Configure LAN Router To Prevent Illegal Torrenting?

Question

Scenario

I have a typical broadband setup at home (It's a flatshare I have no control over who uses the house) and I want to prevent anyone using it from illegally downloading via torrents etc.

Question

Is there a way in which I can configure the router to block all forms of illegal downloads?

Solution 1

Not all torrents are illegal, so you're effectively making the decision to block peer-to-peer technology, as opposed to blocking "illegal downloads".

• You can start by blocking the major sites that offer torrents in the first place, using an invisible proxy. That will prevent people from getting the .torrent files.

• Then you can look at blocking the ports that the main apps use, and disable UDP completely (except the ports used for DNS, but I believe that can work on TCP/IP now anyway).

That's certainly not an exhaustive list, but it's a good starting point.

Solution 2

Short answer: No

Longer answer:
Probably not, it depends on your router. Most routers targeted to home users don't have that kind of traffic filtering capabilities.

Solution 3

From a legal perspective, any of the other solutions, though technically incomplete, may be adequate to your purposes. If the sh*t hits the fan, you can demonstrate to a court of law that you acted in good faith, and that the user was forced to 'hack' your system. This means that the user's access was 'unauthorized', and any liability for the resulting behaviour is strictly his.

Check with your lawyer, though. Cause I'm not one.

Comments

[UNK]

Huge ISPs who lose massive amounts of money over this can't do it - if you do figure it out, you may be able to retire early :)

[ceejayoz]

And even if they have the traffic filtering, a determined user can likely SSH tunnel or something.

[Iain]

Disabling UDP would wreck VOIP.

[dag729]

Randolph ideas is the best choice, IMHO, though I think that if a user is able to switch over to ssh it is possible that any other solutions will fail as well. But for a non-power-user point of view that could be enough. Also: if you have to deal with just a few users, you can "mess up" your routing table to forward any incoming .torrent files to your mail address, and then choose which to flag as legal and which don't. Just a thought.

[user1686]

Most DNS resolvers can fall back to TCP [not "TCP/IP"], but they'll likely try UDP anyway every time. = Slowness.

[dag729]

+1 for a very nice ssh-buck-passing technique! :D

[mukama]

Blocking UDP would hose pretty much all network video games as well.

[Delphy]

Thanks for the upvotes, guys. Goober, you're better off managing this as a process, rather than a technical solution. Get people to sign off usage agreements, and get management to buy into the idea. If someone downloads something they shouldn't, fire their ass.

[nelsonjchen]

If they are tunneling, the liability is shifted to whoever owns that tunnel and the other end. That's would be still a win.