R i g h t a r d i a

Home Network Security
by Wirehead

Rightardia has been reading about an arrangement's between the big Internet Service providers such as AT&T, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America MPAA).

These ISPs are now cooperating with both the RIAA and the MPAA to avoid lawsuits. if you want to see who is monitoring you network, start a file sharing program such as Bittorrent after installing Peerblock on your PC.

According to the Peerblock FAQ:

The short version is: PeerBlock blocks "known bad" computers from accessing yours, and vice versa. Depending on the lists you have it set up to use, you can block governments, corporations, machines flagged for anti-p2p activities, even entire countries! Whether you're sharing files with Bittorrent or just surfing the web, PeerBlock can help protect you from the bad guys.he short version is: PeerBlock blocks "known bad" computers from accessing yours, and vice versa. Depending on the lists you have it set up to use, you can block governments, corporations, machines flagged for anti-p2p activities, even entire countries! . .

You will be amazed on how many trackers are originating form your ISP, corporations and even organizations in foreign countries when you download a torrent.

Torrent programs don't require a sharing folder to work. Once you download a torrent, other users can download the software from your PC.

About.com says this about a Torrent tracker:

Tracker software serves up torrent files for download from a Web site. The tracker maintains information about all BitTorrent clients utilizing each torrent. Specifically, the tracker identifies the network location of each client either uploading or downloading the P2P file associated with a torrent. It also tracks which fragment(s) of that file each client possesses, to assist in efficient data sharing between clients.

BitTorrent clients connect to a tracker when attempting to work with torrent files. The tracker notifies the client of the P2P file location (that is normally on a different, remote server). If the BitTorrent tracker fails or is taken offline, clients will be unable to continue sharing those P2P files. A tracker normally utilizes TCP port 6969 for network communications.

What can you to protect your home network from the police or a civil suit by the MPAA or the RIAA? First reconfigure your router's firewall to block the Gnuttlllea Peer-to-Peer network. Most of the file P2P sharing programs operate on Gnutella. so if you block Gnutella, you block most of the file sharers.

You must block inbound ports from the Internet often called source ports and outbound
ports from your Local Area Network (LAN). This means your must modify two tables in your
firewall.

Blocking the outbound LAN ports are important because it can prevent your
children from being charged for distributing copy righted music or videos.

On the LAN side of the firewall, block Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) ports 6346 -6347 and 8011 to 8102. On the source or inbound table, block TCP ports 6300-6399.

You can also block user Datagram Protocols (UDP) from 1024 to 65535. That is a drastic approach but but your ISP and corporations can track you on any UDP port from 1024–65535.

This is where Peerblock can be useful. Check Peerblock to see what source or inbound ports the government and corporate trackers are using and block them. You will not be able to block all of the UDP ports, but your kids torrent's won't download as fast and they will quickly lose interest in downloading copy righted music or videos.

If you want to download legal files without the government or corporations looking over your shoulder, you have some alternatives.

First you can setup you Internet connections through a proxy server. However, this is not an encrypted connection so your ISP will be able to monitor you. Likewise, if the police think you are doing something illegal, they can subpoena the US company that operates the proxy server for your particulars.

You can also try TOR. TOR is often coupled with Polipo or Privoxy proxy server which allows you to connect to the Onion network. This software was developed by the US Navy and perhaps the NSA to undermine totalitarian governments. You can also install Vidalia to see the nodes on this anonymous network and also get network status. TOR has some insecurities, particularly with torrents. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)

Nonetheless, TOR and the alternative network system JonDonym (Java Anon Proxy, JAP) are considered more resilient than alternatives such as VPNs.

Use a proxy server in a foreign country that does not have reciprocity with the US like Canada, Sweden or Russia. In Canada, in fact, downloading music files is completely legal.

PPTP is built into Windows networking

Another solution to harden your home network would be an encrypted VPN to a provider in a foreign country. Because the link is encrypted, your ISP will not be able to monitor your Internet activity. However, don't kid yourself that the FBI or NSA will not be able to read your traffic. VPN's will work over laptop wireless connections, too.

Windows has the The Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol protocol (PPTP) built into it and there is also another VPN technology called OpenVPN that is even more secure. It works with Windows, Linux, and Mac software.

The latest word is that RIAA is no longer going after home downloaders of music unless you are downloading more than 5,000 files a month, So the RIAA is after the big time music counterfeiters not the causal home music downloader.

Of course, movies are far more expensive propositions. Avatar, for example , is believed to have cost $280 million to make and perhaps even as much as $500 million. If you download a new blockbuster movie, you can expect to be contacted by your ISP and warned of the consequences. If you continue to download movies, you will be sued by the MPAA or have you Internet service terminated, if you are lucky.

For $10 month you can get a Netflix subscription and have access to thousands of movies by a Roku Ethernet/wireless client or by the mail. You can have install four Roku clients in your home under the basic subscription.

This is cheaper than subscribing to HBO, Cinemax or Stars on your cable network.

In summary, you should modify your home router's firewall to black the Gnutella P2P network and torrents. Bring up your file sharing software and Peerblock to check the firewall. Block additional TCP and UDP ports as required,

You have three alternatives to anonymize your network that the writer recommends:

1. a foreign proxy server

2. a foreign VPN

3. TOR

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)