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BitTorrent developers working on encryption to defeat ISP interference

18 February 2008 23:58 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 11 comments

It was only a matter of time before the BitTorrent community decided to take on the "network management" practices of ISPs like Comcast. According to TorrentFreak that's exactly what a small group of developers is doing.

They're working to implement what's being termed as Peer List Obfuscation, referring to its goal of hiding the list of peers returned by a torrent Tracker when queried by a client. This list is apparently used by Comcast's Sandvine network management system to locate BitTorrent traffic in order to falsify reset packets, telling a client uploading a particular file that the computer on the end closed the connection. In reality the message comes from Comcast, and is reportedly used to shut down any file being uploaded using BitTorrent without a corresponding download.

Ironically, if this project is a success it will mean not only that ISP's like Comcast won't be able to shut down most BitTorrent traffic, but also that they'll end up with even more traffic due to the overhead from encryption.

Permalink to this article | Topics: MP3 & Digital Audio Online video

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FCC hearing Monday on ISPs' network management practices open to public (25 February 2008)

Comcast defends BitTorrent blocking in response to FCC (13 February 2008)

FCC to consider net neutrality and ISP network management (12 February 2008)

Prosecutors: The Pirate Bay makes $4 million a year (31 January 2008)

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Investment company calls Comcast CEO's tenure a Comcastrophe (19 January 2008)

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With FCC investigation looming, Comcast repeats same old argument (14 January 2008)

CES 2008: FCC chairman promises investigation of complaints against Comcast (9 January 2008)

FCC Chairman has Comcast in his sights (2 December 2007)

EFF details evidence of Comcast traffic management (29 November 2007)

Internet study shows P2P traffic reigns supreme in Internet (29 November 2007)

Iceland�s biggest torrent site gets taken down (28 November 2007)

Comcast in more hot water over blocked content (16 November 2007)

Comcast gets sued for blocking BitTorrent traffic (15 November 2007)

Swedish prosecutors to target Pirate Bay with charges before 2008 (13 November 2007)

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Discuss this article!
dude845 (Senior Member) 19 February 2008 0:02
ROFL. Owned? [ + quote]
tripplite (Senior Member) 19 February 2008 0:09
mwahhhhhhhhhhhha another victory is at hand!!!!!!! [ + quote]
xugiua (Newbie) 19 February 2008 0:21
That is sweet, I hope they figure it out soon so we can slap them in the face. Take that ISP bastards!! [ + quote]
Blackjax (Member) 19 February 2008 1:39
And the chess match continues. Underground Programmers: It's my will against yours and you will lose! ISPs: ruh roh raggy! [ + quote]
canuckerz (Senior Member) 19 February 2008 8:32
*Quote:* But also that they'll end up with even more traffic due to the overhead from encryption. lol... serves them right. We pay for the bandwidth, they have no right to tell us what to do with it. [ + quote]
drach (Newbie) 19 February 2008 9:48
will this hurt media sentry's efforts too? [ + quote]
nobrainer (Inactive) 19 February 2008 11:22
*Originally posted by drach:* will this hurt media sentry's efforts too? not really as they join the peer list and obtain IP's from there but they are developing p2p clients which will include IP anomalising technology, which with the encryption will make it impossible to trace anybody. The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI. The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI. The IFPI Are: The same anti consumer lot as listed above! The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX. How do you stop anti consumer = its easy purchase only second hand media and avoid their propertarian hobbled by DRM hardware! http://www.boycott-riaa.com/ [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 19 February 2008 11:24
elroy2055 (Newbie) 19 February 2008 12:08
This sounds like a really really good idea! I think if you pay for a internet connection, Sometimes upwards of 60+ bucks you should be able to use that connection for whatever you want rather it's surfing the net or stealing the latest Mp3! Thats just my 2 cents. [ + quote]
burnin1 (Member) 19 February 2008 17:02
Haha I had a feeling this was gonna happen, big props to all the devs working on this project. BTW comcast you just got pawnd! [ + quote]
wolf123 (Member) 19 February 2008 22:24
*Originally posted by elroy2055:* This sounds like a really really good idea! I think if you pay for a internet connection, Sometimes upwards of 60+ bucks you should be able to use that connection for whatever you want rather it's surfing the net or stealing the latest Mp3! Thats just my 2 cents. I agree wtf are paying for if we can't download what we want and if you are not burning multiple copies whats the hurt any way. There are saying you can't even make backups of what you own. [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 9 April 2008 17:30
Apluades this well done work. This has been a long time comming. I will be waiting for this software and i would be the first one to download the software. Keep up the good work. [ + quote]