# Blocking P2P Applications on Network



## threephi (Mar 9, 2011)

I have agreed to sign up for the Internet connection with some roommates whom I'm sharing a house with. We agreed that I'd handle getting the network set up I didn't want anyone using P2P file-sharing applications because I'm the one who's going to be "at fault" if someone downloads something illegal (since the service is registered in my name).

Is there any way that I can block P2P file-sharing? I'm aware of some filtering appliances which can do this, however such an appliance is not within my price range. Is there any cheap or free software which could be run on a Linux or Windows machine which could accomplish this? What about a way to monitor P2P traffic? Any ideas?


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## 2xg (Aug 5, 2009)

Hello,

If you have access to the router settings it's easier to block all unwanted Ports.


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## threephi (Mar 9, 2011)

I do have access to the router.

I thought that blocking ports wasn't the best way to do this because certain other applications required ports besides the common ones. Also, isn't it really easy to just specify another port at whim? For example, if you allow port 993 for IMAP can't the Torrent client just be set to use 993?


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## TheCyberMan (Jun 25, 2011)

Who is paying for the internet?


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## threephi (Mar 9, 2011)

Well, I'm paying for the Internet as one of my "contributions" to the living arrangement. So essentially "we're splitting it," I'm concerned that since the connection is in my name that I will be legally responsible for anything which is downloaded.

My roommates have "agreed" that they won't use P2P sharing applications, but I would like to "encourage" them not to.


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## TheCyberMan (Jun 25, 2011)

That's good that you have all agreed not to use P2P software so blocking the ports on the router will be the option you need to use as you don't have access to their local firewall on their computers to bock P2P executables.

Also make sure you change the default password to the router and keep that to yourself. You need to make them aware of what you are doing and them agree to it.

Also you need to spell out consequences if P2P is used and port blocking is circumvented perhaps a formal agreement needs to be drawn up in the event of any legal issues if there are any splits such as someone leaving etc.

A consequence could be blocking of internet access for a period of time via mac address filtering on the router.

I quite understand you are legally liable so agreement is essential on all accounts.


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## threephi (Mar 9, 2011)

So if I do attempt to block P2P traffic by blocking ports on the router won't it be very simple to just configure the clients to get around the blocked ports?

I know that Torrent clients allow use of other ports besides the default. Why could someone not just reconfigure their torrent client to use port 993 to download their torrents since I would leave that port open for IMAP mail?


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## threephi (Mar 9, 2011)

I tried downloading a P2P distribution of Thunderbird and some of the seeds were actually using port 80 (according to my netstat). It doesn't look like blocking by port will be of any use because I cannot block basic services such as http, ftp, telnet, etc.

What about some way to block access to the trackers?


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## TheCyberMan (Jun 25, 2011)

If the imap mail is forwarded to your computers ip address only then no problem.

You cannot stop them changing ports on their own machines.

The simple answer i will give you is to agree to removal of all P2P software from all computers and then no problem at all, if you are not sure that everyone will stick to the agreement that is the only foolproof answer.

You could block websites involved thru website blocker in your router as well to prevent downloading but there is probably a lot of sites.


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