Deluge Anonymizing Browser Now Includes Bittorrent

markybob writes "An open-source bittorrent client, Deluge, now provides an internal, anonymizing browser to protect its users from overzealous ISPs. The client runs on Windows, Linux and OS X. From the site: "Everyone knows that it is common practice for ISPs to do their best to either block or throttle bittorrent users. We believe that this is wrong and unethical, as there are many legal uses for bittorrent. If an ISP is throttling or blocking bittorrent traffic, you can pretty much bet that they're tracking which users visit bittorrent-related sites so that they can better block or throttle those users." Their forum has more info"

Comments

More Accurate Headline...

[Symbolis]

"Deluge BitTorrent Client Now Includes Anonymizing Browser"

And to be exact, this is Deluge 0.5.8RC1

Mac OS X

[christurkel]

Small correction: The Mac OS X version uses X11, not Cocoa.

Anonymizing Browser Now Includes Bittorrent?

[stsp]

In related news, semantically reversed article headlines now include slashdot!

Also, the summary is highly misleading. This is not a bittorrent-based replacement for TOR as one might conclude from the summary. The browser is merely designed to conceal the IPs of people surfing websites hosting torrents by going through a proxy. You also see ads while using the service. I wonder how long it will take ISPs with an anti-bittorrent agenda to block their proxies... Quoting TFA's FAQ:

Can we use the internal browser to surf any site?

No. This is a very touchy subject, so I want to be very clear. Our proxy servers have a whitelist of bittorrent-related sites (trackers, index sites, etc), which it allows you to visit.

Why are there ads? Are you turning evil? This is free software!

This is free software, however, our proxy servers (which anonymizies the browsing) costs us very real dollars.

I can't download any files. What is that about?

To prevent abuse, Deluge's internal browser only allows you to download bittorrent files..

Re:Legitimate use?

[burris]

BitTorrent works just fine behind a typical "firewall." It is not necessary to accept incoming connections, especially with a well seeded legitimate torrent. If you can't download with BitTorrent at all then you have a problem with your firewalls policy not the firewall per se.

It's not a horrible method of distribution. Its an excellent method of distribution, especially for free software. Thats why it is being used for such distribution.

Re:Legitimate use?

[the_B0fh]

Why the hell are comments like this marked insightful?

*waaa* I can't download via p2p, all the free stuff I want, at work

Either go home and do it, or work with your IT. If you have a business need to download linux distros, it's up to your ork IT to provide that to you. If you don't, well, go suck at Microsoft's teat.

I used to run a firewall, and I allow out what is business appropriate. If that includes bit-torrent, so be it.

Relakks, an anonymous VPN

[wdebruij]

The best solution, ofcourse, is to switch to a less zealous ISP. But that is not always possible: I, for example, find myself subletting an
apartment that comes with horrible, horrible Comcast DSL (who actively reset with your TCP connections).

In these cases say Aye, matey and hook up to the swedish Pirate Party's Relakks VPN service (as seen on Slashdot)
to get past your pesky ISPs rules. It's also be very useful if you use coffeeshop wireless a lot and your email provider still requires plain-text passwords.

Arrr, we be lootin' again!

not this ISP

[not_anne]

"...you can pretty much bet that they're tracking which users visit bittorrent-related sites so that they can better block or throttle those users." My employer, a large cable ISP, does not track or monitor what sites customers visit. However, we do track the types of traffic on our network and shape traffic as needed to keep the network reasonably healthy.

We don't single out users, we monitor nodes, which many customers are attached to. If a node is exceeding healthy levels (different nodes have different max levels, there's no one set "healthy" level) then that node is shaped until the traffic goes down.