Peer Guardian is without doubt a popular security software that uses blacklists to block connection attempts to a computer system. Various blacklists are provided including those listing IPs of anti-p2p organizations, government and educational IPs but also adware and spyware servers. A problem that users of Peer Guardian experience are crashes and several other issues which can be mainly attributed to the fact that the security software has not been updated in the last two years.
Peer Block is a fork of Peer Guardian that tries to address these issues. It is actively developed and provides the same functionality (but with less problems) than Peer Guardian.
Users can download Peer Block from the official website. It offers a selection of IP blacklists that can be subscribed to. By default only the P2P blacklist is selected during setup. It is possible to select other blacklists which will then be updated at the first startup of the application.
Regular updates of the blacklists are configured automatically with the option to change the frequency in the settings. The interface itself looks like the Peer Guardian interface.
Peer Block supports all popular Microsoft Windows operating systems including Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. It is the perfect alternative for users who are experiencing problems with Peer Guardian or prefer a software that gets updated regularly.
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“security software has not been updated in the last two years.”
Yes it has!, but yea its full of bugs
It’s not clear to me what’s the point here. Why not simply use your windows hosts file to block a list of unwanted IP addresses?
Henk it is not about blocking some IP addresses, it is about blocking thousands of them. The blacklists get updated regularly and cover a good percentage of IP addresses that users want to block on their systems.
the hosts file is for resolving domain names to ips, not ip filtering. you can use it to trick your pc into resolving an ip to local host, but not to block a specific ip.
C’mon Martin!
Not a single word about the fact that those list block less than 1% of anti-p2p organizations and that they block whole ISP because there might be 1 anti-p2p organization?
When people read this they think they are safe against anti-p2p organization when using this, but even if you set the program to block all ips (0.0.0.0-255.255.255.255) anti-p2p organizations will still be able to see your ip if you use P2P (ofc. you need to unblock the trackers ip).
due the fact that you “add” your ip to the tracker and the anti-p2p organization will be able to get your ip from the tracker without connecting to you.
HNicolai, I thought it was common sense :)
Its not about them getting the i.p its about them being able to connect and get a file or part of, from that i.p.
Gotta reread that paper man–http://alumni.cs.ucr.edu/~anirban/Anir-networking07.pdf
“A naive user is practically guaranteed to be monitored: we observe that 100% of our peers run into blocklisted users. In fact, 12% to 17% of all distinct IPs contacted by a peer are blocklisted ranges. Interestingly, a little caution can have a signifi cant e ffect: the top five most prevalent blocklisted IPs contribute to nearly 94% of all blocklisted entities we ran into. This information can help users to reduce their chances of being
monitored to just about 1%.”
In simpler words: Person without peerblock is guaranteed to run into an IP that has been blocklisted. 12%-17% of IPs a person w/o peerblock connects to are listed in some blocklist. Being careful and adding a program that can peerblock can have a large effect: we encountered the top 5 blocklisted IPs 95% of the time when without PB. Using such software can help users reduce their chances of being monitored to 1% (rather than 100%).
This paper also notes that interestingly only a few of the IPs belong to media companies… most are commercial/government/BOGON.
I forgot to say that they work great as a ip blocker, but you can just use the “HOSTS” file to block ip’s,
And all those big list is impossible to keep up-to-date, so they are very bad.
FInally!!!… This is definately a good program to have.. You dont use Hosts file for these types of blocks.. You can use this tool for all clients or use utorrent ip filter updater for utorrent alone..
Also for people wishing to keep their Hosts File up to date check out Hostsman.. I use the standard (default) MVPS list..
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you could block IPs with the HOSTS file, only domain names.
Gueb you are right. You could however theoretically do a reverse IP lookup to find out if the IP resolves to a domain.
Good find Martin. I’ve always had decent luck with PG2 but a few crashes to be sure. I’ll give this a shot on one of my x32 systems.
Currently PG2 (4 lists active) is blocking 758,617,403 IP addresses. That is a lot of footwork.
Hmm I have 4 lists up to date, one failed updating but who cares.. You should google about adding a better list because there is a way to block way more ips on PG2. Mine says I am blocking 2,634,724,636. Now that is alot of foot work.
@Martin: Yeah, it should be common sense! But when talking about PG2 people seems to have lost there common sense.
If you are deeply concerned about hackers putting their fingers on your machine, give http://galinux.myftp.org/blacklist.p2p a try. Best deny list ever!
