Re: p2p, anonymity and security

[Greg Rundlett]

Bill Mullen wrote: I have no experience with other P2P apps than BitTorrent (and no interest in them, really), but I can tell you that to get the most out of BT, you need to tell your router to forward ports 6881 through 6889 inclusive to the internal machine running BT. You also need to limit the upload rate to no more than about 60-70% of your upstream bandwidth, or the inability to send packets in a timely fashion will choke your download speeds - and not just the BT d/l speed, but everything else on the box (browsing, etc.). How the upload rate is limited will vary from client to client; with the ncurses client, it's a command-line option (--max_upload_rate). I have no idea how this is done with MLdonkey, nor do I know if it can support the range of open ports that BT requires for proper (IOW, fast) operation. Thanks You may have better luck with another client for the BitTorrent stuff - one that is more specifically tailored to BT, and not one that "tacks it on". Actually, MLDonkey 'speaks' BitTorrent, so it handles it well, I just haven't read through all that I need to yet. So, my first question...Is a Linksys Router doing 'firewall' duty and NAT easy to get past? If the answer is yes, then what should I do? Use a firewall-specific distro to convert my old P133MHz box into a Linux firewall? Maybe someone wants $100 to come over and show me how it's done? (location Newburyport, MA or E. Kingston, NH) It should be acting as a reasonably effective firewall, and should only be permeable on those specific ports you have left open /and/ forwarded to an internal system. Should you opt to replace it with Linux, I've had great results with SmoothWall (http://www.smoothwall.org), which is very easy to install, works on low-spec systems, and has a browser-based interface. It also includes the Squid proxy, and Snort for intrusion detection/logging. [snip] HTH! Yes, thanks again. -- FREePHILE We are 'Open' for Business Free and Open Source Software http://www.freephile.com (978) 270-2425 Netscape has crashed