I
I got some instructions on how to maximize your privacy when downloading via bittorrent clients on this page.
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1757033/11565147/
Protocol encryption (PE) & Message stream encryption (MSE)PE and MSE are implemented in the BT clients Azureus, µTorrent, BitComet, KTorrent and Mainline.PE and MSE are protocol obfuscation methods, they use a D-H key exchange combined with the info hash of the torrent to establish the key, then it uses RC4 to encrypt the data.The D-H key exchange helps to minimize the risk of passive listeners, and the info hash helps avoid man-in-the-middle attacks. RC4 is chosen for its speed. The first kilobyte of the RC4 output is discarded to prevent a particular attack.The specification allows the users to choose between encrypting the headers only or the full connection. Encrypting the full connection provides more obfuscation but uses more CPU time.However, only Azureus and µTorrent beta 1.4.1 build 413 or older lets the user choose. All other clients default to full encryption.
To ensure compatibility with other clients that don't support this specification, users may also choose whether unencrypted incoming or outgoing connections are still allowed.All supported clients will enable encryption automatically if they receive an encrypted incoming connection even if outgoing encryption is disabled.
1. Go to: Options > Preferences > Bittorrent2. Go to ‘Protocol encryption’, you can choose between ‘enabled’ and ‘forced’. ‘Enabled’ will give you more connections but offers less protection against traffic shapers.
Its recommend to try ‘enabled’ first, if that doesn’t increase your speeds you need to swich to ‘forced’.3. Ticking ‘Allow legacy incoming connections’ allows non ecrypted clients to connect to you. This improves compatibility between clients but makes you more vulnerable to traffic shapers.
Does this actually work as he stated or is it a bunch of bull? or some other sort of encryption that doesn't work in the same way that he stated?
EDIT: My bad about posting in the wrong section.
No idea if it works, but as its enabled by default I haven't noticed the drawbacks either.Also, if I were a traffic shaper, I'd also intercept the data between tracker (a hotlist with known tracker urls) and the client, decode it (it's not encoded as far as I know) and make sure all communication between the IPs in the peers list and the user is 'shaped'. Who cares how it's encoded, as long as it is encoded. It's generally user-to-user communication, so users will hardly notice when browsing or chatting.
B
Hmmm,, so it's better to leave the protocol encryption in "forced" mode?
L
not generally, as it reduces the number of connections you can get.
