How To Make P2P Programs to Work on Networks Using a Broadband Router

[Hardware Secrets Team]

There has been a new article posted.

Title: How To Make P2P Programs to Work on Networks Using a Broadband Router
URL: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/423

Here is a snippet:
"If you built your own network using a broadband router, the router will automatically prevent any P2P file sharing program (eMule, Shareaza, etc) from working correctly on your network: it will either..."

Comments on this article are welcome.

Best regards,
Hardware Secrets Team
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com

[danielwritesback]

The action described in the article facilitates P2P software in send out more data, and most installations of this type become a "master" station, with the consequences of dramatically increasing the risks of attracting law enforcement. There may be a shared liability risk involved, so be sure to document each page that this is for theoretical purposes only and not for use where it is prohibited by law.

That's not all it attracts. The action described in the article attracts automated hackers to the now open and publicized portal. The computers assigned to this task will attack by the dozen of dozens, probably slowing your connection to a crawl.
Either the internet services has a multi-firewall to protect you from this and thus your interent speed won't increase, or the settings do work and your internet is attacked and slowed. It takes several days for enough attacks to slow your connection, but it takes several weeks to recover from the mistake.
Even worse are the latest cases of communication type priority logging, whereby you may be permanently added to your internet service provider's "slow down" list because of causing this type of traffic (because of hurting your internet service provider).

It seems that for making P2P programs work on networks using a broadband router, the best case scenario is when you don't succeed.

A paid (establishes contract) proxy service with a heavily encrypted pathway and your P2P scheduler set somewhat errratic, can usually do the job you're trying to do, and this doesn't need a router modification. The endpoint needs to be in a country with strict privacy protection laws, and the service needs to be a paid service so that you are a customer, not a resource.
In effect, then you are renting a computer that is located in a different country. This doesn't help the legality issue at all, but it doesn't "paint your house into a large target" either. The encrypted pathway is a bidirectional networking and much like messenger or email, doesn't require modifying router settings.

Therefore, you can assume that modifying router settings to decrease security features is actually counterproductive. So, let's just turn that firewall back up to full strength and disable the router's UPNP while where at it. The temporary boost in speed from, "riding bareback on the Internet," is not worth any of the troublesome consequences.

Next article in this series: "How to defeat the locks in your own car, while leaving in the keys, and parking in the no-parking zone located in the most crime ridden part of town, while the parking tickets adorn the dash along with your credit cards--because the car has faster access that way."
(something else similar that you don't want to do)

[Gabriel Torres]

Originally Posted by danielwritesback

The action described in the article attracts automated hackers to the now open and publicized portal. The computers assigned to this task will attack by the dozen of dozens, probably slowing your connection to a crawl.

This doesn't make sense, as the P2P connection will be limited to a specific pair of ports (2660 and 2670) and the P2P will limit access to the folders it is sharing. If you have your P2P program configured right, there should be no security concern. The drop in the internet connection speed is expected because you are using your computer as a server and several people will start downloading files from your computer.

Of course if a user shares the whole C: drive than he should be worried. And, of course, downloading files always can lead to virus, but you always can configure your P2P program to automatically scan downloaded files.

Gabriel.