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This doesn't use $ISP's DNS resolver -- it's totally based on your own machine (essentially /etc/hosts shared by BitTorrent as trotsky notes below) and appears

by woodrow 16y ago

This doesn't use $ISP's DNS resolver -- it's totally based on your own machine (essentially /etc/hosts shared by BitTorrent as trotsky notes below) and appears as encrypted BitTorrent traffic. Certainly, $ISP could block all BitTorrent traffic if they wanted to prevent this, but that would be a much different situation. It's also worth noting that there are a number of alternate roots [1] out there right now (that use DNS, not BitTorrent) and AFAIK ISPs aren't trying to block them, either. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root

RBr 16y ago
The encryption part of this whole thing is useful and very interesting. This line of thinking is very similar to what happened when the Gnutella network itself was formed. It was created as an alternate system to the FastTrack network. Nervous of the legal system, the decentralized network was built with a (still increasing) number of clients available. In the same way that the Gnutella network further fractured the web, alternate DNS systems have the same capability, on a much larger scale. In my mind, there is nothing wrong with creating alternate systems that work beyond the view of government agencies and the public in general. However, every time we do this, we create yet another fracture in the Internet that we know and love.
- nym 16y ago
  > In my mind, there is nothing wrong with creating alternate systems that work beyond the view of government agencies and the public in general. However, every time we do this, we create yet another fracture in the Internet that we know and love. "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." -John Gilmore
- bkudria 16y ago
  What makes you think there's only one Internet now?
  - johngunderman 16y ago
    Internet2 is pretty damn big ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2 )
- cookiecaper 16y ago
  See the comment I left on the parent -- usually, "encryption" when referring to BitTorrent does nothing to prevent the public or government from being able to see what you're doing, it is merely protocol obfuscation, installed to bypass BitTorrent protocol filtering or throttling.
cookiecaper 16y ago
Really encrypted or "BitTorrent encrypted"? It should be noted that what most BT clients call "encryption" is really only protocol obfuscation to attempt to bypass filtering or throttling of the BitTorrent protocol. The packets are still transmitted in the clear and the content of the torrent is not obfuscated at the metadata level either. In short, "encryption" was a really bad thing to call this, because many people believe encrypted BT connections are safe and encrypted in the traditional "you can't tell what I'm doing" sense.

by woodrow 16y ago

RBr 16y ago

The encryption part of this whole thing is useful and very interesting. This line of thinking is very similar to what happened when the Gnutella network itself was formed. It was created as an alternate system to the FastTrack network. Nervous of the legal system, the decentralized network was built with a (still increasing) number of clients available. In the same way that the Gnutella network further fractured the web, alternate DNS systems have the same capability, on a much larger scale. In my mind, there is nothing wrong with creating alternate systems that work beyond the view of government agencies and the public in general. However, every time we do this, we create yet another fracture in the Internet that we know and love.

nym 16y ago
> In my mind, there is nothing wrong with creating alternate systems that work beyond the view of government agencies and the public in general. However, every time we do this, we create yet another fracture in the Internet that we know and love. "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." -John Gilmore
bkudria 16y ago
What makes you think there's only one Internet now?
- johngunderman 16y ago
  Internet2 is pretty damn big ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2 )
cookiecaper 16y ago
See the comment I left on the parent -- usually, "encryption" when referring to BitTorrent does nothing to prevent the public or government from being able to see what you're doing, it is merely protocol obfuscation, installed to bypass BitTorrent protocol filtering or throttling.

cookiecaper 16y ago

Really encrypted or "BitTorrent encrypted"? It should be noted that what most BT clients call "encryption" is really only protocol obfuscation to attempt to bypass filtering or throttling of the BitTorrent protocol. The packets are still transmitted in the clear and the content of the torrent is not obfuscated at the metadata level either. In short, "encryption" was a really bad thing to call this, because many people believe encrypted BT connections are safe and encrypted in the traditional "you can't tell what I'm doing" sense.