Virgin Media Broadband Bittorrent restrictions

Kinda need to keep using torrents. I'm a very active member of a private torrent site and I've got the hardware to support the hobby now.

I'm trying to figure out how they can tell it's actually torrent traffic, surely not as simple as changing port numbers?

Got 50mb broadband and was wrecking my brain why I wasn't getting close to the max speend when seen the bittorrent throttle in the T&C's.
 
Cap is active between 5 and midnight week days, midday to midnight weekends.

I am guessing they are using deep packet inspection to look at the packet headers to determine what type of traffic it is. Not seen any easy workaround for torrents, only for newsgroups.
 
What newsgroup work arounds are there??

Instead of using the normal ports of 119 or 563 (for ssl) you can use other ports providing your newsgroup provider has other ports available.

Astraweb, for instance, allows ether ports 1818 or 8080 for non-ssl and 443 for ssl, virgin are not restricting these ports for now.

The other way for both torrents and newsgroups is to schedule downloads for after midnight and before 9am, this way there is no cap or restrictions.

Most programs for newsgroups have a scheduler I assume some torrent programs are the same.

I would say start using newsgroups as they are much safer than torrents and you don't need to upload at all, no sharing involved, just pure full speed downloading.
 
Well thanks very much for that.
I had thought of scheduling d/ls through the night but was unaware of the port.

Cheers
 
interesting reply captin
ive always used torrents [free]
virgin cap you after 1g for 5 hours
so download between 9pm /9am
but ive heard about newsgroups etc
any breakdown on the bandwith speedcaps and cost
 
Guys I can't work it out.

Newsgroup download, port 443, when should I schedule downloads?
And torrents, when should I download?

I am on the Medium package. 10Mbit.
 
Guys I can't work it out.

Newsgroup download, port 443, when should I schedule downloads?
And torrents, when should I download?

I am on the Medium package. 10Mbit.

If you can schedule downloads and can live with it then do that. port 443 generally only seems to work if you newsgroup provider supports SSL. TBH, I would schedule your downloads anyway as you download capped from 4 to 9pm anyway.

No advise on torrents, don't use them.
 
i know m8, they are robbing fookers.

paying for bb, then get slaughtered for using it...
how the fook do they get away with it?????

it's complicated....

there is two sets of rules governing the day.

to be safe...

best to download between midnight and 11 a.m for both...

that way you will get maximum speeds and can downoad as much as you want within reason......

Our traffic management policy
 
If you use torrents look at getting a seedbox. Would solve all your issues, as then it's FTP traffic which is not restricted.

Sent from my cave in Wales
 
Guys I can't work it out.

Newsgroup download, port 443, when should I schedule downloads?
And torrents, when should I download?

I am on the Medium package. 10Mbit.

what newsgroup are you using cause newsvirgin.com only accepts port 119 connections the bestime is midnight till 9am

edogg
 
what newsgroup are you using cause newsvirgin.com only accepts port 119 connections the bestime is midnight till 9am

edogg

astraweb and giganew amongst others accept 443 connections. I know giganews diamond plan also does VPN as well.
 
is there anyway to get round the torrent restrictions?

Cheers
MFCGAVMFC
 
I remember reading about forcing encryption, unsure if it works.

I was a massive user of torrents until I found newsgroups, the same stuff is around but takes a hour or so more to be available.
 
I DL between 9pm and 7am dont have any problems in the daytime with speed I pay for 10 meg and get the usual 3 meg poff the robbin bastards.
 
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