Can a service provider lock the peer to peer file download in my personal computer by some some setting in the Internet Explorer because by using a Bit Torrent file download I always get a Error & Access denied
Sonu C:
I would need further info about what P2P program you are using, blocking & security tools, etc. In short: it is possible for an IPS to make P2P sharing difficult, but it should be notated in your contract. You can try some simple things as using “ofuscated mode” in e/amule, chosing different ports than those by default, pinging prominent P2P servers or peers… Sometimes P2P doesn’t work fine just for intermediate cache-hosts. They can use them for saving bandwith, but it has lots of drawbacks. Again, that should be reflected in the agreement that you signed.
I’ve used and loved Peerguardian for years, putting up with its flaws, foibles and faults gladly ‘cos it does such a good job (when it is working ok).
If this program does what it says on the tin, ie everything PG did but better, I for one will be one of the happiest bunnies around.
If you’re not sure about it, give it a go for a few weeks, witness for yourself what it is doing (and the amazing frequency with which it blocks ‘bad’ stuff) and then see if you’re willing to do without it ever again!
You’ll be amazed. Period.
Transmission Torrent for OSX and Linux has this built in … windows users need this though. I use it if I am forced to be on a windows computer. You will be shocked at how often big brother is trying to see what you are up 2.
When I try and turn off my PC, it just hangs, wont let it shut down,
I have to do it maually, bout time they sorted out the bugs on it
Meanwhile, I’m going back to peer guardian 2, because this is crap
There is another peerguardian alternative-beethink ip blocker, which is more stable.
That sounds great, but it cost, which is everything that P2P is against
PG 2 may not be the best, but its free
PB is free too, but juyst hangs whe trying to shut any PC of mine
As a test, I left it, it took over 4 hours tro shut down,
There is a definate bug with this thing, bout time it got updated
I’m trying to gather all PG-like programs for Win, *nix and Mac. Please, see http://www.atma.es/#enlaces and drop me a line if you know any other program not listed there yet. Thank you in advance.
I always had to use Peerguardian loader tool to get Peerguardian 2 to load in vista 32 bit. And even then it was hit and miss getting the lists to update. Recently it would not update at all. Peerblock works flawlessly for me in vista 32 bit and all lists update perfectly. Is it perfect? NO. Is it better than just letting any/all addresses pull torrent from you? Absolutely. I recommend this software. Just know it won’t be a 100% fix for the RIAA/MPAA problem.
This program is 3+gb when installed. It updates regulary and it works on vista and windows 7. This is the successor to peer guardian. Peer guardian has fallen , buggy and just doesnt work anymore for me.
I bit torrent, not too much p2p these days.I still use this and recommend anyone who wants to use bit torrents and p2p to use this program.
You less likely to recieve any letters to ceast and dessit from ISP or lawyers from MIAAP Obviously if you never obtain anything quesionable you have nothing to worry about.
What I dislike about Peerblock is its weird way of setting up your lists of choice. It’s way beyond encouraging the user to use those by default, quite unfriendly when you want none of them.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/terminate-copyright-scofflaws/
I have been using PG2 for a long time, not knowing if it really does anything. I used to use utorrent quite heavily. Several months ago a friend asked me exactly why I was downloading AVI files? Duh? i said… You’re an idiot, he said. Why risk legal action when the answer is so cheap and easy?, he said.
Now, don’t get pissed at me, I am not an employee of, & have no equity in, but have come to rely upon Netflix. Nine dollars a month. No guilt. One DVD out at a time. Unlimited streaming always. I mean, I don’t even use my DirecTV much anymore, so I’m prob gonna drop it.
I humbly suggest this to you if the legal threats were always in the back of your mind. They were in mine. Not everything on NF streams but you can find hundreds of movies that do, and the first-run stuff is available quickly after the tuesday releases. Nine bucks/mo. That’s NOTHING & the quality is very real.
Sleep better. I hope I didn’t violate ant rules and sorry if I offended anyone. I’m just sayin’………….
kim in michigan
Here in Florida we had our rights taken away to give a Christmas present…Fl163.3179…Now my water-front property value has dropped more then half in value…Because Obama broke his campaign promise there would be no oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico…They are running ads the beaches are clean…What they do not tell you is the horrific Benzene smell of burning oil…Thanks for the advice, think I will stick with PG2……I say “PEER BABY PEER”…