Onr thing I ran into is apparent ISP speed throttling when they detect a torrent is in use. Any time I had torrent connections running, even though they have light bandwidth requirements, my internet connection became very slow.
This affected web browsing, but I was also concerned it might be affecting streaming quote data, so I stopped using torrents, and the slow down problem went away. I have read many accounts of ISPs throttling speed on accounts running torrents. Apparently this is some sort of a heavy handed discouragement technique. Rik Rasmussen On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 12:30 PM, Ken Close <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have asked this question various places and have gotten no answers. > Google searches do not reveal anything. Perhaps someone here knows the > answer--if there is an answer. > > I want to know if the use of Torrent (BitTorrent, UTorrent, etc) clients > exposes one to a severe security risk. As I understand the newbie > explanations I have read, torrent clients break up a requested torrent file > into "pieces" and various peers (other computers) send you pieces of the > requested file. Your torrent program collects and "assembles" the pieces > and you have the completed file. In turn, you have to leave your computer > "open" to others so the torrent program can share "pieces" of the file on > your computer with others. > > Thus my question: with your computer being "open" to all those using > torrent clients, are you at risk of a hack attack on the other private data > on your computer? A related question is: can you be more (totally?) secure > if you devote one computer on your home network to torrent collection and do > not have sharing on for any of the other computers on your network--sort of > isolating the torrent-collecting computer? > > I am interested in all of this because more and more legitimate, legal > material is being shared over the net via torrent downloads. I would like > to avail myself of some of this legal content but do not yet understand the > risks. > > Any comments? > > Thanks, > Ken > >
