PG2 either... same thing, different name really.

i have it installed just in case.

i plan to start uploading soon, and im sure the RIAA or MPAA isnt rlly thinking as often as we think about them using proxies or something.

so, imho, install it, its not going to harm u, i havent rlly seen a difference in d/l speeds at all.

Unfortunately thats where you're wrong!

They have MILLIONS of dollars to spend on this every year! Do you honestly think they hire retards who dont know what a Proxy is? Get real....! They're probably paying big bucks, and hiring some really smart people to do that kinda thing!

And yeah, it does affect your DL speeds (even if not by much), every time you block a peer, chances are its not blocking anything useful..!

Just because you "hope" they're not thinking about proxies doesnt make you right! Opinion / feelings / fact, all very different things!

Nice guide dude....

At the end of the day if they want to catch you they will, nowhere is safe, well if your on your neighbours wifi then you are but that would be bad eh

Yes i know there are other ways to hide but the biggest majority of darksiders here just aint as technicaly minded as the ones in the know....you know who yous are..

Using known trusted sources is the safest way

i didnt say they werent thinking about it

i said we prolly think that they are constantly doing it and trying to monitior every d/l which they prolly arent.

theyre not idiots, but still, they cant b the brightest ppl in the world if they think they can stop pirating lol.

and yeah i havent seen any change in d/l speeds. so maybe 1 or 2 kbps. ohhh huge difference right? i think its btr to be safe just in case.

chances are that it wont block nething useful, but chances are that most ppl here have nvr got a cease and desist letter either.

if it doesnt hurt your downloads, ur memory, or ur cpu power what is it goign to hurt?

Well, according to your theory, if they're not constantly thinking about stopping your downloads, or monitoring you, then why bother installing it?

Waste of time....

my theory is that it takes 2seconds of ur life to do, and unless u have a not-so-good system set up then its not going to hog much, if any, of ur computers resources.

so if it doesnt hurt, and there is a chance it can help then whats the point in NOT using it?

Because it creates a false sense of security!

Its like boarding up the cat-flap & chimney to your house, hoping it will keep thieves out, while you know damn well they're never ever actually going to use it, nor fit down the whole, but you do it anyway just because you have the wood lying around home. All while forgetting to lock your front door.

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9540/Exclusiv...list+on+the+Web

Maybe that interview will make clear something to you .

:-)

Basically if you download from a trusted source, you remove the need for anything like that. You can see he talks about blocking bad P2P seeds etc - which also doesnt work (from what I understand) if somebody else has downloaded the "fake" and is then re-sharing it. This should be regardless of if they've downloaded through Limewire / eMule / Torrents.

Again, using it just creates a false sense of security...

Q. where do they find these ip add. from when you update PG2 there are lots of new ip add. in there how do they now they are all bad?

It was a good thread and found it interesting Bcoz i've just installed it but in some ways by making it clear i'm more comfused! if this was the case that there's no point and that obvious why do people got to the trouble of creating ip filter programs which they must be up on what's what in the torrent world they all can't be wrong can they!

JP

its a gud guide...the matter of thing is....as long as your ISP is not having any problem with wht u do with der connection there is nothing to worry..the main reason a ip gets black listed is bcos when some one gets too smart and downloading fake torrents which is intended to infect a pc by creating a back door..and once a back door is created wht ever you do with ur system ,the person injected the back door is going to see wht all you are doing with ur connection.....so the best way is to prevent these silly accidents..wht ever proxy u use its of no use when ur ip is black listed...only the site admin and the server in which the site is hosted has the ability to watch every ip connected through them..and we are safe til we trust them...if a certain government pushes hard to any ISP to have a watch on heavy bandwidth usage..then too it wil create some prob,as of now there are no worries regarding tht as each ISP is providing higher bandwidth for wht...to check mails daily...i dont think so :)...so as long as you dont screw urself there is nothin to worry....so frndz be happy and hve a nice time :)

Thats a good question!
Im really not entirely sure, nor am I entirely sure that all the addresses are legit.

I *do* know that a friend of mine recently got an email, his ISP were passing on information that they had received a Copyright Infringement Notification. The ISP didnt care what he was downloading and did no monitoring of their own, but they were required to pass on the Notification Email.
He went against my advice and downloaded a recent movie which had been released in HD from ThePirateBay, and he was using a peer blocker. He STILL got busted!
Why? Whoever was doing the monitoring was still able to connect to the tracker and see he was seeding the movie after he had finished it (He claims he only seeded for a few minutes -- leecher!). This, regardless of him having the peer blocker application. It stops the peers from connecting to him, but not from other peers seeing that "Hey, this IP is connected to the tracker and has 100% completed the download".

For the really paranoid, try something like RS / MU links if you are going to pirate things, or Usenet...
Otherwise, stick with restricted-access trackers (Which interestingly enough usually have a faster download rate, due to users wanting to keep their share ratio higher in order to maintain their account). Good luck getting a RevTT invite thou :(



Renshaw, where did you get your Avatar from?
I have an almost identical pic tattoo'd on my arm!

Another question for you is my ip isn't statick so if i switch my router on and off now and then this will help me to be less noticeable to the net cops yes? or no? as i understand it my ip changes everytime it goes off & back on,

oh you got any invites to rev lol had to ask lol i've managed to get on a couple of private tracker sites now and yes the speeds even with 3 or 4 seeders is always very good for the very reason you mentioned.

it works fine or almost you dont worry abt anything until ur IP gets black listed...





hey buddy do u knw how ur friend got busted even after he was using peer blocker....the main problem is try to avoid unwanted attention my downloading fakes or avoid silly mistakes as i hve said in an earlier post...everyone has a unique proto number set by the ISP and how many times you spoof or do something else wit ur IP there is of no use buddy..wht u can do is disconnect ur connection with the current ISP and try someone i bet u wont get caught unless u tend to show some silly mistakes...

and hey buddy.....as im a die hard heavy metal fan i tend to use this avatar....really cool to hear tht u hve a identical tattoo....

thanks for the info

Actually, even if you disconnect then reconnect, and get a new IP Address, your ISP will still have a record of what your IP was at what date (As well as how much data you used amongst other things).

