is there anyway i can find out if someone is downloading torrents in my house?

My housemate denies it, the internet is so slow when hes here…

as soon as him and his laptop are gone the net is super fast?
is there anyway i can find out if he has without getting onto his computer??

look at the lights on the router/modem – lots of flashing = lots of download.

Why would you want to?

Just block the P2P ports on your Router ?

look over his shoulder

own his laptop with bombers

Depends how configurable your router is.

You should be able to limit the bandwidth associated to different IP address’s on the network.

If it’s slow when he’s in and he’s genuinely not hammering the connection, it could be an infection on his machine.

You might be able to pull logs from the router, depending on what router you have.

Who does the router belong to,and what sort is it?
Ian

Yes there is[/url]

Is it your router, though? As in: do you have any right to decide what he does / doesn’t do with the bandwidth?

And it might not be P2P: I’m guessing watching videos online, Spotify, heavy porn use would all have a similar effect.

Might not be torrenting, could be watching iplayer HD, skype in HD any other video streaming etc can be demanding on bandwidth.

Do they watch a lot of telly on their computer? If so they’re getting it somewhere.

Knock on his door when the internet is slow.

If he takes ages to open the door and looks a bit red in the face/sweaty, then there’s a good chance he spend his evenings fapping away whilst using up your bandwidth.

If your connection isn’t great to start with, 2 computers will drag it down a lot.

Assuming you’re using Wifi you’d need to connect a Hub between the Wifi Router and the Cable modem (not a switch) and then use Wireshark on your laptop to look at the traffic between the two devices and then know enough about Ethernet & IP and P2P traffic to know what to look for.. If you see a lot of different destination IPs and UDP flows then it could well be P2P stuff – there is no obvious ‘bittorrent’ header….

Another option is to configure the wifi router to block all ports bar the bare necessity eg 80 for Http but this will also stop lots of other stuff eg games, Skype etc

You can use OpenDNS which has some reporting available. Might give you a better idea of what’s going on, and if you want to play policeman, you can block sites using it too.

In my netgear router / modem thing admin screen there is a ‘Connected devices’ menu item that lists all the ips.

After switching off the spare computer, NAS, laptops, Wii, Xbox, phones finally narrowed one down to the Digital Radio in the kitchen.

Why would you want to?

Well for one he’s eating up allowance and too if there illegal torrents then it won’t be his flat mate who gets in trouble if they decide use him as an example.

If you have access to your router there may be a log as mentioned, you can even block selected sites with some routers.

its our house router, we split the cost of the internet, …were all uni students.. he isnt!!

oh and whoever has their name on the internet bill will be liable for prosecution for anything illegal!!

oh and whoever has their name on the internet bill will be liable for prosecution for anything illegal!!

That’s not true. However if a record company or one of their stooges decides to sue, then you’d be the easiest target.

probably donkey/midget pr0n, 24×7

If your internet connection is with TALKTAlK, they will refuse to give up your details to the media industry.

If your internet connection is with TALKTAlK, they will refuse to give up your details to the media industry.

For now, but the bill has been passed. Once the details are sorted later this year then it will be UK law. They can refuse but risk legal implications.

And it will be the bill payer who is liable, it is their responsibility to police their own network. Weak protection or lack of control will not be sufficient defence. It will be up to them to prove who made which connection from their network or face the consequences.

It’s not the download that will kill the speed of the internet – it’s the UPLOADS of their torrents/data.

You should be able to block the ports (look at the Firewall settings of the router).

We have the ports open/close on a timer, as someone in our house can’t be trusted – so we enforce the rule of torrents only between 1am – 6am.

Nowt he can do.

Also use OpenDNS, which has provided some interesting searching habits…. which is useful for blackmailing 😉

Also use OpenDNS, which has provided some interesting searching habits…. which is useful for blackmailing

Which can also be easily bypassed. 😉

Milkie – Member
Also use OpenDNS, which has provided some interesting searching habits…. which is useful for blackmailing

Which can also be easily bypassed.

Only the router is allowed outbound/inbound Port 53, so changing your local DNS settings does nothing.

Not so easy to bypass… 😉

Google books

That’s not true. However if a record company or one of their stooges decides to sue, then you’d be the easiest target.

You just keep telling yourself that and all will be fine.