p2pnet - rss feed: Bypass Bell traffic throttling: the nitty-gritty
p2pnet news Freedom | P2P:- Bell Canada is infuriating its own customers by throttling their Net services in a bizarre form of censoring, and which also effectively blocks net neutrality.
The practise is being roundly condemned by everyone from individual subscribers, through 55 smaller Canadian ISPs, to search giant Google.
But Bell is hell bent on continuing.
The ISPs are represented by CAIP (Canadian Association of Internet Providers), which started the ball rolling by demanding CRTC order Bell to cease and desist.
Other organisations joined in, including Per Vices, a Toronto consultancy which on its web page states, simply, “We solve problems.”
It certainly does.
In its own submission to the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission), it included a brief description of how users could get around Bell’s throttling efforts.
We had quite a few emails asking us to go into detail, but JB did the trick with a Reader’s Write explaining information is on page 3/5 of the original PDF Document.
“The standard VPN TCP port is 1723/TCP, with IPSec key exchange protocol using UDP port 500/UDP, and TCP port 50 and 51 for IPSec Encapsulating Security Protocol, and IPSec Authentication Header traffic respectively,” says JB, quoting per Vice’s submission.
Now the company’s Victor Wollesen (applied research) and Yi Yao (research and development) have gone a step further by publishing a technical brief which explains in detail how to bypass Bell Canada’s traffic shaping effort.
“In general, there are two steps to enabling peer-to-peer communication over the Bell Canada DSL Network,” they state, going on >>>
Bypassing Bell Canada Throttling Using Protocol Encryption
It is first necessary to force protocol encryption for all connections. Then, route traffic over the VPN port TCP/1723, optionally using the IPSec ports (UDP/50, UDP/51) for for DHT or tracker.
[NOTE: Part of a sentence is missing here, but Wollesen and Yi continue ] … At this point, it may be necessary to renew your IP address. Assuming you have a dynamic IP, this could be accomplished as simply as reconnecting to your DSL service, or rebooting the DSL modem. If you have a static IP, it may be necessary to wait an unknown period of time, or else request a new one.
Examples
uTorrent
Proceedure
The following has been tested to work to uTorrent v1.7.7.
1. Launch uTorrent.
2. Select Options then Preferences.
3. Click on BitTorrent from the preference tree.
4. Under the Protocol Encryption heading, select Forced. Ensure that the Allow incoming legacy connections box is unchecked.
Illustration 1: The preference settings box showing the BitTorrent section settings.
5. Click on Connection from the preference tree.
6. Under the Listening Port heading, select the Port used for incoming connections, and set it 1723.
7. Ensure that the Randomize port each time uTorrent starts box is unchecked.
8. Click on OK, and reconnect to your DSL service or reboot your DSL modem.
Illustration 2: The preference settings box showing the connection section settings.
KTorrent
Proceedure
The following has been tested to work to KTorrent v2.2.6.
1. Launch KTorrent.
2. Select Settings, then Configure KTorrent.
3. Click on the Download section.
4. Under the Preferences header, set the Port to 1723, and the UDP tracker port to 50.
Illustration 3: The download section of the KTorrent configuration box.
5. Click on the General section.
6. Under the DHT header, select the UDP port for DHT communications, and type 51.
Illustration 4: The general section of the KTorrent configuration box.
7. Type OK, and reconnect to your DSL service or reboot your DSL modem.
“A lack of public information as to the specific method or techniques used by Bell Canada in throttling users service prevents us from guaranteeing this method,” Wollesen and Yi state, adding:
“This method was tested over the network of a third party ISP. It has been independently confirmed to work on retail Sympatico customers.
“It our hope that this is of use in allowing users to experience full connectivity.”
Stay tuned.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
.
.Stumble It!
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Of course, now that this information is being widely circulated, don’t be surprised if Bell soon closes off this solution.
Instead of looking for workarounds to the throttling, it’s too bad we can’t just “workaround” the ISPs themselves! Hey! If they keep arbitrarily and illegally changing the playfield, why shouldn’t we just find a way to gain internet access without them? (Yeah, I know…)
July 10th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
ESP/AH TCP port 50/51, UDP port 50/51… sheesh, what morons!!!
Try IP protocol 50/51.