All ISP's do this, so they know how much traffic you've used.

Disconnecting / reconnecting might help if you're trying to sign up to forums and they've blocked the IP you had, but otherwise it doesnt do squat when the anti-copyright police see you connected to a tracker. Once they see you're connected and sharing / leeching, then you're toast!

Not sure what the proto number is that you speak of.. everybody has a unique IP, and its not always set by the ISP (Some people are on static IPs).

I think every time you d/l a movie or album you're knowingly committing a crime so don't do it if you're not prepared to face the consequences. That said, the chances of getting caught are very very slim when compared to most other types of theft.

What you want to do is reduce the chances of getting caught and the best way to do that is to make it more difficult, or a lot more work, to catch you than the majority of other people committing the same crime. I agree with what you said about IP filtering not being a very effective method of avoiding detection. I do however think the IP filtering is useful to reduce the odds of getting caught even if it is only a marginal reduction. If you use it as part of a larger strategy I think it has a place in your arsenal of weapons which might include using a 'devil may care' ISP and setting up a VPN or using an open proxy etc as well as torrents from trusted sources, reading comments and only d/l popular or not so recent torrents.

Yes it may slow your speeds down on the lesser seeded torrents but in my view this is just a price you must pay. Too high a price?? You must decide.

thanks for the info very interesting

the amount of bad data received in my torrenting client drops from 25% network traffic to roughly 2% . IPFiltering is good for blocking the big 5 & their corrupt data boxes. Also, turning OFF DHT will greatly help you - there is no reason for only a client to know about other client's connected in the swarm, if the so called "unknown client" was legit then it would be connected to the tracker and not just some random DHT enabled peer.

lol... when I read RIAA/MPAA i was like WTF! it sounds like a dog catchers RSPCA advertised saw on TV.


nice info ... Thanks ;)

Interesting reading. I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed

the guide does'nt include what/how to install ipfilter
anyone can tell me what & how please

What I got from this is as follows:
1. Don't bother with IP filter as it does not protect you from government/ISP monitoring. Meaning even if you use an IP filter if the IRAA was going to come after you they would do it either way.

( I think this is probably true because anyone who is actually trying to monitor torrents would just change their IP or go through a Proxy. The DHCP comment was probably misleading however because most companies/agencies would have statically assigned IP's from their ISP so most wouldn't use DHCP.)

2. You really don't have to worry much about someone "Poisoning" or adding viruses to a torrent. If it wasn't in the original torrent it's not going to be there after you download it no matter how many of your peers/seeds change the data in the torrent.

(Remember always check the MD5 hash of your data, if it's the same as what is posted with the torrent then what you got was what the releaser put up. If the hash is different your data is too.)

I have limited technical knowledge ans I'd say that this is all pretty accurate, there is no reason to use IP filtering for torrents.

The reason not to use it is it may block legit seeds and peers and this will slow your download.

Thank You!

What about seedboxes? is there any sort of setup that way that is free?

Thank you very much for this information that is very true and really interesting.

Thanks.

Looks like IcarusXLII definitely understood well, although you dont need to MD5 your data, the torrent app always does that for you :)

The real issue is that to use Torrents, even if you encrypt the traffic and make your data unreadable to your ISP is that other "peers" can still see you as connected (Naturally -- Its P2P filesharing so you HAVE to).

The long and short of it is if you're going to use bittorrent, you run the risk of getting caught.

Using something else like a Darknet or Usenet is a much "safer" option, granted that you trust your Usenet Provider not to be logging your IP / reporting you themselves that is, otherwise its just as unsafe really.

I use my Ip filter beacause even if they are after me they defenetly got the methods to do so. I'm trying not to run into their arms because there are known ips that belong to servers which belong to companies or institutions that dont have to waste their time in proxy because people just connect to their servers. this would not happen if you used a blacklist in which they are defenetly listed!
If you want to find out how its done or want to know more about how they catch u, how to protect you, how it works etc.
I would like to recomend you this great thread which should answer all of your questions
Warlordhunter's Guide For Copyright Infringement, A Breakdown of info for those in need or curious


also i you're new to p2p you should definetely red this!!! i know its much reading but if you want to commit a crime you should know what ur doing darksiders

Let me quote him:
"This information was given to me by a friend whom is an IT specialist who works for a top cable company. It took many sessions of cold beer to derive, and clears up how the process works"

Basically what he's saying is he's still new to how this whole thing works, and for that matter about 50% of the information on that guide is highly incorrect!
I'll say that again, the guide is full of cr@p!

Let me say it once more just so it sinks in:
You're wasting your time with ipfilters and bittorrent! They are 100% useless!

If you're so smart, go google for:
Tor - The Onion Ring
Proxy Server
Then report back to me after reading up about that technology and tell me what a moron you've been all this time, but how you've now seen the light and dont bother anymore!

Basically, you're an idiot if you're still using it in my books. Its creating a false sense of security (Very bad!), you're no better off with it. In fact, you're worse-off as you're potentially blacklisting useful IPs.

You come across as the kind of person who would delete files from your computer if I emailed you saying its possibly a virus ...