Is it possible for ISPs to block torrents??

[Lucky_star]

I am not able to download any torrents since last two weeks. None of the clients Azureus, Bitcomet or uTorrent is working. I tried forwarding the ports.
Whatever the number of seeds be, the speeds are not exceeding 2-5 KB/s while they used to stay around 29-31 KB/s earlier. But there is no problem in http or ftp downloads.

I have a 256 kbps Cable DSL connection from Ortel Communications, here in bhubaneswar. My friends who have the same ISP are also facing the same problem, while BSNL guys are having full fledged downloads

I think, my ISP has blocked torrents. Is it possible??

Please help....

[Choto Cheeta]

Originally Posted by Lucky_star

I think, my ISP has blocked torrents. Is it possible??

yup... in many Area Sify blocks Torrents but its not legal to block torrents if u can proof, u can sue them big time

[varunprabhakar]

try encrypting in utorrent and see if tht helps

[chicha]

Originally Posted by Choto Cheeta

yup... in many Area Sify blocks Torrents but its not legal to block torrents if u can proof, u can sue them big time

^ i think its illegal too. but sue in india? did any one here really do that?

[QwertyManiac]

Your ISP is blocking all ports now. Call them up and ask them to open some port for you, and if they give some lame reason that they can't, go to the consumer court cause they really are blocking.

I wish FCC were present in India too, they'd make all ISPs go straight. Comcast's under watch now for throttling torrent downloads. In India, many ISPs block ports to save on costs, including Iqara, Sify, Ortel (now?) and a few local others.

But yes, enabling encryption _might_ help you get past the block.

[Lucky_star]

Originally Posted by Choto Cheeta

yup... in many Area Sify blocks Torrents but its not legal to block torrents if u can proof, u can sue them big time

Sue them?? Well, I think that may not be that easy and as Chicha said, this is India where everything is theoretically possible, and Orissa being the worst of them. But who wants to meddle with them anyway. Customer care and tech support doesn't know a hell about what's a torrent and all.
But how can I give the proof? The problem is only with torrents.

Originally Posted by varunprabhakar

try encrypting in utorrent and see if tht helps

Will try that today.

Originally Posted by QwertyManiac

Your ISP is blocking all ports now. Call them up and ask them to open some port for you, and if they give some lame reason that they can't, go to the consumer court cause they really are blocking.
...

So, they are doing it this way?? Blocking ports? Will try to call the CC and say them to Open up the ports. Hope that the guys over there understand what I mean. They don't know a single word other than "sir"

Thinking of Shifting to BSNL.

[QwertyManiac]

But if they now have it written down in their policies and agreement statement that they will block ports, then you don't have a case against them, cause they'd say they clearly stated it. (You could still use the RTI for not being informed about policy changes I guess?)

If they don't have it, you're gonna be happy

[Lucky_star]

^^Thanx for that info. Well, I will discuss this with my friends then. Their website shows no terms and conditions

[Maverick340]

Even some ISPs in Delhi like Hathway are upto dirty tricks of this sort. Or itts maybe the handiwork or the local guy who has taken a hathway leased line.
He has blocked torrents (but music "works" fine ) and sites like Google also dont open .. :-/

[Choto Cheeta]

Sueing in India has only one problem that is the time takes on our consumer court !!! nothing else is different, the compensation after the case (if you win) is healthy too

This is not theoretical knowledge I am sharing, I have practical exp

[Lucky_star]

I have read about that person who had sued Sify once. He had won the case.

Time.. time is the major problem with me here. This is my final semester and in 3-4 months time, I will be out of this place. I want to use my connection till then at least. Same is the case with all my other friends who have taken Ortel Cable connection

[vish786]

@lucky star..
call them & tell those nerds to put on computer technician, he'll be of much help...
tell him to open ports if tats possible.

[Lucky_star]

^^Yeah, today I had tried. But there CC was dead. I mean, they have set something. Whenever there are some regular complaints, they keep the call in waiting mode whole day

Will try again tomorrow.

[ax3]

here, it not easy 2 sue ..... u just get dates pe dates [eng translation] ....

it should b like in sweden when GOVT blocked or STOLE torrent\ppl running servers ...... ppl\ students just protested & it worked .....

[VexByte]

In India, I've not heard of any ISPs blocking torrents.

I don't know about Sify though !

[legolas]

Is it possible for ISPs to block torrents??

Either that or Sony offered me an AI laptop for 1300€!!

They usually block the ports in the router so that it becomes impossible to locate you for other peers in torrents. Encryption works to some extent with downloading, but uploading still would not improve i guess. If you have an ethernet card based connection or USB with router/modem, then you should ask them to guide you with the router configuration web site and allow full access and open certain ports of your choice.

good luck,
legolas.