Received a letter from Virgin Media.

[Kristoph]

Hey,

Received a letter today from Virgin Media and BPI saying a file had been downloaded from my IP.

I've spoken to all of my uni housemates and we've found out who downloaded it, I've discussed it with them and I don't think they'll be doing it again.

I also phoned Virgin Media Security and discussed the situation with them, which they seemed pleased with and have put a note on my account saying that I have reacted and will be making an attempt to educate my housemates.


I'm worried that it might happen again though, I've told the individual that she might be unknowingly uploading the file when the programs load at startup.

Is there any site or info on blocking the ports associated with p2p networks, or maybe even any software that could be added to the router.

Router is a Netgear WG614v9.

 

[lopkinfop]

you could block all ports and only allow the ones you want for specific applications

 

[Kristoph]

I've just blocked several ports associated with p2p programs, have also blocked certain sites.

 

[Dist]

Torrent clients can choose to use whatever port they want, so specificaly blocking their ports wont realy help. If you disable uPnP and dont forward any ports to the person using p2p, that should limit them from using torrents quite a bit, if not stop them completely.

 

[Kristoph]

Torrent clients can choose to use whatever port they want, so specificaly blocking their ports wont realy help. If you disable uPnP and dont forward any ports to the person using p2p, that should limit them from using torrents quite a bit, if not stop them completely.

Thanks, I'll disable it now.

Would doing that have any other effect on the network?

 

[Dist]

Basicaly uPnP allows programs run on the LAN to open up ports themselves. If you host websties and such on your LAN, then without uPnP all it means is that you will have to use port forwarding to specificaly forward that port. If you dont host any services on your LAN that would be visible to the internet, then disabling uPnP wont cause any issues.

Disabling uPnP also helps with security a little, as it means mallicious programs wont be able to open whatever port they want.

 

[Kristoph]

Basicaly uPnP allows programs run on the LAN to open up ports themselves. If you host websties and such on your LAN, then without uPnP all it means is that you will have to use port forwarding to specificaly forward that port. If you dont host any services on your LAN that would be visible to the internet, then disabling uPnP wont cause any issues.

Disabling uPnP also helps with security a little, as it means mallicious programs wont be able to open whatever port they want.

Thanks for that.

I have 5 active services from my IP using uPnP currently, I have no idea what it is thats running though?

 

[Dist]

have a look what ports are being used, that may give you an idea of what is using it.

 

[username]

Ask them to prove which member of the authorised users on your home network downloaded the file and ask them to prosecute that person

 

[mmorpheus1]

Tell them to go away and stop hassling you and spend their efforts on catching the pervs that look for child porn or you will switch to sky.

As soon as you mention sky they will probably give you a discount and increase you broadband speed just to stop you leaving.

Either that or cut you off

 

[doozer]

Opendns is fairly effective at blocking torrents.

If you route your router to use that you can setup lists with a lot of the major torrent sites on and block those.

Also from memory you can block via a section that blocks p2p although I'm sure I tried that and it also blocks sites like rapidshare.

 

[seaviewuk]

Ask them to prove which member of the authorised users on your home network downloaded the file and ask them to prosecute that person

They will not entertain that.

The Virgin account holder is responsible for everything that takes place on his network.

 

[encephalopathy]

i see now that piratebay and possibly other trackers are inserting random IPs into pool of users sharing a torrent. pretty unlucky for you if your ip was randomly associated with a torrent that was tracked by eg BPI and you were fingered, but possibly could be used as a get out clause.....

 

[bledd]

what type of file btw?

 

[FordPrefect]

They will not entertain that.

The Virgin account holder is responsible for everything that takes place on his network.

That might be the case for virgin deciding whether to cut someone off etc. But as for the actual law and prosecuting someone for downloading torrents there is no law that says the account holder is ultimately responsible and as far as I have been made aware no precedent or case law that backs up this common assertion by the BPI and other trade organisations. Although in a civil case you would not have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt so merely saying well it could have someone else might not work, as the case is judged on the balance of possibilities.

As for the original question without some seriously expensive hardware or maybe a complicated linux setup then its absurdly easy to bypass the ip filters on a domestic router and instructions can be found on how to do this on the internet.

Ultimately you have to speak to the people you are sharing with and get there agreement not to do naughty things and if they dont agree disconnect them and tell them to get their own internet connection.

 

[Kristoph]

what type of file btw?

It was an mp3, "Westlife - You are so beautiful to me" - to be precise.

Was a single file, and the individual who downloaded it admitted to it 15mins after I asked everyone in the house about it.

I'm hoping it won't happen again, and even if it does, make sure it's something decent.

 

[ins0mn1ac]

Ha! great song to be caught with!

 

[Edinho]

It was an mp3, "Westlife - You are so beautiful to me" - to be precise.

haha PMSL

The first day in jail, "So what you in for?"

"I downloaded a Westlife track. You?"

"I murdered 20 people and eat them"

And people wonder why the worlds ****ed up.

Time to go back to newsgroups me thinks.

 

[Kristoph]

haha PMSL

The first day in jail, "So what you in for?"

"I downloaded a Westlife track. You?"

"I murdered 20 people and eat them"

And people wonder why the worlds ****ed up.

Time to go back to newsgroups me thinks.

Haha

It wasn't me though. The program that was used was Ares. Turns out it's my extremely shy Vietnamese housemate who had downloaded it. I warned her not to use those types of programs again.

If I ever download anything, it's via RS and passworded archives over port 80.

 

[Edinho]

Turns out it's my extremely shy Vietnamese housemate who had downloaded it..