Bittorrent Encrypted Downloaders Hit Wall

Besides the popular (and increasingly defunct) peer-to-peer music downloading programs like Kazaa and Napster, perhaps now the most widely-known file transfer system is BitTorrent. The distribution protocol originally designed by Bram Cohen was created for the purpose of providing huge amounts of data without incurring ridiculous costs to local bandwidth. Want clarity on that? Check out wikiPedia.org for the whole sha-bang on BitTorrent and why it's primarily used for illegal downloading. (Source: wikipedia.org)

With all of that said, new measures are becoming available for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to crack down on the amount of traffic from encrypted BitTorrent junkies. Although in the past companies could detect BitTorrent usage, they had much more trouble detecting the encrypted variety.

That is, until now.

Allot Communications, a company whose purpose is to optimize Internet Provider service, has developed a machine capable of detecting said encrypted BitTorrent traffic. The newest version of NetEnforcer can filter through hundreds of applications and protocols, giving the ISP using it the ability to detect subscriber behaviour and effectively take control of Internet traffic (bandwidth).

Since BitTorrent users often account for half of an ISP's total traffic, the freedom to detect encrypted sneaks should make for smoother sailing for those not constantly engaged in downloading.

In the past, similar devices have failed because once ISPs cracked down on constant downloaders, the latter upgraded to their own RC4 encryption devices. For a long time this shift in power took traffic cop priviledges from the ISP and handed them straight to the road ragin' BitTorrent fanatics. (Source: wired.com)

With the introduction of the NetEnforcer, it is again left to the downloaders to up the ante.