Port blocking doesn't seem to work...

[LuminaryJanitor]

I'm sharing a net connection with my brother over a wireless network. The problem is he's got BitTorrent running every spare second, which completely paralyses the connection on my end (even if it's only using a tenth of the bandwidth, chances are I'll get a timeout on google.com ).

I recently set up a service on our Netgear DG834G wireless router to block his BitTorrent port (so that I can stop his downloads without running the risk of walking in on him jerking off in front of the computer / boning his girlfriend). This worked for all of about twleve hours, and now it just gets completely ignored.

Any ideas as to what the hell is going on?

 

[PTNL]

sounds like he changed his bittorrent client to use a more common port, such as port 80. given the details provided, this makes the most sense to me as to what happened.

i'm not familiar with the features of that netgear model, but some options that may be available are:
- QoS
- url / keyword blocking

if this netgear unit does not offer the features you want, then look into something better with at least QoS.

alternatively, if your brother is significantly smaller than you, then the "free" solution is to impose the "i'm big, you're small" rule

 

[MorfiusX]

The problem with the cheapo routers/firewalls is they do not do application layer filtering. You can keep blocking ports, but unless you block it at the application layer, he can just change it to another port that you do allow.

 

[AMD[H]unter]

If you had a WRTxxx series router, you could get a third-party firmware to block by application. As it stands, you really don't have any options except something like an IPCop, ClarkConnect, or m0n0wall setup. Unless you want to get a WRT, and get the DD-WRT firmware put on it.

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

He hasn't changed the port, which is what has me so confused...

And for the record, it's started working again this morning, for the first time in two weeks

...some options that may be available are:
- QoS
- url / keyword blocking

Can't find anything QoS-related in there... How exactly can you apply keyword blocking to a torrent client?

As it stands, you really don't have any options except something like an IPCop, ClarkConnect, or m0n0wall setup.

Too bad I don't have any spare PCs lying around...