How do I block Limewire, etc., using my router?

Esh

I know my roommate is absolutely destroying my internet connection by using Limewire and other file sharing programs. What services do I need to block using my Linksys Router to shut her out of using those programs?

Thanks!

Blake T

Step 1. Put down your handbag and stop being a pussy.

Step 2. Confront her about it and tell her a stop.

Echo

No really good way to do that with generic crappy home/office router, since they can rarely do traffic shaping.

Blocking ports won't really work with modern clients either.

Esh

Blaket wrote: »

Step 1. Put down your handbag and stop being a pussy.

Step 2. Confront her about it and tell her a stop.

I did and she's like "I don't know what you're talking about!".

I know the minute I changed the password and it shut her out my connection went from total garbage to how it should be.

I'd rather just block her out rather than totally shutting her out from the service.

Kriz

ask her what she uses limewire for, and show her how to use less bandwidth intensive streaming alternatives (radioblogclub for music, youtube/googlevideo/dailymotion/veoh/stage6 for video).

DevoutlyApathetic

Is her computer new or is it a hand me down? She might very well not know it's running all that crap.

If you're router can be firmware flashed their are definitely ways to get QoS running.

taliosfalcon

well..you could block *every* udp packet heading towards her mac address...although that may also have the undesired side effect of killing pretty much everything but web browsing

edit: and yeah, as devoutly said if you have an early model wrt54g or a wrt54gl custom firmware will take care of it no problem

Blake T

Esh wrote: »

Blaket wrote: »

Step 1. Put down your handbag and stop being a pussy.

Step 2. Confront her about it and tell her a stop.

I did and she's like "I don't know what you're talking about!".

I know the minute I changed the password and it shut her out my connection went from total garbage to how it should be.

I'd rather just block her out rather than totally shutting her out from the service.

Fair enough then.

Are you the one paying the bill? Block her off completely until she's willing to limit her consumption during people-hours. Set up azerus or uTorrent to only download between X and X and shape the limewire speed to something reasonable.

If she refuses this steal all her underwear and shoes and hold them to ransom.

mspencer

Don't block all UDP going to her computer. DNS uses UDP/53. Without DNS her computer won't be able to take names of hosts (like www.msn.com) and find what IP addresses to connect to.

Most routers are capable of simple firewall rulesets like: block all traffic except for these ports.

You need to allow:

UDP/53, which is DNS
TCP/80, which is WWW
TCP/443, which is SSL
TCP/21, which is FTP
TCP/25, which is SMTP (outgoing email)
TCP/110, which is POP3 (incoming email)
TCP/143, which is IMAP (also email)

The problem with this is that you might have programs you use stop working, so you'll have to learn what port numbers those programs use and unblock those as well.

Esh

mspencer wrote: »

Don't block all UDP going to her computer. DNS uses UDP/53. Without DNS her computer won't be able to take names of hosts (like www.msn.com) and find what IP addresses to connect to.

Most routers are capable of simple firewall rulesets like: block all traffic except for these ports.

You need to allow:

UDP/53, which is DNS
TCP/80, which is WWW
TCP/443, which is SSL
TCP/21, which is FTP
TCP/25, which is SMTP (outgoing email)
TCP/110, which is POP3 (incoming email)
TCP/143, which is IMAP (also email)

The problem with this is that you might have programs you use stop working, so you'll have to learn what port numbers those programs use and unblock those as well.

I personally don't use any file sharing programs (seriously), so it's not a big deal if everyone is shut out. The internet is just used for browsing, email, IMing, and WoWing. How do I block all ports except these?

HallowedFaith

Well if "She doesn't know."
Go into her computer and delete all the shit that doesn't need to be there.
Solved.

It's much easier than trying to block modern random-port based software that is likely to end up fucking your other connections up anyway. (If you don't know networking, take my word for it)

zanetheinsane

Much like civilized people, my roommate and I actually talk about it. It's one of those things were if it's a torrent, we agree to a 5~10k up limit to keep it alive (because rejoining a swarm blows sometimes).

For other things, when we're both here and not at work or asleep, it's on a basis. "Hey are you using the internets? No? Ok, I'm going to go crazy with this download", etc.

Then again, I know how oblivious people are about technical issues if they have no fucking clue. It's like trying to explain to someone at a LAN you're hosting why they need to leave their 22" CRT at home and why you can just "plug it into any outlet" AMPS CIRCUITS FUCK. Flashbacks.

urahonky

Could also be a horrible spyware problem.

I had the same issue with my roommate. I logged onto her computer, and I could almost see the spyware going around her computer.

So I wiped the computer, and set her up on a limited account in WindowsXP and everything works fine.

OT: It's going to be a bitch to setup the router to block limewire. Since the only real way is to block HER internet. You could find the port that Limewire uses to download from, and block that port... so her downloads will be stuck at 1kb/s so your bandwidth isn't being used. But the real problem would be upload.

Omnimon

My roommate and I had a similar discussion, although he came out and said he was using torrents.

End-all-be-all is to limit up and down speeds. If he lets them loose and I'm using the internet I just drop the wireless connection (I'm hard-wired), and in my mind's eye I see him all in his room.

flammiebc

I was in a five-person apartment with 3 avid torrent users; for obvious reasons, this pretty much rendered the internet unusable for large periods of time.

If you don't want to deal with blocking ports, you can use a software traffic limiter on the computers themselves - programs like Netlimiter can set limits for both DL and UL.

Of course, this won't help you if your router itself is struggling with the massive number of connections p2p stuff usually puts on it, but that's another story.

mspencer

Esh wrote: »

mspencer wrote: »

Don't block all UDP going to her computer. DNS uses UDP/53. Without DNS her computer won't be able to take names of hosts (like www.msn.com) and find what IP addresses to connect to.

Most routers are capable of simple firewall rulesets like: block all traffic except for these ports.

You need to allow:

UDP/53, which is DNS
TCP/80, which is WWW
TCP/443, which is SSL
TCP/21, which is FTP
TCP/25, which is SMTP (outgoing email)
TCP/110, which is POP3 (incoming email)
TCP/143, which is IMAP (also email)

The problem with this is that you might have programs you use stop working, so you'll have to learn what port numbers those programs use and unblock those as well.

I personally don't use any file sharing programs (seriously), so it's not a big deal if everyone is shut out. The internet is just used for browsing, email, IMing, and WoWing. How do I block all ports except these?

That's specific to your router. What kind do you use? I'll go find the manual and give you a quick how-to. You may have to wait another day for me to get back to you though. Or someone else can.

Be firm with people, though. The ruleset I have above essentially says "block everything except for these known kinds of web/email/ftp ports." Other people were telling you that you don't want to get involved in playing whack-a-mole with port numbers, blocking most P2P programs. With what I proposed above, there is no whack-a-mole. This is a good place to start.

tsmvengy

Yeah, I would just talk to her about it, and let her know that there are ways to set up those programs so that they work well for her but don't crap out everyone else's internet. I lived in a house where there were 3 of us torrenting all the time, but if we left a 5-10kb window of upload open, then the internet worked great for everyone else.