How do I block BitTorrent downloads?

Hi there.
I'm looking for a way to block all BitTorrent traffic from any client via my router settings—if that's even possible. Or, if there's a better workaround entirely. I'm using a Linksys WRT54G.

I’m not entirely certain, but you might want to try disabling BitTorrent

Give THIS a shot

I’m honestly not sure if it’s worth dropping $265—even at the lowest price point—on this one.

Linda Newman83 said:I’m honestly not sure if it’s worth dropping $265—even at the lowest price point—on this one.

I understand, but there is a cracked version available via BitTorrent.🤣😂

Using BitTorrent just to block BitTorrent 🤣

I've combed through every single setting on my Linksys WRT54G, and honestly—nothing I found even remotely resembles what you guys suggested I look for or disable.

Do you think turning off UPnP might actually do something?

Give 😁
a shot.

...for me, it just happened naturally...back when I was in elementary school, people were running torrents until their hard drives were basically choked out, but I never dropped the cash to burn CDs or upgrade to a bigger drive 😁
By the time I hit middle school, I noticed nobody even had BitTorrent installed anymore...most of them had actually made a little pocket money over the summer...so I asked, where's the BitTorrent? ...they tell me they don't need it...if they want a movie, there are tons of sites where you can just stream everything without downloading, and if they ever actually need a program, they'll grab it without needing BitTorrent....basically, the problem solved itself 🙂

Michelle Gonzalez11 said:I've combed through every single setting on my Linksys WRT54G, and honestly—nothing I found even remotely resembles what you guys suggested I look for or disable.

Do you think turning off UPnP might actually do something?

No. As I understand it, UPnP just handles automatic port opening for uploads. Downloads should work perfectly fine regardless.

What can I even say—the person I'm trying to reason with is about as bright as a broken lightbulb. Besides, I don't have access to that computer, and frankly, it worries me; even here in the States, things aren't as loosely regulated as they used to be, and privacy laws can shift overnight. Is there any way to block the ports used by those BitTorrent programs directly through the Linksys WRT54G?

Depends on the router and what firmware you're running. If we actually knew those details, we could give you an answer... but just guessing? Hard to say.

We’re talking about the Linksys WRT54G here—and I've included a few more specifics below:

If we're talking about a standard home router, you aren't going to get much mileage out of it since they usually lack advanced networking features. Then again, it really depends on which specific model you've got.
Regarding the topic at hand: blocking BitTorrent ports isn't going to do much because BitTorrent can run on pretty much any port. Even if you block the standard ones, someone can just switch to any other open port and be back in business.

I'm assuming we're dealing with a typical home user here?

Here are a few alternative ways to handle blocking BitTorrent downloads:

• block access to the big public torrent sites via DNS or by editing the "hosts" file so they can't even reach the site in the first place (as for private trackers, they usually require an invite anyway, but if they have one, you'll need to block those too)
• strip the user of admin rights so they can't install any software, including a BitTorrent client (though that won't help much if they decide to run a portable app)
• throttle the bandwidth available to the user—assuming the router actually supports that feature. Crank it down just enough to allow for smooth web browsing and watching YouTube, but keep it slow enough that any major download would take an absolute eternity

None of that helps me—this router I'm stuck with is clearly such absolute garbage that it only accepts sites starting with www., while everything else just triggers an "invalid URL" error in the URL filter! 🙂

There’s this service called OpenDNS where you can set up an account and basically pick and choose which sites get blocked or allowed. Once you've dialed in your filters, you just need to plug their DNS IP addresses into your router settings.
It’s been a minute since I actually messed around with it, so I’m not entirely sure if they’ve updated the interface or anything lately, but the link is right there if you want to go down the rabbit hole and check it out.

Maria James94 said:There’s this service called OpenDNS where you can set up an account and basically pick and choose which sites get blocked or allowed. Once you've dialed in your filters, you just need to plug their DNS IP addresses into your router settings.
It’s been a minute since I actually messed around with it, so I’m not entirely sure if they’ve updated the interface or anything lately, but the link is right there if you want to go down the rabbit hole and check it out.

This is also incredibly easy to bypass. Just set up an SSL Tunnel or a VPN and you'll have seamless access to everything that's blocked. Why even bother with these restrictions?

Michelle Gonzalez11 said:Hi there.
I'm looking for a way to block all BitTorrent traffic from any client via my router settings—if that's even possible. Or, if there's a better workaround entirely. I'm using a Linksys WRT54G.

Is this question intended for professional use or just for the community?