Setting Up Your Bit Torrent Software: Client Configurations

Bit-torrent clients are quickly becoming the preferred peer-to-peer filesharing applications to be used, mainly due to their high speed download abilities. Bit-torrent applications are capable of downloading at much higher speeds than network based peer-to-peer software such as Limewire or Frostwire which both rely on the gnutella network.

The mistake that most first-time bit-torrent client users experience is that they do not configure their software properly which, according to software developers, limits both the upload and download speed of your software. However, there are certain security risks brought on by configuring these programs the way intended and by configuring applications more for security, download speeds are generally not that much slower. If an application is configured more for security then that application won't be able to receive connections via the trackerless (DHT) network but files can still be seeded and uploaded in the normal way.

The correct way to configure a bit-torrent client, such as Bitcomet, is to configure your modem/router to forward (open) a listening port to receive inbound connections from other users software and configure your firewall to allow incoming connections through this port. The only problem with opening up a port is that you will be willfully accepting incoming connections from various IP addresses from anywhere in the world. Unless you use an IP blocklist you are then just about guaranteed to have bad IP ranges connecting directly to your computer. IP blocklists only tend to block out about 80% of bad IP ranges at maximum. Despite a lot of speculation on this issue, you are only as secure as the program listening on that port.

If your bit-torrent software is accepting inbound connections then it needs to be monitoring every single IP address's activity to ensure that there is nothing untoward occurring, then banning any IP address that may have risks associated with it. However, there are no bit-torrent clients that state that this procedure is performed and even if they did, there is still a huge risk. There are now a lot of fake files and virus torrents being hosted on torrent websites, mainly put in place by governments in an attempt to deter filesharers. Many of these government agencies will use a reconfigured bit-torrent client to try to make a direct connection to your computer. Should they find you downloading one of their files who's to say what sort of thing they are capable of once they have established that direct connection. Governments have access to a lot more advanced software than home users and they may be even keep track of all the IP addresses that the hosted file has received hits from. Should you be attempting to download copyrighted material, they may then send out a government warning to your internet service provider (ISP) for you, warning you to stop downloading or be cut off. They could also infect the files with specially crafted software that, once downloaded, allows them access to your computer. Governments may have the legal right to develop this kind of software. Eventually they may be picked up by security software as being malicious or may potentially be detected using heuristic scanning.

Software such as Bitcomet suggests at startup, if you are using XP Service Pack 2, that you should patch your TCP/IP limit and allow between 50-200 half-open (unestablished) connections. In Service Pack 2 there is a default security limit of ten half-open connections per second. This limit is put in place to stop malicious virii and worms spreading infections over the internet in large volumes. Of course, if you have an open port and someone that is connected to you is making a large volume of unestablished connections directly to your IP address then how are you going to determine whether this is a genuine connection or a worm trying to find its way into the open port? The answer is you can't.

Patching the TCP/IP limit is an old technique and was originally intended for use on dial-up connections because they are so slow. On faster broadband connections the technique/patch is pretty much redundant as it will probably only help to make your initial connection to your peers a little faster at startup. Half-open/unestablished connections are only going to be dropped in the end anyway and it will probably therefore be more likely to slow things down. If a machine is infected and has been turned into a spambot, then it will attempt to make large volumes of half-open connections in order to spread infection quicker. Remember, it's better to be safe than sorry.

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