Comments for Can my ISP turn off my modem if I use bittorrent?

Comment from Ajax on 2009-11-18

2009-11-18T09:38:24Z

My service was shut down. I had an actiontec PK5000 wireless router recently installed. The service was temorarily shut down, and I received a 1st warning phone call from a man who said I was downloading copyrighted media files. I asked him what files, and he said, ones you do not have the copyright to, like movies and music. He was unwilling to give specifics. I spoke to a friend who told me that ISPs ARE allowed to search your physical hardrive up to 3 files deep. He also said I had to undownload all these files. I said, what do you mean, undownload, don't you mean erase? undownloading is impossible." He said" you have to undownload these files"
Anyhow, now I am paranoid and [edited] deep in research on what these people can see on my computer and trying to figure out if I can get away with any torrent use at all... Encryption... tor??? Throttling uploads... not sure what will work. What if one of these media companies is spying on me via a piece of spyware??? Is any of this espionage legal, and if so, why?

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A comment on: Can my ISP turn off my modem if I use bittorrent?

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Comment from chris on 2009-08-25

2009-08-26T00:12:11Z

i was given the same warning isp turn off my connection same as christy.

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A comment on: Can my ISP turn off my modem if I use bittorrent?

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Comment from Christy on 2009-01-24

2009-01-24T14:37:56Z

My ISP turn off my internet connection because of bittorent downloading. They informed me a Paramount monitor had contacted them stating I was downloading movies via bittorent. I was informed to remove my torrent downloading program & given a 1st offense warning!

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A comment on: Can my ISP turn off my modem if I use bittorrent?

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Comment from Jacqueline G Scott on 2008-12-19

2008-12-20T00:32:31Z

So from what I have read so far is that my dsl provider can shut down my ip because I'm using a bittorrent program which has happen to me and then I have to wait aleast 2 hrs to get back on is there anything I can do to prevent this

Switch providers? Contact your provider and see if there's a service class you could pay for that would allow you to use your connection more heavily? I'm sure that the bittorrent folks have ways to disguise the bittorrent connections as well.

- Leo
20-Dec-2008

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A comment on: Can my ISP turn off my modem if I use bittorrent?

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Comment from RJ on 2008-09-09

2008-09-09T20:15:12Z

Another thing to note is that you can manually throttle Bittorrent so that it does not consume your full bandwidth. The settings vary from program to program, but if the problem is related to your modem crashing due to high usage, I'd recommend trying to lower Bittorrent's output first.

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A comment on: Can my ISP turn off my modem if I use bittorrent?

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Comment from Chris on 2008-09-03

2008-09-04T01:26:13Z

Make sure you aren't using the default port in your torrent application. Same goes if you are running any type of server. Most ISP's don't like servers and file sharing applications and will block all default ports that are used. A likely port to be blocked is Port 21 (for FTP Servers) and so on.

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A comment on: Can my ISP turn off my modem if I use bittorrent?

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Comment from Mike on 2008-09-03

2008-09-03T15:24:26Z

uTorrent can encrypt your bittorrent traffic, so your ISP won't recognize them (I don't know for other clients).

That can help some, but there are other techniques ISPs can use to analyse your traffic besides looking at the content of your packets. (Port usage analysis and blocking are the next most common.)

-Leo

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A comment on: Can my ISP turn off my modem if I use bittorrent?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Ray on 2008-09-02

2008-09-02T18:19:38Z

Another method I've seen, which my ISP has been employing for a couple of years and is a variant of disruption, is forced assigned IP address change.

Most broadband users are dynamically assigned an IP address by their ISP every time they connect. Usually this address doesn't change during an online session: most ISPs specify a minimum "time out" period over which the address is "guaranteed" not to change, typically 24 hours.

If an ISP detects traffic that they don't like, or just an extended period of high volume, they can force your assigned IP address to change. This will terminate most P2P connections like Skype and force bit torrent clients to re-initialize their peer connections.

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A comment on: Can my ISP turn off my modem if I use bittorrent?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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