BitTorrent Lockdown on OS X. Apps you need.

[ciram]

With the massive increase of BitTorrent popularity over the last couple of years, government organizations such as the RIAA and the MPAA have shifted their lawyer-cannons towards its users. In a recent (still lasting) attack of paranoia I have locked down my system to the point that I feel safe, but have nonetheless not created any unbearable bandwidth bottlenecks.

Your experience may differ, but to save people like me (a lot!) time I've decided break down, for you, my current setup.

This is for the Mac OS X operating system, although, essentially (almost) everything here is cross platform anyway.
I am running Azureus (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/)
I have encryption enabled, with no fallback options.
I am routing tracker connections through TOR
This is part three of a very detailed and informative post on how to do that: (http://paulstamatiou.com/2005/10/14/part-3-azureus-anonymity/) (http://paulstamatiou.com/2005/10/14/part-3-azureus-anonymity/)
I have installed peer guardian (http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/)
Alternatively, if you want this to be Azureus-only, I suggest the SafePeer plugin (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/plugin_details.php?plugin=safepeer)
To check that everything is working the way it should I installed wireshark (formerly ethereal) (http://www.wireshark.org/)
Additionally I have firefox running through TOR when I do anything file sharing related (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)
This plugin let's me quickly switch configuration from TORified to non-TORified, if I need the bandwidth/can't deal with the latency. (http://freehaven.net/~squires/torbutton/ (http://freehaven.net/%7Esquires/torbutton/))
Here's a listing of the settings you can tweak in firefox for a small speed boost when using TOR (http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/FireFoxTorPerf)
This is drastic but if you disable images (content tab in firefox, second checkbox from the top) you will see a big speed boost in your page load times.
Vidalia, the GUI application for managing TOR has an option for "changing idendity". This will often connect you through a faster exit node (apple+I) = faster browsing. Should you require any help with the applications above, or have any other questions, I'll do my best to help you out.

ciram

[thewizeard]

Wouldn't this information be more appropriate on The BitTorrent forum?

That's here http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/f-bittorrent-43/?s=&daysprune=

[Cheese]

Wouldn't this information be more appropriate on The BitTorrent forum?



True. Most people in the Lounge don't use Bittorrent and about half of them aren't even aware that this is a filesharing forum (Mr Mulder, for instance, thinks this is a forum devoted to Fisting Talk).

[ciram]

Yep, whops.
Can I do anything now? Just wait until a mod or admin moves it, eh?

[Beenieman]

Looks interesting will certainly check it out. Thanks

[sketchyca]

bah useless... what's the point to connect to the tracker using TOR? you scares the tracker is owned by the MPAA? The MPAA would be a client on the tracker and would get your real ip by connecting directly to you to get the file... tor is useless unless you use it for all traffic and not just racker but if you get more then 5kb/s your in luck.

[ciram]

bah useless... what's the point to connect to the tracker using TOR? you scares the tracker is owned by the MPAA? The MPAA would be a client on the tracker and would get your real ip by connecting directly to you to get the file... tor is useless unless you use it for all traffic and not just racker but if you get more then 5kb/s your in luck.

Connecting to the trackers through TOR does provide some security especially in connection with your ISP and/or people on your local network.

BTW: Don't use the TOR network for BitTorrent traffic! It can't handle the load!